Cleveland Steamer Set to Sail!

So, me and my Toronto entourage are off for a weekend of fun in sunny Cleveland. Expect a couple of days of silence as we enjoy the hospitality of Jimsey as he squires us around The Metropolis of the Western Reserve.

In light of this, I thought it would nice to pass on a little Cleveland trivia:

1. Cleveland boasts America’s first traffic light. It began on Aug. 5, 1914.
2. Cleveland became the world’s first city to be lighted electrically in 1879.
3. Babe Ruth hit his 500th career home run in Cleveland.
4. Cleveland was the site of the first successful coronary by-pass surgery.
5. Cleveland is named for Moses Cleaveland, a surveyor who settled the town in 1796.\
6. Cleveland was originally called “Cleaveland”, but a newspaper editor changed the spelling so that it would fit in his masthead.
7. One of Cleveland’s twenty sister cities is West Mayo, Ireland.
8. Dorthy Dandridge and Ruby Dee are from Cleveland.
9. Oh, and Paul Newman, too.
10. In 1853, Cleveland had the first U.S. African American newspaper (The Aliened American).
11. The gas mask was invented in Cleveland in 1916.
12. In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.
13. Cleveland had the first rapid transit service from the airport to downtown in 1968.
14. Arsenio Hall was born in Cleveland.
15. I know a guy who lives there.

See you at the Cuyahoga!

Tags: Ben, Cleveland, Jimsey, trivia