Here are a few fun morning facts from Jessica Kerwin Jenkins’
All the Time in the World, an intriguing read about the various hours of the day.
6 AM
Back in the 1890s, the Barnum & Bailey Circus breakfast bell would ring precisely at 6 o’clock. On the menu: two thousand cups of coffee, several thousand eggs and five hundred pounds of meat.
7 AM
Marigolds have an internal clock, too, as 18th century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus discovered. Every morning, they would open at 7 o’clock, followed by red pimpernels an hour later.
8 AM
Louis XIV of France awoke every day at 8 o’clock — and it only took a hundred people or so to help him with his morning routine. It took no less than seven people, for instance, to change him out of his dressing gown and nightshirt.
9 AM
According to Englishman Sir John Lightfoot, earth was born on October 23rd, 4004 BC at exactly 9 AM. 17th century scholar deduced this by combining all the time spans mentioned in the Bible.
10 AM
In the Elizabethan era, that’s the time the royal tablecloth was set, using a large rod. An accidentally wrinkled fold was dubbed a “coffin” and, as the superstition went, predicted death for one of the guests, if seen.
11 AM
Oscar Wilde arrived in New York at 11 AM in 1882 and settled in to an interview while still standing on the pier. He wore a fur-trimmed coat and patent leather shoes.
Noon
The construction crew of the Empire State Building — known as the sky boys — would break for lunch at noon, gulping down “two sandwiches, coffee or milk, and pie” with nothing between them and the gorgeous New York skyline view.