X-Nico

48 unusual facts about Washington, D.C.


18th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 18th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1942, by the E.W. Scripps Company, the last National Spelling Bee before the outbreak of World War II.

20th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 20th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1947, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

21st Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 21st Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1948, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

22nd Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 22nd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1949, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

24th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 24th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1951, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

28th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 28th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1955, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

31st Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 31st Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1958, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

34th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 34th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1961, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

Battery Kemble Park

Battery Kemble was completed during the Autumn of 1861, as part of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, also known as the Fort Circle.

It is considered part of the Palisades neighborhood.

Black and rufous elephant shrew

Two black and rufous elephant shrew males were born on February 4, 2007, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. They are now kept at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.

British Embassy, Washington

It is located at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW in Washington, D.C.

The embassy is situated in a compound that is home to both the ambassador's residence and the old and new chanceries.

Charles Arthur Conant

He was descended from one of the earliest New England settlers (Roger Conant) and was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, studied in public schools and with private tutors, and from 1889 to 1901 was correspondent in Washington, D.C. for the New York Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin.

Clash of Eagles

The rest of the United States remains unoccupied but perilously exposed to further attacks, and the Roosevelt Administration evacuates the endangered Washington, D.C. and flees westwards to California.

Crystal Heights

Crystal Heights or Crystal City was a proposal by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for a hotel, apartment, and shopping complex in Washington, D.C., USA, at the corner of Florida and Connecticut Avenues N.W., in the vicinity of Dupont Circle.

Didarganj Yakshi

The statue's nose was damaged during a travelling exhibition, The Festival of India, en route to Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA.

District of Columbia Organic Act

The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, an act by the United States Congress, which incorporated the District of Columbia and placed it under the exclusive control of Congress

Edgar T. Wherry

He lived in Washington, D.C. from 1912 to 1930, part of this time working as an assistant curator of mineralogy for the U. S. National Museum, and also for the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Edward B. Bunn

In partnership with Dr. Hurst Anderson, president of American University, Bunn developed an pan-institutional program for students in Washington, D.C. to take courses in several schools and allow credits to accumulate toward a degree in any school.

Frederick Gutheim

He is noted for writing The Potomac, a history of the Potomac River and the 40th volume in the Rivers of America Series, and Worthy of a Nation a history of the development of Washington, D.C..

Incredible Internet

In April 2008, members of the coalition were honored in Washington, D.C., for their contributions to online safety awareness and education.

Ingrid Lukas

In May 2013 she was selected by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Estonian Embassy to participate in the European Month of Culture in Washington, D.C..

Internet Association

Michael Beckerman is the President and CEO of The Internet Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing global Internet companies.

Jean McKenzie

In 1941, when New Zealand decided to establish a diplomatic post in Washington, McKenzie was transferred, becoming the post's Second Secretary soon after it opened.

John Simpkins

Simpkins was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses and served from March 4, 1895, until his death in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 1898.

Lafayette Square

Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., northernmost part of President's Park in Washington, D.C.

Langdon Park

Langdon, Washington, D.C., an area of Washington, D.C. in the United States

Logan Circle

Logan Circle, Washington, D.C., a traffic circle and neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Louis Dalton Porter

At the beginning of World War II he went to the Washington, D.C. area to train at Fort Belvoir and Fort Meade, and after the war he settled in Prince Georges County.

Malek Jandali

In July 2011 Jandali performed Watani Ana at a protest in Lafayette Park.

Marine Barracks

Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks and Commandant's House

Medicine in the American Civil War

After the Battle of Bull Run, the United States government took possession of several private hospitals in Washington, D.C., Alexandria, Virginia, and surrounding towns.

National Business Aviation Association

National Business Aviation Association or NBAA, is a non-profit and nonpartisan 501(c)6 corporation based in Washington, DC, United States.

National Capital Parks-East

National Capital Parks-East (NCPE) is an administrative grouping of a number of National Park Service sites generally east of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., but also nearby in Maryland.

National Monuments Foundation

The National Monuments Foundation is also consulting with the Adams Presidential Library and Memorial Foundation for a memorial to commemorate the second and sixth presidents of the United States and their wives as well as winning the National Civic Art Society’s competition for a memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, both in Washington, D.C.

Pierce, Butler and Pierce Manufacturing Company

By January 1916, the industry was classified as "domestic engineering and mechanical contracting" and the company was listed as sellers of heating and steam in New York City, Brooklyn, Boston, Worchester, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C..

Pierre Bellocq

By 1954, Bellocq's work had achieved international recognition and he was contracted by Laurel Park owner John D. Schapiro to do drawings for the inaugural running of the Washington, D.C. International Stakes.

Presidential memorials in the United States

Located in a wing of the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., the Wilson Center has a small exhibit concerning President Wilson's life and work, but it is best known for its work to unite the world of ideas with the world of policy by supporting scholarship linked to issues of contemporary importance.

Rico McCoy

A native of South East Washington, D. C., McCoy attended St. John's College High School, where he was a three-year starter, playing tailback as sophomore and linebacker final two seasons.

