Erin McHugh - The 5 Ws: Where?: An Omnium-Gatherum of Penny Lane & Blueberry Hill, Area 51 & Route 66, Foxholes & Catacombs & Other of Lifes Fascinating Places

Books by Erin McHugh:

WHO?

WHAT?

WHERE?

WHEN?

WHY?

ERIN MCHUGH

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
2005 by Erin McHugh

All rights reserved

Sterling eBook ISBN: 978-1-4027-9213-7

For information about custom editions, special sales, premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales
Department at 800-805-5489 or specialsales@sterlingpub.com.

CONTENTS

The first paved road was seven-and-a-half miles long and six feet wide and was built in Egypt. Made from slabs of sandstone, limestone, basalt, and pieces of petrified wood, experts believe it dates back 4,600 years to the time the great pyramids were built. Ancient Egyptians used the road to transport basalt blocks from the stone quarry to a nearby lake. The blocks were then floated across the lake, which connected to the Nile, where they traveled to a site in Giza.

Southern Africa is home to the fastest snake alivethe black mamba, an extremely aggressive reptile that can reach top speeds of up to twelve miles per hour. It moves along flat land with the front third of its body elevated as high as four feet off the ground, which makes it easier to move rapidly. Animals that fall prey to the black mamba die within minutes; a human might last up to four hours. No matter who or what gets bitten, the fatality rate is close to 100 percent.

The United States Postal Service reports that postmen really do get bitten by dogs with some regularity, at a rate of over 3,000 chompsand at a cost of over $25 million to the USPSeach year. The best advice for postal carriers is either to avoid or transfer out of the Metropolitan Los Angeles area, known as the Dog Bite Capital to the cognoscenti.

From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

HONOLULU hosts the only royal palace in the United States. The Iolani Palace, built in 1882 by the last king of Hawaii, King David Kalakaua, remained a royal residence until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893though it served as capitol of the provisional government, republic, territory, and state of Hawaii until 1969. It is now a museum.

A continental divide is a ridge or elevated area that directs the flow of water running into adjacent drainage basins.

North America is one of the only continents with two divides. The Western Continental Divide, often called the Great Divide, runs from British Columbia into the United States along the Rockies, continuing southward into Mexico and Central America. The Eastern Continental Divide runs through the Appalachian Mountains, separating land draining east to the Atlantic Ocean from land to the west, draining to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.

South America is split by the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the full length of South America, divide land draining west into the Pacific Ocean and east toward the Atlantic.

Australia has fairly indistinct water and mountain boundaries and is surrounded by water, making it difficult to define a single divide.

Europe and Asias continental divides are equally difficult to distinguish because they both contain a number of large bodies of water into which rain falls and drains, including the North, Black and Baltic Seas, and the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

In May 1874 the first intercollegiate football game under American rules (not soccer or rugby) was played: Harvard vs. McGill in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Home team ruled.

According to Presidential Proclamation, or in some cases, U.S. law, the American flag is always displayed at the following locations:

Mount Slover limestone quarry, in Colton, California, by act of Congress. The first flag was raised on July 4, 1917.

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, in Baltimore, Maryland, by Presidential Proclamation, July 2, 1948.

Flag House Square, Albemarle and Pratt Streets in Baltimore, by public law approved March 26, 1954.

United States Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima), Arlington, Virginia, by Presidential Proclamation, June 12, 1961.

Lexington, Massachusetts, Town Green, by public law approved November 8, 1965.

The White House by Presidential Proclamation, September 4, 1970.

The Washington Monument displays fifty U.S. flags around its perimeter; by Presidential Proclamation, July 6, 1971.

United States Customs Service at ports of entry that are continuously open; Presidential Proclamation, May 5, 1972.

National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge State Park, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, by public law approved July 4, 1975.

In addition, the American flag is presumed to be on continuous display on the surface of Earths Moon, having been placed there by the astronauts of Apollo 11. The first flag was replaced because the force of Apollo 11s return to lunar orbit knocked the flag down.

Antarctica is the worlds largest desert, covering over 5.5 million square miles. Deserts are generally described as an arid region that either receives less than ten inches of rain per year or where the potential evaporation rate is twice as great as the precipitation. The worlds largest deserts: