Billiards Trivia and More Billiards Facts!

Pool players and billiards buddies, here is another set of billiards trivia! This set of And I kid you not!billiards facts comes from Byrne's Standard Website of Pool and Billiards, and have been compiled by Robert Byrne. Hope you enjoy the interesting read!

1850: The first American book on the game: Michael Phelan's Billiards Without Master.

Napoleon III sends an ornate billiard table to Russia in 1855 as a gift for the coronation of Tsar Alexander II.

Twelve thousand elephants are being killed every year to provide ivory for piano keys and billiard balls. Ivory prices rise as elephants dwindle. A $10,000 prize is offered by Brunswick for an ivory substitute.

Abraham Lincoln calls the game "health-inspiring" and "scientific," lending "recreation to an otherwise fatigued mind."

1859: Michael Phelan defeats John Seereiter to claim the first American championship.

In 1860, Harvard and Yale compete in the nation's first intercollegiate billiard match.

1864: Charles Dickens gets a billiard table for Christmas.

In 1868, chemist John Hyatt saves thousands of elephants by inventing celluloid for billiard balls. The balls sometimes spark on collision and even explode, requiring a search for improvements that lead to the invention of plastics, an industry that Hyatt can be said to have founded.

1876: Mark Twain and Bret Harte write a play in the billiard room of Twain's Connecticut home.

1888: Vincent Van Gogh paints Night CafŽ in Arles, with a billiards table as the central feature.

"The AnitoKid loves billiards!"

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