white house fact

before Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President, came to office, the White House wasn't even called the White House! People called the building the President's Palace, President's House, and the Executive Mansion. Roosevelt officially named it the White House in 1901.

17th president fact

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was a tailor before he was President?

u.s president fact

The first person to become president who was born in a hospital was Jimmy Carter.

pluto fact

Pluto has three moons. You might have heard that Pluto has a large moon called Charon (more on that later), but did you know that it actually has 3 moons in total. Charon is the large one, with a mass of roughly half that of Pluto's.

Two additional moons, Nix and Hydra, were discovered by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on May 15, 2005. They were originally called S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, and then given their final names on June 21, 2006.

They took a long time to discover because they're so tiny. Nix is only 46 km across, while Hydra is 61 km across.

titanic sister ship olympic keeper fact

The Olympic was launched on 20 October 1910 and made its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 14 June 1911. Later that year, on 20 September, the Olympic was rammed by the cruiser HMS Hawke in the Solent which had attempted to pass astern and hit the Olympic abreast the mainmast, starboard side. The ship went to Belfast for repairs but was out of action for six weeks. As the result of an enquiry into the collision the Olympic was found to blame as its speed and size had sucked the Hawke off course. It was able to resume normal service on 30 November 1911.

In February 1912 it was overhauled at Belfast and a new propeller was fitted. After the loss of the Titanic and the ensuing court enquiry had been published several changes were made to the ship. During 1912-13 the Olympic returned to Harland & Wolff for six months safety rebuilding. The double bottom was extended up the sides to the waterline, full height bulkheads were fitted, as were additional lifeboats. As a result of this the ships tonnage was increased to 46,359 tons. The Southampton to New York service was resumed on 2 April 1913.

In August 1914 it was requisitioned as a troopship. In October it unsuccessfully attempted to tow the mined and sinking battleship HMS Audacious in to Loch Foyle. In September 1915 the Olympic resumed trooping duties after being dazzle painted and fitted with 6 inch guns. During 1916 it was twice missed by torpedoes in the Mediterranean. On a third occasion, on 12 may 1918, the Olympic avoided a torpedo attack off the Lizard and then rammed and sank German submarine U-103. The survivors were picked up by the escorting American destroyer.

After this the ship was involved in the repatriation of Canadian troops. By the end of the war the Olympic had carried over 200,000 troops and steamed some 180,000 miles. Next it sailed back to Belfast to be refitted by Harland & Wolff. It was converted to oil burning engines thus reducing the engine room staff from 246 to 60. The passenger accommodation was also re-styled to accommodate 750 1st class, 500 2nd class and 1,150 3rd class passengers. On 25 June 1920 it returned to the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York service.

On 22 March 1924 it was involved in a collision with the Furness Line ship St.George whilst leaving New York. However, there was only minor damage to the stern post. In January 1928 the passenger accommodation underwent further alterations. In 1929 it briefly ran a new 'Quick-trip' service, along with the Majestic, between New York and Halifax.

On 10 May 1934 the Olympic became part of the newly formed Cunard-White Star Company. On its first voyage for its new owners the ship rammed and sank the Nantucket Lightship in fog. The accident killed eight people. On 27 March 1935 the ship made its last voyage on the Southampton to New York route and on its return it was laid up at Southampton. In September it was sold to Sir John Jarvis for £100,000. It was then resold to Metal Industries for breaking on the condition that it was done at Jarrow in order to relieve unemployment there. On 19 September 1937 the hulk was towed to Inverkeithing for final demolition.

titanic tragic sister ship the britanic keeper fact

The Britannic was the sister ship to the Olympic and Titanic, although it never ran on the North Atlantic. There is a story that it was originally to have been named Gigantic. The White Star Line always denied it but the legend has never been definitely proved or disproved Its completion was delayed pending the outcome of the court enquiry into the Titanic disaster. As a result of this extra safety features were added.

It was finally launched on 26 February 1914 as the Britannic. White Star announced that it would begin sailing the Southampton-New York route in the spring of 1915. The outbreak of World War One changed this and it was converted into a hospital ship with over 3,300 beds. On 13 November it was fitted out medically and on 8 December commissioned as a hospital ship and handed over in International Red Cross livery. The Britannic arrived at Liverpool, from Belfast, on 12 December 1915, but it did not leave on its maiden voyage to Mudros until 23 December.

The ship went on to make further voyages as a hospital ship. Next it was to call at Mudros on the Isle of Lemnos and assist in the evacuation of wounded troops from the Gallipoli campaign. It also spent four weeks as a floating hospital ship off Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Subsequent to this it returned to Belfast on 6 June 1916 and was released from war service. Harland and Wolff had already begun refitting the Britannic as a Royal Mail and passenger steamer when the Admiralty recalled the ship to war service. The ship made two further trips to Mudros before its final voyage.

On 12 November 1916 the Britannic left Southampton and, after bunkering at Naples on the 17th, on the 21st it ran into a mine field in the Zea Channel, 4 miles west of Port St.Nikolo, Kea. The mines had been laid by German submarine U-73 and despite the fact that the Channel had been swept the day before some mines obviously still remained. The ship was racked by an explosion starboard below the bridge and the forward part flooded when the water-tight doors failed to function. Captain Bartlett tried unsuccessfully to beach the ship on Kea Island whilst preparations were made to save the 1,125 aboard, incidentally none of whom were patients.

As it settled by the head abandon ship was ordered. Two boats were lowered and slashed by the still rotating propellers killing 30. One hour after the explosion the ship keeled over to starboard and sank. The survivors were picked up by the escorting destroyers Foxhound and Scourge and the armed merchant cruiser Heroic. Two of the survivors had also been aboard the Titanic. The light cruiser HMS Foresight berthed at Port St. Nikolo and the French tug Goliath also assisted in the rescue. Captain Bartlett was the last to leave the ship and only 30 people died from the large number on board. The Britannic was the largest ever, 48,158 tons, British Merchant Service war loss.

Incidentally the Keiler Zeitung claimed that the Britannic had been torpedoed because the ship was carrying troops. After a period of speculation the mine theory was confirmed by U-73's commander Siess' log. he had only laid mines. Also the Braemar Castle, a ship of the Union Castle Line, struck a mine there two days later.

The shore based furnishings and equipment of the ship were auctioned on 4 July 1919. It wasn't until 1975 that the hull of the ship was located by Jacque Cousteau's Calypso, and the following year he returned to explore the site in more detail. It was considered to be too disintegrated to be of use. Recently, however, a team of Greek divers located and filmed the ship and are campaigning for funding in order to open a museum to display artefacts from the ship.

japan fact

japan is located in the North Pacific off the coast of Russia and the Korean peninsula. The area of Japan is 377,873km2, which makes it slightly smaller in land mass than California. Japan consists of four main larger islands and more than 4000 smaller islands. The main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Honshu is the largest with an area of 231,000km2. A modern railroad system connects the major islands with Japan's high-speed Shinkansen connecting major urban areas.

Japan is over 70% mountainous terrain with approximately 18% of the land mass suitable for settlement. Japanese cities are typically sprawling and densely populated. Tokyo, the capital mega-city of Japan, is located on Honshu island. Central Tokyo has a population of 12 million people, with the population of the Greater Tokyo Area estimated at over 35 million people.