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Useless Facts Page
Martin Luther King Jr.’s name when he was born on January 15, 1929, was Michael not Martin.
In 1934, his father, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, traveled to Germany. Inspired by Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, King Sr. not only changed his own name to Martin Luther, but that of his then five-year-old son. The rest, as they say, is history!
What was Martin Luther King Jr.’s name at birth?
The German camera company, Leica, got its name from its founder, Ernest Leitz II who used the first three letters of his last name and combined them with the first two letters of the word “camera.”
Ernst Leitz II was the second son of Ernst Leitz I and the second
head of the optics company founded by his father. Now known as Leica Camera he became the sole shareholder of the company after his father’s death in 1920. Although initially focusing on developing binocular microscopes that could be used for high magnifications, collaborating with Oskar Barnack and using interchangeable lenses developed by Max Berek the small lightweight 35mm Leica camera began being distributed around the world in 1925. Using rolls of film capable of 36 shots, the world of live photography available to the masses began!
Leitz inherited his father’s social conscience and established an employee support and pension fund and a company health insurance fund. The company introduced an 8-hour workday as early as 1906, twelve years before it was required by law and while Jews were becoming economically and socially ostracized by the Nazi regime in Germany in the mid-1930s, Leitz offered training programs and apprenticeships to Jewish people in his factory. He also organized the Leica Freedom Train to allow people to escape Germany during Nazi regime.
Where did the name “Leica,” the German camera company and brand, come from?
In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, every time a bell rings, an angel gets it’s wings
In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, what happens every time a bell rings?
Written and produced by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was originally released by Columbia Records, as the lead single of the album on October 29, 1994. There were no live musicians or band when the track was recorded – reportedly Walter Afanasieff arranged everything on his computer and the only Mariah and her background vocalists were live on the recording.
When was Mariah Carey’s song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” released?
Although most listeners may not appreciate the significance of the phrase in the Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the actual lyric is Galileo Figaro Magnifico.
The English translation of the Latin phrase Galileo Figaro Magnifico is “Magnify the Galilean’s image” and in ancient Rome, “Galileo” was the name of Jesus Christ. To add to the confusion about the inclusion of the phrase is the fact that Galileo is also the name of the Italian astronomer and scientist who created the first working telescope and the first human being to view the planet Mercury through a telescope!
Which astronomer is called out in the Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody”?