X-Nico

51 unusual facts about Washington, D.C.


17th Scripps National Spelling Bee

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

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.

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.

25th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 25th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1952, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

26th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 26th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1953, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

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.

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.

32nd Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 32nd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1959, by the E.W. Scripps Company.

Afghanistan–Uzbekistan barrier

Days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, when America announced the start of military operations against the Taliban regime based in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan fortified the border fence in the province of Surkhandaria to stop any illegal migrants or refugees crossing the border.

Anacostia Park

It is one of Washington, D.C.'s largest and most important recreation areas, with over 1200 acres (4.9 km2) at multiple sites.

Braj Kumar Nehru

Nehru worked as Executive Director in the World Bank (1949) and was Economic Minister at the Indian Embassy in Washington (1954).

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.

Cash Asmussen

The following year he won the Washington, D.C. International Stakes and his first of two Turf Classic Invitational Stakes then gained his most success as a jockey racing in France where he went to ride under contract for the wealthy stable owner, Stavros Niarchos.

Chris Cleary

Chris Cleary (born August 2, 1979 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American soccer player whose professional career had been played entirely in Europe.

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.

Erechim

City planners were inspired by urban concepts used in the design of Washington, D.C. (1791) and Paris (1850).

Ethel Armes

Born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Col. George Augustus Armes and Lucy Hamilton Kerr, Ethel was brought up in Washington, D.C. where she attended private schools.

Florence Fleming Noyes

In 1912 she opened her first dance studio in Carnegie Hall and in 1913 she dressed as Liberty at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. as part of a living tableaux to bring publicity for the cause of women's right to vote.

Forsyth Street

On the east side of the block from East Broadway to Canal Street, a number of so-called “Chinatown buses” (operated by different companies) start their routes to cities across the East Coast of the United States, including Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C..

Frank Rusch

Collaborators in the Alliance included the National Transition Network at Minnesota, the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C., the National Alliance for Business, the National Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

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..

High Heel Drag Queen Race

The High Heel Drag Queen Race is an informal costumed drag queen race in Washington, D.C. Each year on the Tuesday before the Halloween holiday, thousands of spectators come to Dupont Circle to watch as 100 or so costumed drag queens show off their elaborate outfits and race down 17th Street.

Holston Formation

Among the notable buildings where Tennessee marble is used as a building stone are two in Washington, D.C.: the National Gallery of Art, which uses stone from Knox and Blount counties, and the United States Capitol, which has stairways constructed from Hawkins County marble.

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.

John Mihalowski

He was assigned to the Naval Gun Factory, Washington, D.C., in 1952 and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in February 1954.

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.

Kalervo Kallio

The bust is placed at the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection in Washington, D.C..

L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, an architect and civil engineer credited with planning the city of Washington, D.C.

Lafayette Square

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

Malek Jandali

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

Mirza Khazar

In October 1985, he was invited to Washington, D.C. to be editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Voice of America.

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

William K. Pierce, 64, "formerly a millionaire," committed suicide by shooting himself through the head on April 5, 1915, in Washington, D.C., at the home of Major Charles P. Lynch, his brother-in-law, after the Syracuse manufacturing company "had lost a fortune in few years."

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.

Robert Collet

In 1987, Collet achieved the extraordinary feat of winning three Group one races on three different continents with the same horse when Le Glorieux captured the Deutschland-Preis in Europe, the Washington, D.C. International in North America and the Japan Cup in Asia.

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.

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.

Rudolph Lennhoff

In 1912 he attended the 15th International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, which opened 23 September 1912, in Washington, D.C..

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.

So Young, So Insane

So Young, So Insane is the second EP by You, Me, and Everyone We Know, a rock band from Washington, D.C. The six-track record was released independently on November 18, 2008.

Steven Waterhouse

He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology in Hebrew and Greek from Capital Bible Seminary near Washington, D.C., and undergraduate degrees in social sciences from Spring Arbor University and Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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.

The Orioles

Sonny Til (born Earlington Carl Tilghman, 18 August 1928, Baltimore, Maryland — died 9 December 1981, Washington, D.C.) (lead tenor)

Virginia Squires

Attendance was no better in Washington than it was in Oakland because the Coliseum was located in the Near Northeast neighborhood, and that was the hood back in the day.

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.

Yadkin River Veterans Memorial Bridge

The bridge was not only a bottleneck for traffic moving between Charlotte and Greensboro (and between the larger metropolitan areas of Atlanta and Washington, D.C.); it was also structurally deficient and in need of replacement.


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.

