The Wise Book of Whys by Daven Hiskey, Today I Found Out.com Page A

carried around in baskets as the newspapers stated or the phrase originally was just referencing the then common colloquial idea of associating baskets with beggars or helplessness, given the grisly nature of the First World War and anecdotal reports, it seems plausible enough that there probably were at least some "basket cases ," despite the Surgeon General’s denial.
    As you can imagine, the original meaning of “basket case” was never incredibly common. It wasn’t until World War II that the phrase prominently resurfaced. Near the end of the war in May of 1944, once again, the Surgeon General attempted to deny that there were any basket cases:
    “…there is nothing to rumors of so-called ‘basket cases’—cases of men with both arms and legs amputated.”
    After World War II, the original meaning fell out of favor altogether, likely due to the lack of literal basket cases. However, for a while the phrase expanded to mean someone with a physical disability who was unable to get around by themselves easily.
    Today, of course, it has further evolved to mostly be a slang phrase for someone with a mental disability, or someone who seems to have been moved to act in a crazy fashion for whatever reason.
     
     
     
    BONUS FACT
     
    Another slightly less well-known usage of the phrase today is to describe a business or organization that has been rendered helpless in some way—such as filing for bankruptcy.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Why There is an Area of New York Called “The Bronx”
     
    This is thanks to a seventeenth century Scandinavian man by the name of Jonas Bronck, originally from Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands.
    In 1639, Bronck immigrated to New Amsterdam in New Netherland , which was right next to what is today called Bronx River, named after Jonas Bronck.
    Why ? In New Amsterdam, Bronck owned a 680 acre farm which was called, unimaginatively, “Bronck’s Land” and the river abutting it “Bronck’s River.” He held this land for just four years before dying in 1643. From there, various people owned this property, keeping the name Bronck’s Land, until Colonel Lewis Morris acquired it and renamed it the “Manor of Morrisania.”
    Despite the renaming of the land, the river next to it continued to be called “Bronck’s River .” From the river’s name, the modern-day name of “Bronx” got extended to the region directly around the river in the late nineteenth century. The name for the region has stuck ever since.
     
     
     
    BONUS FACT
     
    As to why it’s “Bronx” instead of “Bronck’s,” this isn’t clear, but the switch happened around the same time there was a big push for the simplification of English; remnants of this can be seen today in the names of the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox (instead of “Socks”). It may be that the switch from “Bronck’s” to “Bronx” happened for the same reason, though this is just speculation, and I could find no direct documented evidence of this; so take it with a grain of salt. But the time period (the late nineteenth to early twentieth century) of the switch, at least, matches up.
     
     
     

Why New York City is Called “The Big Apple”
     
    The earliest documented reference to New York being referred to as “The Big Apple” comes from a 1909 book by Edward Martin, called The Wayfarer . In it, he uses the moniker in a metaphorical sense, rather than a proper name for the city:
    “Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city… It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap…”
    The next known documented instance of New York being called “The Big Apple” comes from sportswriter John J. Fitz Gerald who began popularizing the name starting on May 3, 1921, where he stated in a column:
    “J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for