Why do we call Academy Awards “Oscars”?

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.

Who was Mona Lisa in da Vinci’s famous masterpiece?

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 portrait 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.

Who owns the song “Happy Birthday”?

“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 performed commercially.

How did the Mercedes automobile get its name?

In 1900, the Daimler Corporation was commissioned to design and build a special racing car to add to the fleet of a wealthy Austrian named Emil Jellinek. Mr. Jellinek gave the special car the nickname “Mercedes,” which was his daughter’s name. Jellinek was so impressed with the car that he bought into Daimler, and when the company merged with Benz in 1926, company officials decided to keep the name and market a commercial car as the Mercedes Benz.

Where did the coffee habit come from?

Muslims were the first to develop coffee. As early as 1524 they were using it as a replacement for the wine they were forbidden to drink. According to legend, an astute Arab herder noticed that his goats became skittish after chewing on the berries of a certain bush, so he sampled a few himself and found them to be invigorating. The region of Abyssinia where this took place is named Kaffa, which gave us the name for the drink we call coffee.