TAIL GIVES KITE STABILITY

Some kites depend on a tail for stability. Experts say that for such kites, the tail should be approximately seven times the length of the kite’s spine.

When Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco in 1853, the city had 399 saloons and 28 breweries. At least 1,200 residents were murdered that year out of a total population of about 70,000.

By 1860, one in eight Americans was foreign-born.

Many modern pearls are bleached to create a uniform color. But in Roman and Medieval Europe, owners are said to have fed their pearls to chickens to acquire the same effect. The fowl’s digestive system reportedly removed blemishes and improved color.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, is best known for her work with wounded soldiers in the Crimean war. She also established a nursing school at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. But before she was famous, Nightingale’s very first patient, in 1837, was a sheepdog with a bruised leg. His name was Cap.

American colonists drank a lot of cider. In one village near Boston, 40 families made about 3,000 barrels of the alcoholic beverage or almost 100,000 gallons. P. Dudley wrote in his book, “Transactions,” that this was just enough cider to last the village for a year.