Banneker Recreation Center

Banneker Recreation Center is an historic structure located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The building was built in 1934 and was named for Benjamin Banneker, a free African American who assisted in the survey of boundaries of the original District of Columba in 1791.

Carlos Washington Lencinas

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

Cary Sherman

He is an officer of the board of the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., and has also served in advisory roles for the Anti-Defamation League, BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal, the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, The Computer Law Association, the Copyright Society, and The Computer Lawyer.

Charles Fickert

A 1919 grand jury exonerated Fickert from charges made by John B. Densmore, investigator from Washington, Director General of Employment, in the framing of Mooney and Billings and for his having conspired with Pete McDonough in the freeing of wealthy defendants.

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.

Dean Richmond

In 1861, as President-Elect Abraham Lincoln made his way to Washington, D.C., the engine that pulled the train was The Dean Richmond.

DeWint House

Samuel Fraunces (owner of Fraunces Tavern in New York City) came up to prepare the dinner for Washington and his guest.

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.

Edward Everett

A new British administration, friendlier to the United States than the previous one, sent Lord Ashburton to Washington to negotiate directly with Webster, and Everett's role was reduced to acquiring documents from British records, and pressing the American case to the Foreign Office.

Embassy Row

The first purpose-designed embassy building in Washington appears to have been the embassy of the Kingdom of Siam, now the Consular Services of the Embassy of Thailand on 2300 Kalorama Road NW, built in the 1920s.

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.

Frankie Jaxon

In 1941 he retired from show business and worked at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He was transferred to Los Angeles, California.

Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews

Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews was the title of a national march and political rally that was held on December 6, 1987 in Washington, D.C. An estimated 250,000 participants gathered on the National Mall, calling for U.S.S.R. President Gorbachev to extend his policy of Glasnost to Soviet Jews by putting an end to their forced assimilation and allowing their emigration from the Soviet Union.

George J. Walker

He served tours in France, Germany, Korea and Vietnam as well as stateside assignments at Seneca Army Depot, Romulus, New York; Fort Holabird, Maryland; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Fort Hood, Texas; Washington, DC; and Fort McPherson, Georgia.

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).

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.

Jack L. Tilley

The Sergeants Major of the Army, Daniel K. Elder, Center of Military History, United States Army Washington, D.C. 2003.

Jewish Life Television

Its spotlight on Israel and Jewish life is facilitated by broadcast studios in Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto as well as bureaus in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Washington, D.C., Miami, London and Moscow.

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."

Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement

The principal interviews with Bond used in the film were conducted at Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington D.C., and at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

KHCV

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

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

She attended Springhill Lake Elementary (Prince George's County Public Schools) in Greenbelt, Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C. Rowe-Finkbeiner moved to Columbia, Maryland where she attended Oakland Mills Middle School and Oakland Mills High School.

KXLY

KXLY-TV, a television station (channel 4) licensed to Spokane, Washington, United States

Lauren Kessler

She is also author of Washington Post best-seller Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era, a biography of Elizabeth Bentley, and the Los Angeles Times best-seller and Oregon Book Award finalist The Happy Bottom Riding Club, a biography of aviator Florence Pancho Barnes.

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.

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.

Northwestel

The microwave system on the Alaska Highway was inaugurated with a phone call from Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, visiting Whitehorse, to President John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C..

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

Onalaska, Washington

Onalaska, Washington, Onalaska, Wisconsin, Onalaska, Arkansas and Onalaska, Texas are all historically connected to one another through the lumber industry.

Ozette

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

Phil Graham

The following year the Post/CBS joint venture bought the CBS-affiliated television station in Washington, and changed the call letters to WTOP-TV, and in 1953 the company bought WMBR radio and WMBR-TV in Jacksonville, Florida.

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 Litwak

Robert Litwak is vice president for programs and director of International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a consultant to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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.

The Higher Learning Foundation

The Higher Learning Foundation was a public charity located in Washington, D.C. Its goal was to improve college achievement possibilities for graduates of the District of Columbia Public Schools system (DCPS).

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.

Ulysses S. Grant as peacetime general, 1865–1869

In May 1865, the Union League of Philadelphia purchased the Grants a house in that city, but Grant's work was in Washington.

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.

Washington's 39th legislative district

This urban district is represented by state senator Kirk Pearson and state representatives Dan Kristiansen (pos. 1) and Elizabeth Scott (pos. 2), all Republicans.

Washington's 4th congressional district

In the 2008 election, Hastings easily defeated challenger George Fearing (D-Kennewick).

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.

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.