⅏Did You Know - These Random Facts? #2 - December

Did You Know?

For the month of December


back in ....
• 1937, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs first opened in theaters in.  When it won an Honorary Academy Award, Walt Disney received one regular-sized Oscar statue and seven miniature ones!
• 1823, The famous poem that begins 'Twas the night before Christmas... was first published in a New York newspaper.  Titled "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," the poem has since been rewritten in Cajun, Texan, Pennsylvania Dutch and Irish versions!
• 1913, The first crossword puzzle appeared in a newspaper.  The word for someone who does crosswords? "Cruciverbalist"!

• 2004, Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum starred in the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera, released in the U.S.  The film's famous chandelier was hung with 20,000 Swarovski crystal pendants - and cost $1.3 million!
• 1997, the film Titanic was opened in which James Cameron wrote and directed.  It became the top box-office movie of all time, raking in more than $1.8 billion worldwide.  It's also one of only three films to win 11 Academy Awards(the others are Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King).  Interestingly, none of Titanic's Oscars were for acting!
• 1843, Charles Dickens' yuletide tale, A Christmas Carol was published.  Since then, at least seven feature film versions of the story have been made; the latest starring Jim Carrey as the penny-pinching miser Scrooge.
• 1892, Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" debuted in St. Petersburg, Russia.  It's now the most widely performed ballet in the world, but the first performance was an utter failure - the critics and the audience all booed!