"Hagiology"
is the branch of literature dealing with the lives and legends of saints.
"E"
is the most frequently used letter in the English alphabet, "Q" is
the least.
"Almost"
is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in
alphabetical order.
Hairy people
are called "hirsute."
A horologist
measures time.
German is
considered the sister language of English.
The food of
the Greek gods was called Ambrosia.
A phonophobe
fears noise.
A community
of ants is called a colony.
A gynephobic
man fears women.
A nihilist
believes in nothing.
The boundary
between two air masses is called a "front."
Narcissism
is the psychiatric term for self-love.
A
chiropodist treats hands and feet.
Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone
and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.
Kyoto, which
was the Japanese capital before Tokyo, means "old capital".
A
"quidnunc" is a person who is eager to know the latest news and
gossip, otherwise, a busybody.
Mountains
are formed by a process called orogeny.
Dr. Seuss
coined the word "nerd" in his 1950 book "If I Ran The Zoo"
The phrase
"jet lag" was once called "boat lag", back before airplanes
existed.
The
English-language alphabet originally had only 24 letters. One missing letter
was J, which was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. The other
latecomer to the alphabet was U.
The first
college to use the word "campus" to describe its grounds was
Princeton. "Campus" is Latin for "field."
The
alteration of the architectural appearance of a city by the construction of
skyscrapers and high-rise buildings is known as "Manhattanization".
The term refers to the New York borough Manhattan.
The word
"alcatraz" is Spanish for "pelican".
Pregnant
goldfish are "twits."
In India and
Iran, the part of the house reserved for women is called a "zenana."
The word
"yo-yo" itself was a registered trademark of Duncan until 1965.
Mothers were
originally named mama or mommy (in many languages) because they have mammary
glands.
The phrase
"guinea pig" originated when a tax was imposed on powder for wigs in
England to help pay for the war with Napoleon. The list of those who had paid
the guinea (one pound, one shilling) was posted on their parish church door. As
they were the wealthy of the day, they became known as the guinea pigs.
The phrase
"a red letter day" dates back to 1704, when holy days were marked in
red letters in church calendars.
Beets
reminded early cooks of a bleeding animal when they cut them open, so they
started calling them "beets." This was derived from the French word
bête, meaning "beast."
The
equivalent of calling someone a jerk in English is calling them a pickle in
French.
In ancient
Egypt, the apricot was called the "egg of the sun."
The French
equivalent of "Pumpkin" (our pet name) is calling them
"Chou-Chou" which is little cabbage.
"Quisling"
is the only word in the English language to start with "quis."
The word
"mullet" describes a hairstyle worn, particularly in the southern
USA, which is characterized by short hair on the top and sides, with very long
hair in the back.
Las Vegas
means "the meadows" in Spanish. Ironically, the city in the desert
was once abundant in water and vegetation.
The loop on
a belt that holds the loose end is called a "keeper".
The little
bits of paper left over when holes are punched in data cards or tape are called
Chad.
A
"pogonip" is a heavy winter fog containing ice crystals.
The initials
for morning and evening are based on latin words—ante meridiem and post
meridiem. "Ante," of course means "before" and
"post" means "after." "Meridiem" means
"noon."
The side of
a hammer is a cheek.
The word for
"dog" in the Australian aboriginal language Mbabaran happens to be
"dog."
The stress
in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable.
The
difference between a "millennium" and a "chiliad"? None.
Both words mean "a period of one thousand years", the former from
Latin, the later from Greek.
The ball on
top of a flagpole is called the truck.
Sheriff came
from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had
a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United
States it was shortened to Sheriff.
Facetious
and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious,
meaning "containing arsenic."
"Polish"
is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from
a noun or a verb to a nationality.
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In the game
Monopoly, the most money you can lose in one travel around the board (normal
game rules, going to jail only once) is $26,040. The most money you can lose in
one turn is $5070.
Alcoholics
are twice as likely to confess a drinking problem to a computer than to a
doctor, say researchers in Wisconsin.
The gesture
of a nose tap, in Britain, means secrecy or confidentiality. In Italy, a tap to
the nose signifies a friendly warning.
A 41-gun
salute is the traditional salute to a royal birth in Great Britain.
To prevent
some numbers from occurring more frequently than others, dice used in crap
games in Las Vegas are manufactured to a tolerance of 0.0002 inches, less than
1/17 the thickness of a human hair.
A car uses
1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the
average automobile.
