Maggie Murphy Hoax
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Maggie Murphy Hoax
The Maggie Murphy hoax was a hoax perpetrated in 1895 by W. L. Thorndyke. He created an image that depicted farmer Joseph B. Swan holding what appeared to be a giant potato. The photo rapidly spread around the United States, and appeared in a panel of ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!''. Background The hoax began in Loveland, Colorado. W. L. Thorndyke, editor-in-chief for a local newspaper, had wanted to promote an upcoming street fair. Thorndyke turned to farmer Joseph B. Swan, and wanted to help bring customers to him. Swan had been known for growing more than 70 different types of potatoes and had previously been featured in several news reports for his success with his crop. With the help of local photographer Adam Talbot, they produced a photograph which appeared in an 1895 issue of the '' Loveland Reporter''. It was implied the potato weighed 86 pounds 10 ounces, and measured 2 feet 5 inches. Swan swore that he grew it himself. The image quickly spread around the United States. ...
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Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums and a book series. The Ripley collection includes 20,000 photographs, 30,000 artifacts and more than 100,000 cartoon panels. With 80-plus attractions, the Orlando, Florida-based Ripley Entertainment, Inc., a division of the Jim Pattison Group a Canadian global company with an annual attendance of more than 12 million guests. Ripley Entertainment's publishing and broadcast divisions oversee numerous projects, including the syndicated TV series, the newspaper cartoon panel, books, posters and games. Syndicated feature panel Ripley first called his cartoon feature, originally involving sports feats, ''Champ ...
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Loveland, Colorado
The City of Loveland is the home rule municipality that is the second most populous municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver and is the 14th most populous city in Colorado. As of the 2020 census the population of Loveland was 76,378. The city forms part of the Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The city's public schools are part of the Thompson R2-J School District. Location Loveland is located in southeastern Larimer County at (40.404789, −105.085868). Located south of Fort Collins, its larger neighbor and the county seat of Larimer County, both cities have expanded steadily towards each other over the last several decades. They are considered a single metropolitan area by the U.S. government. The establishment of county-owned open space between the two communities in the 1990s was intended to create a permanent buffer. The northern city ...
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Reporter-Herald
The ''Loveland Reporter-Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Berthoud, Colorado. It carries local, regional, national and World news. It is owned by Prairie Mountain Publishing, a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, who purchased the paper in 2011. History The ''Loveland Reporter-Herald'' was acquired in 1967 by Ed and Ruth Lehman, who had previously bought the ''Longmont Times-Call'' (1957) and went on to acquire the ''Cañon City Daily Record'' (1978). Lehman Communication was continued by the next generation of the Lehman family. The newspaper group was expanded with the ''Erie Review'', ''Lafayette News'', ''Louisville Times'' and ''Superior Observer'' that were combined into the ''Colorado Hometown Weekly''. Prairie Mountain Publishing acquired Lehman Communication in 2011. Location The offices were held in 201 E. Fifth St., Loveland, Colorado from 1993 to 2017. The paper is as of 2017 based out of neighboring Berthoud, Colorado The Town of Berthoud is a Statutory Town ...
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Loveland Reporter
The ''Loveland Reporter-Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Berthoud, Colorado. It carries local, regional, national and World news. It is owned by Prairie Mountain Publishing, a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, who purchased the paper in 2011. History The ''Loveland Reporter-Herald'' was acquired in 1967 by Ed and Ruth Lehman, who had previously bought the ''Longmont Times-Call'' (1957) and went on to acquire the ''Cañon City Daily Record'' (1978). Lehman Communication was continued by the next generation of the Lehman family. The newspaper group was expanded with the ''Erie Review'', ''Lafayette News'', ''Louisville Times'' and ''Superior Observer'' that were combined into the ''Colorado Hometown Weekly''. Prairie Mountain Publishing acquired Lehman Communication in 2011. Location The offices were held in 201 E. Fifth St., Loveland, Colorado from 1993 to 2017. The paper is as of 2017 based out of neighboring Berthoud, Colorado The Town of Berthoud is a Statutory Town ...
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Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ''Scientific American'' is owned by Springer Nature, which in turn is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. History ''Scientific American'' was founded by inventor and publisher Rufus Porter (painter), Rufus Porter in 1845 as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large format newspaper was released August 28, 1845. Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including perpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln, and the universal joint which now can be found ...
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Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (TV Series)
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is the name of several documentary television series based on the newspaper feature. The first series aired on NBC from 1949 to 1950, and was hosted by Robert L. Ripley until his death, after which several substitute hosts filled in. The series was revived again on ABC, running from 1982-1986, and was hosted primarily by Jack Palance. Another revival debuted on TBS in 2000, and aired until 2003, with Dean Cain as the host. A Filipino version, hosted by Chris Tiu, debuted in 2008. An animated series based on the ''Ripley's'' franchise was also created, and premiered in 1999. Another revival premiered on Travel Channel in June 2019, with Bruce Campbell as the host. Original series (1949–1950) The first ''Believe It or Not!'' TV series, a live show hosted by Robert L. Ripley, premiered on NBC television on March 1, 1949. Shortly after the 13th episode, on May 27, 1949, Ripley died of a heart attack and several of his friends substituted as host, in ...
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Colorado Culture
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, eighth most extensive and List of U.S. states and territories by population, 21st most populous U.S. state. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 United States census enumerated the population of Colorado at 5,773,714, an increase of 14.80% since the 2010 United States Census, 2010 United States census. The region has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans and their Paleo-Indians, ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly much longer. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route for early peoples who spread throughout the Americas. "''Colorado''" is the Spanish adjective meaning "ruddy", th ...
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1895 In The United States
Events from the year 1895 in the United States. Incumbents Federal government of the United States, Federal government * President of the United States, President: Grover Cleveland (Democratic Party (United States), D-New York (state), New York) * Vice President of the United States, Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson I (Democratic Party (United States), D-Illinois) * Chief Justice of the United States, Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois) * Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Speaker of the House of Representatives: Charles Frederick Crisp (Democratic Party (United States), D-Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia) (until March 4), Thomas Brackett Reed (Republican Party (United States), R-Maine) (starting December 2) * United States Congress, Congress: 53rd United States Congress, 53rd (until March 4), 54th United States Congress, 54th (starting March 4) Events *February 9 – Mintonette, later known as volleyball, is created by William G. Morgan at Holyo ...
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19th-century Hoaxes
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanding beyond its British homeland for the first time during this century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Islamic gunpowder empires fell into decline and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and almost all of Africa under colonial rule. It was also marked by the collapse of the large ...
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Potatoes
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated by Native Americans independently in multiple locations,University of Wisconsin-Madison, ''Finding rewrites the evolutionary history of the origin of potatoes'' (2005/ref> but later genetic studies traced a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Potatoes were domesticated there approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago, from a species in the ''Solanum brevicaule'' complex. Lay summary: In the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous, some close relatives of the potato are cultivated. Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish in the second half of the 16th c ...
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1895 In Colorado
Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty is founded in England by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. * January 13 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Coatit – Italian forces defeat the Ethiopians. * January 17 – Félix Faure is elected President of the French Republic, after the resignation of Jean Casimir-Perier. * February 9 – Mintonette, later known as volleyball, is created by William G. Morgan at Holyoke, Massachusetts. * February 11 – The lowest ever UK temperature of is recorded at Braemar, in Aberdeenshire. This record is equalled in 1982, and again in 1995. * February 14 – Oscar Wilde's last play, the comedy ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', is first shown at St James's The ...
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