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5 Things You Didn't Know About The Eiffel Tower On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower was dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer. Here are 5 facts you might not know about the Eiffel Tower… It Was Meant to be Temporary Yes, the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be a temporary installation for the 1889 World Fair, held at Paris to commemorate 100 years of the French Revolution. Originally, the structure was scheduled to be taken down in 1909. But an antenna was added at the top of the tower to handle wireless signals, so the building was never torn down. During the First World War, the telegraph transmitter in the Eiffel Tower helped to jam communications by the Germans. The Eiffel Tower is still used today to beam radio and TV broadcasts around the world. A Con Man Managed to Convince Two Different People to "Buy" The Tower One of the disadvantages of having the reputation of "was meant to be temporary" is that people will take advantage of that. One man did just that, conning two different people out of money by claiming that the Tower was being sold for scrap. The man, Victor Lustig, was known as one of the most dangerous and clever conmen around, and one victim was so embarrassed at his naivete that he didn't report how much he'd lost. It’s Technically Illegal to Photograph The Eiffel Tower at Night The Tower lights up each hour at night and sparkles in what is called the Illumination Show. However, you could be fined for taking a picture of this and sharing it on Facebook, since the government claims that this light display is ‘art work’ and therefore, copyrighted. It Grows When the Sun Is Out On warm, sunny days, the side of the Tower that is exposed to the sunlight actually expands due to the effect of the heat on the metal. That means the rest of the Tower leans away a little bit from the sun. The leaning isn't drastic — about 18 centimeters, or around 7 inches. The Tower contracts once the environment cools off. An American Is Married to the Tower No, Mrs. Eiffel is not the wife of the late engineer who built the tower. It is actually an American named Erika Aya (or Erika Eiffel, as she prefers to be called) who actually married the Tower in a commitment ceremony in 2007! Ms. Eiffel suffers from paraphilia, which helps explain her odd obsession with a Paris landmark. Paraphilia is a medical condition where people can develop relationships with inanimate objects. Before the nuptials, she served in the United States Air Force and was a world-renowned competitive archer.

6 Brainy Facts You Didn't Know About Jeopardy! On March 30, 1964, the world saw the first episode of Jeopardy!. This show has turned into one of the most popular game shows ever, and in its current version, it is one of the longest-running. Here are 6 brainy facts you many not know about Jeopardy! It Once Had a Computer as a Contestant. In 2011, Jeopardy! brought back winning contestants Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter to compete against IBM's Watson, a supercomputer. The match was solely for exhibition, and Watson had been put through Jeopardy! practice for several months before the game. Watson won the game easily, with Jennings even quipping that he welcomed his new computer overlords. Interestingly, Watson itself was not at the game podium but was instead represented by an avatar. The reason for this was that the servers were not only very noisy, but they also took up about 10 racks and wouldn't have fit into the space by the buzzer anyway. Jeopardy! Has Been Canceled Twice in Its Existence. The current iteration of Jeopardy! is actually its third. The show originally ran for 10 years before being canceled in the 1970s. It came back for a short time in 1978 but was quickly dropped. The current version with Alex Trebek began in 1984 and has run uninterrupted since then. Jeopardy! also spawned spinoffs such as a version for kids and many, many parodies, particularly on Saturday Night Live with Will Ferrell playing Alex Trebek and Kenan Thompson hosting the parody version Black Jeopardy!. Alex Trebek Once Hosted Three Game Shows in the Same Time Period. Trebek's skill as a game show host has kept him in front of the camera on Jeopardy! for decades, but he really took off as a game show host in 1991, when he hosted three different shows in the same time period. There was Jeopardy!, of course, and he also hosted a version of Classic Concentration that year. In February, he hosted To Tell the Truth for a single show as a substitute host. Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune Are Sister Shows in More Ways Than One. Both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have an agreement that if you appear on one, you can't appear on the other, and for that reason, the two are often called sister shows. However, the sisterly relationship was reinforced with humor on April Fool's Day in 1997 when Trebek and Pat Sajak switched places and hosted each other's shows. Two Jeopardy! Winners Managed to Win With Literally $1. It's not that unusual to see someone win by having $1 more than their competitors. But twice now in the history of Jeopardy! has someone won with literally $1 left in their game purse. The first time was in 1993, when an Air Force lieutenant colonel named Daryl Scott ended up with a single dollar and won. The second time was in 2017, when Manny Abell managed the same feat. Although one of the three contestants in each episode almost always wins, several episodes have ended with no winner. To date, there have been seven games that resulted in no one winning 'Jeopardy!'. Alex Trebek's Real Name Isn't Actually Alex While everyone might know Alex Trebek is Canadian, few people know that his real name is George. But, don’t fret, Alexander is his middle name, so not everything you know is a lie.