A car that
shifts manually gets 2 miles more per gallon of gas than a car with automatic
shift.
A car
operates at maximum economy, gas-wise, at speeds between 25 and 35 miles per
hour.
Owing to a
faulty cornerstone, the church of St. John in Barmouth, Wales, crashed in ruins
a minute after it was finished. It was rebuilt, and the new edifice has endured
to the present day.
Nobody knows
where the body of Voltaire is. It was stolen in the nineteenth century and has
never been recovered. The theft was discovered in 1864, when the tomb was
opened and found empty.
The height
and width of modern American battleships was originally determined by insuring
they had to be able to go beneath the Brooklyn Bridge and through the Panama
Canal.
Astronauts
are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in
a spacesuit damages them.
On June 10,
1958, a tornado was crashing through El Dorado, Kansas. The storm pulled a
woman out of her house and carried her sixty feet away. She landed, relatively
unharmed, next to a phonograph record titled "Stormy Weather."
If you need
to dial the telephone and your dial is disabled, you can tap the button in the
cradle. If, for example, you need to dial 911, you can tap the button 9 times,
then pause, then tap once, then again.
The Nike
"swoosh" logo was designed by University of Oregon student Carolyn
Davidson in 1964, four years after business undergraduate Phil Knight and track
coach Bill Bowerman founded the company they originally called Blue Ribbon Sports.
Ms. Davidson was paid $35 dollars for her design.
Kate
"God Bless America" Smith sold more U.S. war bonds than anyone else
during World War II. She sold $600 million worth.
The first
person selected as the Time Magazine Man of the Year - Charles Lindbergh in
1927.
Studebaker
was the only major car company to stop manufacturing cars while making a profit
on them.
According to
suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.
St. Stephen
is the patron saint of bricklayers.
The Dome
could contain two Wembley Stadiums or the Eiffel Tower on its side. You could
even fit the Great Pyramid of Giza inside it.
The
translucent roof is 50 meters high at the center and strong enough to support a
jumbo jet.
The Dome is
supported by 43 miles of high-strength cable which holds up 100,000 square
meters of fabric.
Woodbury
Soap was the first product to show a nude woman in its advertisements. The year
- 1936. The photo, by Edward Steichen, showed a rear full-length view of a
woman sunbathing - wearing only sandals.
1960 was the
last model year for Edsel and Desoto.
A lead
pencil is good for about 50,000 words.
The earliest
recorded case of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679, when Johan
Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary "I quit smoking
tobacco." He died one month later.
The
newspaper serving Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, the home of Rocky and Bullwinkle,
is the Picayune Intellegence.
The official
time ball for the U.S. is on top of the U.S. naval Observatory in Washington,
DC As early as 1845, the U.S. Navy dropped a time ball every noon from atop a
building on a hill overlooking Washington, DC. People from many miles could set
their watches at noon. Ships anchored in the Potomac River could check their
chronometers.
The Times
Square "time ball" is named the "Star of Hope". It was
specially made for this year and contains 504 glass crystals cut into
triangles, 600 light bulbs, 96 big lights, and 92 mirrors.
The U.S.
Library of Congress has compiled a 232-source bibliography on the subject of
when, properly speaking, centuries roll over. Almost all of the sources agree
that the twentieth century will not end until December 31, 2000.
It is
believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of
the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake
and the 46th word from the last word is spear.
According to
Scientific American magazine: if you live in the northern hemisphere, odds are
that every time you fill your lungs with air at least one molecule of that air
once passed thru Socrates lungs.
The name of
the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
Electric
Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using electric
Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved
safer than the traditional candles.
Rudolph, the
Red-Nosed Reindeer was conceived by author Robert May in 1939. Two other names
he thought of before deciding on Rudolph were Reginald and Rollo.
- Zawadi:
Gifts
- Kikombe
Cha Umoja: The Unity Cup
- Kinara:
The Candleholder
- Mishumaa
Saba: The Seven Candles
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When someone
commits suicide while jumping off a building, so much adrenaline builds up that
you have a heart attack and die before hitting the ground. Thus making this way
of commiting usicide basically the easiest.
When Swiss
cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it
bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call them
"eyes."
When the
Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague.
Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less
affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats.
When the
English colonists sat down for their first Thanksgiving dinner on February 22,
1630, an Indian chief named Quadoquina offered a deerskin bag filled with
freshly popped corn. Thus popcorn made its first appearance to non-native North
Americans.
