AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING LXVI

1. Shutters of cameras of the 1820's had to remain open longer, so a child's slightest wiggle could result in an out-of-focus image. So mothers camouflaged themselves in tapestries and decorative throws - sometimes disguised as a chair - to blend in while keeping their little ones quiet as the photos were snapped.

2. Each winter for nearly 20 years, Great Whale Conservancy co-director Michael Fishbach has traveled with other research scientists to the Sea of Cortez off Mexico's west coast to study blue and humpback whales. In 2011, he and his team spotted a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net and spent an hour freeing it. Afterward, in an hour-long display of thanks, the whale swam near their boat and leaped into the air 40 times.

3. The Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York is the main stadium of the U.S. Open  tennis tournament. It has a seating capacity of 23,771 - making it the largest tennis stadium in the world.

4. Connie Mack was baseball's longest serving manager. He managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, winning nine pennants and and five World Series

5. Big Mama Thornton was the first person to record the song Hound Dog - in 1953.

6. Oregon's Crater Lake is six miles in diameter and nearly 2,000 feet deep - the deepest lake in the United States.

7. With an area of 1,068 square miles, Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world.

8. The musical "Rent" is based on Puccini's 1896 opera "La Boheme". The musical "Miss Saigon" is based on Puccini's "Madame Butterfly".

9. The musical term "Passacaglia" is Spanish for a "walk in the street" (pasar / calle).

10. USC is the only school to have a gold-medal-winning athlete in every summer Olympics since 1912. 

11. Lake Placid, in upstate New York, hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics - and is considering a bid for 2026 or 2030.