Cleveland is a magical place with lots of fascinating facts and history. So magical, in fact, there should probably be a drinking game about it. Here’s one: if you DON’T know the fact, take a drink. If you DO know the fact, still, take a drink. That’s just how we roll.
Cleveland is a magical place with lots of fascinating facts and history. So magical, in fact, there should probably be a drinking game about it. Here’s one: if you DON’T know the fact, take a drink. If you DO know the fact, still, take a drink. That’s just how we roll.
By Brandon Koziol
1. Let there be light! Cleveland was the first city to be lit electrically in 1879. It’s also the first to use an electric traffic signal, installed on Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street.
(Photo via Erik Drost, Flickr CC)2. We truly do rock. Not only did Cleveland disk jockey Alan Freed coin the term rock and roll; he also put together the first rock concert called the Moondog Coronation Ball.
(Photo via Wikimedia)3. The Willard Park “Free Stamp” was designed by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. They chose the word “free” because of its importance in America and how it has many meanings. They’ve designed many others in inspiration like an umbrella and a bent spoon holding a cherry.
(Photo via Erik Drost, Flickr CC)4. Lake Erie is the most biologically productive of the Great Lakes and considered one of the best hotspots to reel in a walleye. So that’s why the Cleveland streets smell like a fish sometimes. It’s also the warmest and most shallow.
(Photo via Wikimedia)5. We’ve been represented at the Olympics. Four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens is from Cleveland. He was a track-and-field star who moved to the city at 9.
(Photo via Cleveland Memory Project)6. The Wicked Witch of the West originally hailed in Cleveland. Actress Margaret Hamilton, who played the witch in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ was born here. Take that, Hollywood!
(Photo via Wikimedia)7. Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts center outside of the Big Apple.
(Photo via Wikimedia)8. The Terminal Tower, standing 708-feet tall, was the second-tallest building in the world upon completion in 1930.
(Photo via Erik Drost, Flickr CC)Potato Chips Were First Mass Produced Here
Potato chips were around well before 1895 but before that, they were exclusively served at restaurants. That is, until Clevelander William Tappenden decided to bring them to the masses. Tappenden began my making chips at his home stove and then delivered them to local grocers on his horse-drawn wagon. He then converted the barn behind his home on East 79th Street in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland into a potato chip factory.
Photo via Wikimedia10. We helped Chef Boyardee get his start. Before Beefaroni went global, Italian chef Hector Boiardi moved to Cleveland and opened a restaurant here called Giardino d’Italia. People began asking for the recipe. The rest is history.
(Photo via Mike Mozart, Flickr CC)11. Live on Euclid Avenue? Well, you’re in the likes of oil mogul John D. Rockefeller. The street used to be known as “Millionaire’s Row” and the “Showplace of America” with lavish mansions lining the streets, according to Cleveland Historical.
(Photo via Cleveland Memory Project)12. Burn, baby burn! The Cuyahoga River has caught fire 13 times. Yikes.
(Photo via Cleveland Memory Project)13. The city’s coldest day in history got down to -20 degrees with a high of -2 on January 19, 1994. Burrrr.
(Photo via Erik Drost, Flickr CC)14. American Greetings has its headquarters here. Now you know where those five-dollar birthday cards you’re obligated to buy come from.
(Photo via American Greetings, Instagram)15. We revolutionized the golf ball. Clevelander and golfer Coburn Haskell upgraded the old balls – which were just leather pouches full of boiled feathers at the time – with a rubber-bound core ball.
(Photo via Wikimedia)16. Life Savers were invented here. You can thank businessman Clarence A. Crane, who wanted to solve the ever-troubling problem of candy melting. He used a machine that pharmacists use to make round flat pills, punched a hole in the center of the candy concoction and called it a Life Saver.
(Photo via Wikimedia)17. Along with the award for having the most overplayed theme song for its amusement park, the I-X center is the nation’s ninth largest convention center, drawing in 1.5 million visitors every year.
(Photo via Emanuel Wallace)18. Cleveland is named after Moses Cleaveland, who led an expedition of people to Northeast Ohio. Reportedly, the “a” was ditched when the editor of the “Cleveland Advertiser” didn’t have room for it on the publication’s masthead.
(Photo via Wikimedia)19. Cleveland sports’ losing streak started early with the 1899 Major League Baseball team called the Spiders. They had 20 wins and 134 losses.
(Photo via Wikimedia)20. We’re home to some weird laws. For example, you actually need a hunting license to catch a mouse.
(Photo via Free Photos Flickr CC)21. What’s up with the whales? We all drive passed the Cleveland Public Power Plant covered in the sea creatures, but you may not know there’s a message of marine conservation behind it. Artist Robert Wyland is responsible for the work and 100 other life-sized public marine murals deemed as the “Wyland Walls” campaign, according to the Wyland Foundation. The campaign exists in seven countries and 79 cities, internationally.
(Photo via hank_79, Instagram)22. Cleveland gave Superman its big break. Before descending from Krypton, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the man of steel in 1933 while still in high school. You may not know that Jerry thought of the character after having a simple sleepless night. The next day, him and his artist bud, Joe, created the world-wide phenomenon.
(Photo via Helgi Halldórsson, Flickr CC)23. The Land has a noteworthy community, being the first city to receive the All-American City Award five times – the first in 1949, and the last in 1994.
(Photo via Erik Drost, Flickr CC)
