Ellen Byron

Happy Birthday, Dame Agatha – and California!

Happy National Cozy Mystery Day to all who observe – which is a lot of us. September 15th was chosen to honor the genre because it’s the birthday of the legendary mystery author, Agatha Christie. But there was another birthday last week that I want to celebrate. California, my adopted state, turned 175.

If you’re thinking, wait, one of these things is not like the other, you’re right. Dame A was a world traveler, yet I found no evidence she ever set foot in the Golden State. But since I figured there’d be a lot of press about her and the cozy genre today, I thought I’d take a different tack and share fun facts about CA, the inspiration for my Golden Motel Mysteries.

I’ll kick off the festivities with a few direct quotes from the “Visit California” email I received last week celebrating the state’s big day…

State Parks Started with Yosemite 

“In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Valley Grant Act, which gave Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa sequoia grove to the state of California. Governor Frederick Low accepted the land grant and established the first state park—not just in California, but in the entire country. In 1906, California returned the land to the federal government to become part of Yosemite National Park, but the idea of state parks had already taken hold. Now every state has state parks; California has 280 of them.“

Here are some photos I took on our trip to the glorious Yosemite many moons ago:

This fun fact is super cool:

The First Online Internet Message Came from California

“Before the Internet existed, there was ARPANET, a government-funded network designed to help research institutions share information. ARPANET’s first message was transmitted in October 1969 when UCLA graduate student Charley Kline tried to send the word “login” to the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. The system crashed after Kline typed the first two letters, but that transmission laid the groundwork for our digital world.”

Here’s another fun fact. I knew Barbie started here and how she got her name, but I didn’t know how Ken got his:

Barbie’s Birthplace Was in El Segundo, California 

“If you’ve seen the movie, you know. The original Barbie doll was made and patented by Mattel, headquartered in the L.A. suburb of El Segundo, in 1959. The doll was the brainchild of Ruth Handler, who co-owned the toy company with her husband Elliot. Barbie, named after the couple’s daughter Barbara, made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Barbie’s male sidekick, Ken, came into the world in 1961. He was named after the Handlers’ son.”

Could there be a more California image than a mashup of the iconic doll with an entertainment industry strike?

Here are some more fun facts about Calif-0rn-i-ay, as the miner 49ers might sing or say:

* WD-40 was invented in San Diego in 1953.

* The squeegee was invented in Oakland in 1936.

* You can thank Disneyland for steel-track rollercoasters. Wooden tracks have been around since the 1880s, but steel tracks didn’t debut until 1959 when the iconic amusement park introduced them.

* L.A. introduced the first electric guitar in 1931, the Rickenbacker A-22. It was nicknamed “the frying pan” due to its unique shape.

If only someone had brought Dame Agatha up to speed on the many accomplishments born on California soil, she might have added the land of almonds and avocadoes it to her travel itinerary. Oh, well. Happy heavenly birthday, mistress of mystery! And happy birthday to the state that gave us the neoprene wetsuit.

Readers, share a fun fact about your state or where you live!

38 thoughts on “Happy Birthday, Dame Agatha – and California!”

  1. The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, made history on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk when they completed the first successful flight of a mechanically propelled airplane.

    North Carolina is the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the United States.

    The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, North Carolina, stands as the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, reaching 193 feet.

    In 1775, the colony of North Carolina became the first of the 13 American colonies to approve a measure calling for independence from Great Britain.

    The first English child born in the New World, Virginia Dare, was born on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, in 1587.

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  2. What a fun idea! I live in Ohio. Here’s what I’ve got:

    • The first ambulance service was established in Cincinnati in 1865.
    • Cleveland was the first U.S. city to use traffic lights.
    • “Hang On Sloopy” is the official state rock song.
    • Cincinnati Reds were the first professional baseball team.

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  3. Thank you Ellen. This will be fun! I am going to do two states, the one I live in (Virginia) and my 200 year heritage (Pennsylvania)

    Fun facts about Pennsylvania 

    Let’s start with food

    Hershey, Pennsylvania, is known as the Chocolate Capital of the U.S

    Pennsylvania produces the most pretzels and potato chips in the country, earning it the title of “Snack Capital of the World”. 