Roy Geiger

Geiger spent most of his enlisted time at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. where he was also promoted to Corporal on June 2, 1908.

Roy Marlin Voris

In the Summer of 1947, Voris was attached to the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. (where he spent the next two years); he also married his high school sweetheart, Thea.

Sam Boulmetis, Sr.

The winner of numerous important races, Boulmetis won the Arlington Classic twice and the prestigious Washington, D.C. International Stakes and Canadian International Stakes, forerunners to the Breeders' Cup races which drew the best horses to the United States and Canada from around the world.

Seedco

Seedco's headquarters are located in New York City and the organization does work in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Seedco also invests in low-income communities in many areas of the country through its subsidiary, Seedco Financial, to create jobs and support small business owners.

The Moving Wall

The Moving Wall is a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was devised by John Devitt after he attended the annual commemoration celebrated in Washington for Vietnam veterans.

Vir2L Studios

Vir2L Studios, was a video game developer headquartered in Washington, D.C..

WGMS

WGMS-FM, a now-defunct station in Washington, D.C. that broadcast from 1947 until 2005 at 103.5 FM (and from 2005 to 2007 at 103.9/104.1 FM) with a classical music format.

Wilmington/Newark Line

Electrified operation was extended to Newark and beyond to Washington, D.C. on February 10, 1935.


17th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 17th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1941.

27th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 27th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1954, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

32nd meridian west from Washington

The 32nd meridian of longitude west from Washington is a line of longitude approximately 109°02′48″ west of the Prime Meridian of Greenwich.

Alzheimer's Association, Central New York Chapter

Regional offices are located in the Nichols Notch Building at 401 Hayes Avenue in Endicott; 258 Genesee Street in Utica; and the HSBC Bank Building at 120 Washington Street, Suite 419, in Watertown.

Any Bonds Today?

Barry Wood introduced the song (along with another Berlin composition called "Arms for the Love of America") on Arsenal Day, June 10, 1941, at the War College in Washington, D.C.; he also recorded the song in the same week for RCA Victor.

Carlos Washington Lencinas

Carlos Washington Lencinas (November 13, 1888 - November 10, 1929) was an Argentine politician and governor of Mendoza, Argentina.

Columbia Bar

The Columbia Bar is part of a set of major marine coastal hazards along the Pacific Northwest coast, including Cape Flattery at the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula and Cape Scott, which is at the north tip of Vancouver Island.

David Corn

In the Washington Post, Roger Warner called it "an impressive feat of research"; but, in the New York Times, Joseph Finder claimed Corn was seriously distorting history to blame Shackley for a series of CIA failings.

Dixie Network

Marston also was elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Board of Directors in 1970 Edward B. Fritts, who began his broadcast career at WENK, Union City, Tennessee, was elected President of The National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, D.C., where he led the national trade association with distinction.

Doug Swift

Swift's blitz late in the second quarter of Super Bowl VII forced Washington Redskins quarterback Billy Kilmer to make a hurried throw, which Nick Buoniconti intercepted and returned into Washington territory to set up the Dolphins' second touchdown in a 14-7 victory, cementing Miami's 17-0 season.

East Washington Avenue Bridge

The East Washington Avenue Bridge was a movable Strauss underneath-counter weight deck-girder bascule bridge in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Edith Pfau

Pfau's education ministry included eleven years teaching at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, eleven years at Immaculata Junior College in Washington, D.C., and ten years at Providence University in Shalu, Taichung, Taiwan.

Education in Spokane, Washington

Higher education institutions in Spokane include two private universities, Gonzaga and Whitworth, Washington State University and Eastern Washington University at the Riverpoint Campus, and the public Community Colleges of Spokane system as well as an ITT Tech campus.

Evangelical and Reformed Church

United States President Theodore Roosevelt attended Washington D.C.'s Grace Reformed Church, an Evangelical and Reformed congregation.

Fort Ellsworth

Over the seven weeks that followed the occupation of northern Virginia, forts were constructed along the banks of the Potomac River and at the approaches to each of the three major bridges (Chain Bridge, Long Bridge, and Aqueduct Bridge) connecting Virginia to Washington and Georgetown.

George W. Littlefield

Works on Littlefield include David B. Gracy, II, George Washington Littlefield: A Biography in Business (Ph.D. dissertation; Texas Tech University, 1971) and J. Evetts Haley's George W. Littlefield, Texan (1943; through the University of Oklahoma Press in Norman, Oklahoma).

Healy

Healy Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States

Hechinger

Their sponsorship of the 11:00 p.m. newscast at T.V. station WTOP in Washington, D.C., was a first, according to Walter Cronkite (an anchor of those broadcasts) in his autobiography A Reporter's Life.

In the News

Three new one-minute segments were produced each week, narrated by CBS Radio News Washington Correspondent Dan Raviv.

