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48 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.

19th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 19th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, District of Columbia in 1946, by the E.W. Scripps Company, the first National Spelling Bee after the outbreak of World War II.

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.

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.

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.

Bomb Queen

This pleased politicians in Washington, D.C., due to the lowered crime rates in other states.

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.

Camerata Ireland

During 2007 Camerata Ireland had performed in London, Paris, Dublin and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland programme.

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.

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.

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.

Christylez Bacon

Christylez Bacon (pronounced: chris-styles) is a Grammy Nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist and multi-instrumentalist from Southeast, Washington, D.C. As a performer, Christylez multi-tasks between various instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and the human beat-box (oral percussion), all while continuing the oral tradition of storytelling through his lyrics.

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.

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.

Farm Credit Council

The Farm Credit Council was established in 1983 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is governed by a 23-person board that implements policy positions.

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..

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.

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..

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 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.

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.

Logan Circle

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

Lynn Montross

From 1950 to 1961 he was a historical writer for the United States Marine Corps and lived in the Washington, D.C. area.

Malek Jandali

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

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.

Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs

Most agents reported to superintendents, while other reported directly to the central office in Washington, D.C. and relied on local military posts for law enforcement as it related to Indians.

Oxon Run Parkway

The Oxon Run Parkway, is a roadway and small park in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington, D.C..

Party for the Grown and Sexy

Party for the Grown and Sexy is the debut EP by You, Me, and Everyone We Know, a rock band from Washington, D.C. It was released independently in 2006 and re-released on Rushmore Records with extra tracks on January 28, 2008.

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."

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..

Poughkeepsie Bridge Route

The Poughkeepsie Bridge Route was a passenger train route from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, via Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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.

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.

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.

Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society

On 10 April 1967, a meeting was held in Washington, D.C. to introduce the charter membership and elect the Society officers and Executive committee.

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.

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.


Albert Berg

After leaving the Indiana Institution for the Deaf, Berg enrolled at the "Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb" (later renamed Gallaudet University), run by Edward Miner Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. He was a halfback and captain of the football team at Gallaudet.

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.

Ardeshir Zahedi

In the mid-1970s, Zahedi became known as a companion of the American movie star Elizabeth Taylor, with the two being dubbed "the hottest couple" in Washington D.C., according to the writer Barbara Howar.

Blas Ople

Ople was in Washington D.C. upon the outbreak of the revolt, and was advised by U.S. Secretary of State, George P. Shultz, to call on Marcos to resign.

Chris Cillizza

Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza appeared in a series of humor videos called "Mouthpiece Theater" which appeared on the Washington Posts website.

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.

East Washington Avenue Bridge

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

Elizabeth Lewis

Betty Washington Lewis (1733–1797) was the only sister of George Washington to live to adulthood

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.

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).

Isa Genzken

Genzken's work is included in the collections of many institutions internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Generali Foundation, Vienna; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

Jack L. Tilley

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

James Case

James Herbert Case, Jr., the 8th president of Washington & Jefferson College

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.

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.

Kurt Schork

After Schork died, as per his personal wishes, upon cremation half of his ashes was buried next to his mother in Washington, D.C., and half at "Groblje LAV" (The Lion Cemetery) in Sarajevo, next to the grave of Boško and Admira, the central figures in Schork's acclaimed story.

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.

Libby Copeland

She wrote articles for the Post about Washington, DC area graffiti artist Borf (aka John Tsombikos) and has been the subject of some graffiti saying "Libby Copeland Writes Lies," possibly in connection with the Borf issue.

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.

Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

Washington, DC-based American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is using a three-year grant from MEAF for its Summer Internship Program.

Mrs. Washington

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

North Admiral, Seattle

North Admiral (or simply the Admiral District) is the oldest neighborhood in West Seattle, Washington.

Olympic National Forest

Other Washington towns near entrances of the forest include Port Angeles, Sequim, and Amanda Park.

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 Posnak

He has performed at the White House, the US Supreme Court, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

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.

Peter Daniel Young

At the age of nine, he moved to Mercer Island, Washington, near Seattle, where he graduated from Mercer Island High School.

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.

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.

Ridgeley, West Virginia

In spring 1755, Washington returned to the area to prepare for General Edward Braddock's attack on Fort Duquesne (commonly referred to as Braddock's March).

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.

Robert Stewart Sparks

In 1925, the 5th District was bounded by Washington Street on the north, the city limits on the east, Exposition Boulevard on the south and Vermont Avenue on the west.

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.

SeaPerch

Currently, 112 schools in seven states are participating across the United States in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut.

Stanley Allen Bastian

On September 19, 2013, President Obama nominated Bastian to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, to the seat vacated by Judge Edward F. Shea, who took senior status on June 7, 2012.

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.

Tractorcade

Tractorcade was a protest in Washington, D.C. by the American Agriculture Movement.

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.

WDCO

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

Yakima Valley

Yakima River Valley in southeastern portion of the state of Washington