“Mary Had a Little Lamb” was written in 1830 by Sarah Hale, the edi-
tor of Godey’s Ladies Magazine. She was inspired after watching young
Mary Tyler’s pet lamb follow the girl to school, which, of course, was
against the rules. The poem became immortal more than fifty years
later when Thomas Edison used it as the first words ever spoken and
then recorded on his new invention, the phonograph.
In the Australian song “Waltzing Matilda,” a billabong is a pool of stag-
nant water. A swagman was someone who carried around everything he
owned in a knapsack. Waltzing meant hiking, and Matilda wasn’t a
woman but rather an Australian word for a knapsack. So Waltzing
Matilda means: walking with my knapsack.
In 1814, after a night in a pub, Francis Scott Key was taken prison-
er during the war between Canada and the United States. When
he saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry he
was inspired to write his famous lyrics with one particular barroom
song, “To Anacreon In Heaven,” still in his mind. And so “The
Star Spangled Banner” was written to the tune of a traditional
old English drinking song.
“Happy Birthday” began as “Good Morning Dear Children” and was
written by educators Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893. In 1924, a
publisher changed the opening line to “Happy Birthday to You” and
it became a ritual to sing the song to anyone celebrating his or her
birthday. In 1934, after hearing the song in a Broadway musical, a
third Hill sister, Jessica, sued the show and won. The Hill family
was thereafter entitled to royalties whenever the melody was per-
formed commercially.
Because the lyrics in the Kingsmen’s 1963 recording of the song “Louie,Louie” were unintelligible, people thought they were dirty, andalthough they weren’t, a U.S. congressional investigation assured the
Because the lyrics in the Kingsmen’s 1963 recording of the song “Louie,
Louie” were unintelligible, people thought they were dirty, and
although they weren’t, a U.S. congressional investigation assured the
song’s enduring success. Since being sold by its author, Richard Berry,
for $750 in 1957, “Louie, Louie” has been recorded by nearly one thou-
sand different performers and sold an estimated quarter-billion copies.
Although it’s known as the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous
painting was originally titled La Giaconda. Painted on wood, it’s a por-
trait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. X-rays
reveal that Leonardo sketched three different poses before settling on
the final design. The painting of Lisa has no eyebrows because it was
the fashion of the time for women to shave them off.
Since 1928, the Academy Awards have been issued by the American
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for excellence in
filmmaking. The statuettes were nicknamed “Oscar” in 1931 by
Margaret Herrick, a secretary at the academy who, upon seeing one
for the first time, exclaimed, “Why it looks just like my uncle Oscar.”
Her uncle was Oscar Pierce, a wheat farmer.