Inclusive capitalism

Allen Hammond is Vice President of Special Projects and Innovation at the World Resources Institute: a Washington, DC-based, non-profit, environmental, think tank created in 1982 through a $15 million donation by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago (World Resources Institute website 2008).

Jhoon Goo Rhee

Rhee is well known in the Washington, D.C. area for a television commercial that has a jingle by Nils Lofgren and features the catch phrase, "Nobody bothers me," followed by "Nobody bothers me, either."

Katherine Washington

Katherine Washington is a former American women's basketball player, who played on the first two U.S. women's national teams, earning world championships in 1953 and 1957.

KHCV

KFFV, a television station (channel 44) licensed to serve Seattle, Washington, United States, which held the call sign KHCV from 1999 to 2009

Lawrence Edwards

Advocated for the New York City region as well as a Boston to Washington line by the Regional Plan Association, — the invention was praised by Secretary of Transportation John Volpe as well as editorials in The New York Times and professional and scientific journals.

Maryland Route 231

Before reaching the river, the state highway passes to the north of the village of Benedict, which was the site of the landing of British troops to march toward Washington prior to the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812.

Mauri S. Pelto

Mauri Pelto has been studying the glaciers in the North Cascades located in the U.S. state of Washington since 1984.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision is a 1994 documentary film made by Freida Lee Mock about the life of American artist Maya Lin, whose best-known work is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Michael Brunson

In 1973, Brunson became ITN Washington Correspondent, where he remained until 1977, covering Watergate and the 1976 US Presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

Mrs. Washington

"Mrs. Washington" is a song written and performed by Gigolo Aunts and the title song from their 1993 and 1994 singles.

Old Lyme, Connecticut

John McCurdy (b.1724), whose home was the resting place for George Washington on April 10, 1776 while traveling to New York City to take on the British Army and Navy (source: Papers of George Washington, Connecticut State Library); grandfather of Connecticut Supreme Court judge Charles McCurdy

Olin Kreutz

It was also the second consecutive year in which the Bears selected an offensive lineman from Washington, after Bob Sapp in 1997.

Ozette

Ozette, Washington, an unincorporated community in Clallam County, Washington, United States

Ozette Lake, a lake in the state of Washington in the United States

Paul Schenck

The Schenck brothers work side by side on Capitol Hill in Washington where Robert is president of Faith and Action, an ecumenical mission, and Paul is chairman of the National Pro-Life Center.

Puyallup

The Washington State Fair, formerly the Puyallup Fair and the Western Washington Fair, held in Puyallup, Washington

Quillayute

Quillayute Airport, formerly known as Quillayute State Airport, a public airport in Clallam County, Washington, United States

Richard Urquhart Goode

In 1889, he was appointed a geographer with the Survey and was placed in charge of surveys of the Pacific Coast States - California, Oregon, and Washington.

Robert Kennicutt

He shared the 2009 Gruber Prize in Cosmology with Wendy Freedman of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Jeremy Mould of the University of Melbourne School of Physics, for their leadership in the definitive measurement of the value of the constant of proportionality in Hubble's Law.

Roderick N. Matheson

He traveled to Washington, D.C., for Abraham Lincoln's inauguration in 1861, intending to stay only a few weeks, but found himself swept up in the fever of approaching war.

Sara Little Turnbull

Later, when Turnbull became executive vice president of National Forest Products Assn, they moved to Washington, D.C., with an apartment at the Watergate complex.

Simon Acland

Acland's father is Sir Antony Acland KG, GCMG, GCVO, former Head of the Diplomatic Service and British Ambassador in Washington.

SM UB-65

National Archives and Records Service, U.S. General Services Administration, Washington: 1984

Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania

It is widely held that the Flight 93 hijackers intended to use the craft to destroy the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The crash here was a result of a struggle over control of the plane between hijackers and passengers, who learned of the plane's intended fate through cellphone calls to and from family members.

Track of the Cat

The outdoor scenes were filmed on Mount Rainier, Washington and Mitchum regarded shooting in the deep snow and cold as the worst filming conditions he had ever experienced.

Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans

The studio was located on Washington Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood near Xavier University.

Washington State Legislature

The Washington State Legislature traces its ancestry to the creation of the Washington Territory in 1853, following successful arguments from settlers north of the Columbia River to the U.S. federal government to legally separate from the Oregon Territory.

WDAZ-TV

Owned by Forum Communications of Fargo, which also owns the Grand Forks Herald, WDAZ has facilities on South Washington Street in Grand Forks near Kmart and a news bureau and sales office on U.S. Highway 2 in Devils Lake.

WDCO

WDCO-LP, a television station (channel 6) licensed to Salisbury, Maryland, which simulcasts WDCN-LP Washington, D.C.

William Greaves

Since then, Greaves has produced numerous works, including From These Roots, Nationtime: Gary, Where Dreams Come True, Booker T.Washington: Life and Legacy, Frederick Douglass: An American Life, Black Power in America: Myth or Reality?, The Deep North, and Ida B. Wells: An American Odyssey, which was narrated by Nobel Prize in Literature and Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison.