30 facts you may not know (Pinoy Edition)

1. Gustave Eiffel, the guy who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, also built the San Sebastian Church in   Quiapo, Manila.

2. The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is Asia's first professional (pay for play) basketball league.

3. Eugene Torre is Asia's first chess Grandmaster .

4. Pancho Villa (Franciso Guilledo) is the first East Asian to win a world title in professional boxing.

5. Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden in Malate, Manila was the first zoo in asia.

6. Only McDonald's in the Philippine serves spaghetti, if not, the first to compete with Jollibee.

7.  Contrary to popular notion, the symbolic name "Juan de la Cruz" is not a Filipino invention. R.   McCulloch-****, a Scottish born journalist, coined the generic tag while working for the Manila Times in the early 1900's after discovering it was the most common name in police blotters and court dockets in and around Manila.

8.  "JEPROKS" - came from the word project pertaining to BLISS HOUSING PROJECTS during the 70's, instead of providing decent home to some families, the housing project became an enclave of somewhat many squatters that yields lots of unemployed and "istambays" later on we called as jeproks!

9. "JOLOGS" - somewhat related pero ang etymology nito ay from"DYOLOG" from Daing tuYO itLOG, the usual food of lower income families.

10. Davao City is the biggest city in the world in terms of area.

11.  Considered the first full length comedy film in the Philippines was "The Three Tramps," which was release in1927. It starred brothers Manuel and Augusto Silos, vaudeville queen Miami Salvador, and Enrique Espinosa.

12. First Filipino Olympians David Nepumoceno, who ran the track sprints at the 1924 Paris Games.  

13. Manuel L. Quezon was the first Filipino president to use a telephone.

14.  The first school lunches in the country were served at the American-run Meisic Intermediate School in Manila 1907. A sample daily menu for the 2000 or so students: "two kettles chicken soup with macaroni, 300 pieces of pandesal with salmon, 100 slices fried bread with mashed potatoes and corned beef, two freezers of milk ice cream, 600 square crackers, 100 pieces rolled jelly cake.

15. Consummatum est!" ("It is done!") were Jose Rizal's last word.

16. Palawan is geologically the safest province in the Philippines, away from volcanoes and earthquake faults.

17. Apo Hiking Society  was the first  foreign entertainment group allowed to stage a concert in Saudi Arabia.

18.  Paeng Nepumoceno was the youngest bowler to win the World Cup. He was only 19 when he ruled the event for the first time in Tehran, Iran, in 1976. He again won the World Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1980, and a record third time in Le Mans, France, in 1992.

19. Anak by Freddie Aguilar was inspired by his 1 year old daughter Shiaianne.

20.  Over 50% of the country's estimated 800,000 ethnic Chinese (1.4% of the Philippine population) live in Metro Manila. Almost all Chinese immigrants to the Philippines were lower-class males, mostly from Fukien province of mainland China.

21.  Like the volatile it hosts, Taal Lake has a quirky history. Its waters were once upon a time salty, but now considered "fresh." Shark, in fact, were among it;s inhabitants until about 1940. There also have been tales of crocodiles being thrown thirty meters into the air during one of the volcano's more violent eruptions. Taal Lake's original name, by the way, was Bonbon Lake.

22.  The Tagalog slang kenkoy, for 'funny' or 'comical', derives from Kenkoy, the popular cartoon character created by Tony Velasquez for Liwayway Magazine in 1929. It was Kenkoy who introduced into our consciousness such terms as weitaminit, barok, and kolokoy.

23. Levi Celerio was the only Filipino musician ever featured on the U.S. television show That's Incredible! Levi Clerio, making music with a leaf. He reckons he has composed between 1,300 and 4,000 songs in a career spanning nearly half a century.

24.  Jones Bridge in Manila is the first cabled suspension steel bridge in Asia.

25.  Manila Hotel is the first air conditioned hotel in asia.

26. The world first saw the name "Filipinas: in official print in 1861 on gold coins bearing the bust of Queen Isabel II of Spain. the coins - in denominations of one, two, and four pesos - were minted in Manila.

27. Ben Villaflor was the youngest Filipino who become a world champion, he won the WBA junior lightweight title on April 25, 1972, in Honolulu, at age 19.

28.  The minor planet "Biyo", which has a diameter of four to nine kms. and was formerly called planet 13241, was named after Dr. Josette Biyo a teacher of Phil. Science HS. in Iloilo City who won the Int'l. Excellence in Teaching Award during the Intel Int'l Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) held in Louisville, Kentucky in 2002. The Massachusetts Intistute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory in the United States game the name.

29.  The Philippines was the first country to score a hundred points in an Olympic basketball competition. They defeated Iraq 102-30. The members of that team:
 

Coach: Dionisio Calvo
Players: Manuel Araneta
Ramón Campos
Eduardo Decena
Andrés de la Cruz
Felicisimo Fajardo
Gabriel Fajardo
Edgardo Fulgencio
Antonio Luis Martínez
Lauro Mumar
Francisco Vestil

30. Balut is not only popular in the Philippines. It is also popular in Cambodia and Vietnam.