By Brian Boone
December 21 marks the Winter Solstice — the sun sets earlier today than any other day. In other words, it’s the shortest day of the year. Here then is a list of other famously short things. (Except this article — it’s of regular blog entry length.)
Shortest Major League Baseball career
On June 29, 1905, the New York Giants called up minor-leaguer Archibald “Moonlight” Graham and placed him in the game in the ninth inning. He played right field and didn’t have to negotiate any hit balls and never got up to bat. And that was all the big-league baseball he ever got to play.
Shortest human bone
Hearing is possible because a bone in the ear interprets sound waves and sends them to the brain. That bone is a horseshoe-shaped piece called the stapes, which measures 0.1 inches in length.
Shortest Oscar-winning performance
Beatrice Straight played the wife of a network executive in the 1976 television news drama Network. She was on-screen for a total of five minutes and 40 seconds and won an Oscar for her trouble.
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Shortest presidency
It’s common knowledge that William Henry Harrison served the shortest American presidency, dying 32 days after catching pneumonia at his inauguration. But the briefest tenure of any democratically elected head of state was served out by Pedro Lascurain. He was in charge of Mexico during a post-coup transition, and for all of 45 minutes on February 19, 1913.
Shortest smash hit
In 1960, the doo wop/R&B song “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs hit no. 1 on the Billboard pop chart despite being all of one minute and 36 seconds long. (The brevity really hammers home the song’s message of pleading for someone to stick around.)
Shortest commercial flight
The residents of the Scottish islands Westray and Papa Westray get back and forth via a 1.7-mile flight that runs each day. Total time in the air: 57 seconds.
Shortest place name
Of all the towns, cities, and villages in the world, the one with the smallest name is a fishing hamlet on an island off northern Norway. They call it Å, although it used to be called Aa and comes from an Old Norse word that means “little river.”
Shortest street in the world
Caithness, Scotland, is home to Ebenezer Place, established in the 1880s. It hasn’t gotten much bigger since, as it runs a whole six feet, nine inches long.