    America’s oldest commercial brewery, D.G.Yuengling & Son, is still operating in Pottsville.

    Pennsylvania produces three out of every five mushrooms sold in the United States. Kennett Square is called the Mushroom Capital of the World.

    The first American zoo is in Philadelphia, 1874.
    Centralia PA is considered a ghost town (only 5 residents left and no, you can’t move there) because it has a coal mine fire that started in 1962, and still burns today.

    The first emoji (the smilie face) was invented by Professor Scott Fahlman September 19, 1982.

    The Hotel Edison in Sunbury, PA, is a historic building where Thomas Edison directed the first successful use of a three-wire electrical lighting system in 1883. (FYI, this is where my family is from, and I think no one is allowed to be born there unless someone has died. It’s current population is 9500, and has been consistently under 12000 for over 100 years)

    Fun facts about Virginia

    Virginia is one of four states still called a commonwealth. And yes, they still say hear ye hear ye in court.

    Tangier Island has a dialect that is not found anywhere else in the world.

    The Pentagon is the world‘s largest office building, however, the mailing address is Washington DC.

    The first mental hospital was founded in 1773 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

    Edgar Allan Poe spent much of his early life in Richmond, Virginia and actually started his writing career there.

    Virginia is the only state with a designated state bat, the Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus, or Big-eared Bat.

    Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I, called the Virginia Queen.

    Mountain Dew was created in the mountains of southwest Virginia in 1940, 

    As a lemon lime drink to mix with alcohol. I wonder if that alcohol was moonshine?

    And most importantly:

    Washington and Lee College had the first person arrested for streaking across the college campus in 1804.

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  4. A few fun facts about my adopted state, Arizona:

    Last contiguous state admitted to the union, February 14, 1912, often called “State 48”

    Home to the world’s first drive-thru McDonald’s in Sierra Vista

    Most national monuments in the country

    For all of you who love Mexican food, Arizona is home of the chimichanga

    The Grand Canyon is the only one of the 7 Wonders of the World located in the United States

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  5. I remember in my freshman year at UCSC in 1974, you could make phone calls for free between that campus and the other University of California campuses via some newfangled technology (which became the internet), so I’d call my dad at work at UCLA. In the days of long distance toll calls, this was a big deal.

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  7. Fun facts, Ellen.

    Pennsylvania was the second state to join the United States. It is the home to the first zoo, the first computer, and is also the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

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    1. PA is also where Ellen Byron’s plays received their first full productions!

      I love the state. It’s beautiful. I actually wanted to go to Penn State but I didn’t get in. Who knows, I might have been writing books where the characters had Philly accents instead of NOLA!

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  8. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway course was originally built out of over 3 million bricks.

    Indianapolis was home to Booth Tarkington, who won 2 Pulitzer Prizes for literature.

    Kurt Vonnegut was also from Indianapolis.

    The Jackson family (Michael, Janet, etc) were from Gary, Indiana.

    John Mellencamp is from Seymour and lives outside Bloomington.

    Sports films made in Indiana include: Hoosiers, Eight Men Out, A League of their Own, Rudy, Breaking Away

    Legends of the American Songbook Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael are also from Indiana.

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  10. New Hampshire enters the chat, boasting the first free, tax-supported public library (yay!), the corkscrew, the guy who invented Tupperware, the first American-made alarm clock, the Segway, the ever tried-and-true Farmer’s Almanac, and VERY important to me, the American potato!

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    1. Lisa, I want dates. I’ve got to find someplace else invention that is younger than the hubbs!

      we have this running joke that he’s older than dirt. But no! That makes me dirt! And I don’t like that.

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  11. Great post! Hooray for cozies, Agatha Christie, and California — three things I love!

    Here are three fun facts about the state I’m currently living in:

    • Texas was it’s own country for nine years before joining the United States.
    • Texas has an estimated 11 million cows, more than any other state. 
    • In the town of Texarkana, it’s illegal to ride a horse at night without a taillight. 

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  13. Happy Cozy Day!

    And Colorado is the home of many things, but today I am thinking about Chipotle. The first location was down the street from where I went to grad school, and there was ALWAYS a line out the door.

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