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THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Battle of San Jacinto, April 21. In Texas. 



Decoration Day, May 30. In Colorado, 

 Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, New 

 Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New 

 York, Pennsylvania, and District of Columbia. 



Fourth of July. In all "states and terri- 

 tories. 



General Election Day, generally on Tuesday 

 after first Monday in November. In Califor- 

 nia, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, 

 Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. 



Thanksgiving Day, usually last Thursday in 

 November, and Fast days whenever appointed 

 by the president are legal holidays in all states 

 and territories. 



Christmas Day. In all the states and ter- 

 ritories. 



Labor Day, first Monday in September. All 

 states. 



Weight and Specific Gravities of 

 Liquids. 



The World's Seven Wonders. The 



seven wonders of the world are : The Pyramids, 

 the Colossus of Rhodes, Diana's Temple at 

 Ephesus, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Hang- 

 ing Gardens at Babylon, the Statue of the 

 Olympian Jove, and the Mausoleum by Art- 

 temisia at Halicarnassus. The Pyramids are 

 numerous, and space forbids anything like 

 a list of them. The great piles were 



constructed of blocks of red orsyenitic granite, 

 and of a hard calcareous stone. These blocks 

 were of extraordinary dimensions, and their 

 transportation to the sites of the pyramids and 

 their adjustment in their places, indicate a 

 surprising degree of mechanical skill. The 

 Great Pyramid covers an area of between 

 twelve and thirteen acres. The masonry con- 

 sisted originally of 89,028,000 cubic feet, and 

 still amounts to about 82,111,000 feet. The 

 present vertical height is 450 feet, against 479 

 feet originally, and the present length of the 

 sides is 746 feet, against 764 feet originally. 

 The total weight of the stone is estimated at 

 6,316,000,000 tons. The city of Rhodes was 

 besieged by Demetrius Poliorcetes. King of 

 Macedon, but, aided by Ptolomy Soter, King 

 of Egypt, the enemy were repulsed. To ex- 

 press their gratitude to their allies and to their 

 tutelary deity, they erected a brazen statue to 

 Apollo. It was 105 feet high, and hollow, 

 with a winding staircase that ascended to the 

 head. After standing fifty-six years, it was 

 overthrown by an earthquake, 224 years before 

 Christ, and lay nine centuries on the ground, 

 and then was sold to a Jew by the Saracens, 

 who had captured Rhodes, about the middle 

 of the seventh century. It is said to have re- 

 quired nine hundred camels to remove the metal, 

 and from this statement it has been calculated 

 its weight was 720,000 pounds. The Temple 

 of Diana, at Ephesus, was built at the com- 

 mon charge of all the Asiatic States. The chief 

 architect was Chersiphon, and Pliny says that 

 220 years were employed in completing the 

 temple, whose riches were immense. It was 

 425 feet long, 225 broad, and was supported 

 by 125 columns of Parian marble (sixty feet 

 high, each weighing 150 tons), furnished by 

 as many kings. It was set on fire on the night 

 of Alexander's birth by an obscure person 

 named Erostratus, who confessed on the rack 

 that the sole motive which prompted him was 

 the desire to transmit his name to future ages. 

 The temple was again built, and once more 

 burned by the Goths in their naval invasion, A. 

 D. 256. The colossal statue of Jupiter in the 

 temple of Olympia, at Elis, was by Phidias. 

 It was in gold and ivory, and sat enthroned 

 in the temple for 800 years, and was finally 

 destroyed by fire about A. D. 475. From the 

 best information, it is believed that the .Mau- 

 soleum at Halicarnassus was a rectangular 

 building surrounded by an Ionic portico of 

 thirty-six columns, and surmounted by a pyra- 

 mid, rising in twenty-four steps, upon the 

 summit of which was a colossal marble quad- 

 riga with a statue of Mausolus. The magnif- 

 icent structure was erected by Artemisia, who 

 was the sister, wife, and successor of Mausolus, 