When the
German army invaded France in WWI, they actually followed the schedules of the
local trains to invade (it was faster by rail and they wanted to surprise
France), checking the timetable and abiding by it. And France, whose army was
waiting at the border, sent taxis to pick up and transport the troops to
counter the attack!
When the
income tax first started in 1861, the maximum tax was 3%.
When the
moon is directly over your head, you weigh slightly less.
When the
temperature drops, the eyesight reaction time of insects (like the dragonfly
and some animals like tortoises) decrease and thats why they can be caught
early in the morning or at night by predators like birds whose eyesight
reaction times are unaffected by temperature.
When the
Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived.
When the
Titanic sunk there was 7,500 lbs. of ham on it
When the
University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes
the third largest city in the state.
When the
X-ray was discovered, a law in New Jersey was written forbidding the use of
"X-ray opera glasses."
When Thomas
Edison died in 1941; Henry Ford captured his last dying breath in a bottle.
When you
flush a toilet, an invisible cloud of water [full of germs] shoots six feet in
the air.
When you
give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning of rose colors:
Red = Love and respect, Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation, Light pink =
Admiration, sympathy White = Reverence, humility, Yellow = Joy, gladness,Orange
= Enthusiasm, desire, Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality,Pale blended
tones = Sociability, friendship
When you put
a seashell to your ear, the sound you hear is not the waves, but actually the
echo of the blood pulsing in your own ear.
When you see
a sign "City of Timbukto 40 miles" it means actually it is 40 miles
to the city hall of that city sign.
When you
sneeze, all your bodily functions stop, even your heart.
Whenever
people accidentally trip over themselves whilst walking, they automatically go
into 'survival mode' and try to pretend like they meant it (eg. they start into
a jog). How hilarious is it watching someone do that?!
While
fighting with the French underground during World War II, Jacques-Yves Cousteau
invented the aqualung, the self-contained device that supplies air under
pressure for underwater divers.
While many
treaties have been signed at or near Paris, France (including many after WWI
and WWII), nine are actually known as the "Treaty of Paris": Seven
Years' War (1763), American Revolutionary War (1783), French-Swede War (1810),
France vs Sixth Coalition (1814), Battle of Waterloo (1815), Crimean War
(1856), Spanish-American War (1898), union of Bessarabia and Romania (1920),
establishment of European Coal and Steel Community (1951).
While
sailing along the Caribbean coast of South America in 1499, the Spanish
explorer Alonso de Ojedo saw Indian houses built on stilts over the water. The
area reminded him of Venice, and he named it Little Venice, which in Spanish is
Venezuela.
While
seeking a name and package design for the world's first self-rising pancake
mix, creator Chris L. Rutt saw a vaudeville team known as Baker and Farrell
whose act included Baker singing the catchy song "Aunt Jemima"
dressed as a Southern mammy. Inspired by the wholesome name and image, Rutt appropriated
them both to market his new pancake mix.
While
sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth.
While the US
government's supply of gold is kept at Fort Knox, its supply of silver is kept
at the Military Academy at West Point, NY.
Whiskey was
first brewed in the United States in 1640. It was made from a mixture of corn
and rye.
Whitcomb L.
Judson, the inventor of the zipper, originally intended his invention to save
people the trouble of buttoning and unbuttoning their shoes every day. He named
it the "Clasp locker and unlocker for shoes."
White out
was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees).
Whoever
submitted the erroneous Spanish info should be pelted with soggy tacos and
refried beans. HOMBRE is "man," HOMBRO is "shoulder," and
HOMBURG is a kind of hat just as it is in English.
Whole wheat
bread has more iron, vitamins and dietary fiber than white bread.
Why? It is a
felony for a wife to open a husband's mail.
Widow is the
only female form in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding
male term (widower).
Wild Bill
Hickok was killed playing poker, holding two pairs aces and eights, which has
become known as 'Dead Man's Hand.'
William Fox,
the founder of 20th Century Fox, was bankrupt a few years after selling his
studio, and served a prison sentence in Pennsylvania for bribing a judge.
William
Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was the first US president to die in office. At 32
days, he also had the shortest term in office.
William
Howard Taft had a bathtub that could hold four people installed in the white
because he couldn't fit into the present one.
William
Howard Taft was the first President to own a car.<
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There is no
alcohol left in food that's cooked with wine. The alcohol evaporates at 172
degrees Fahrenheit.
There is no
difference in flavor or nutritional value between brown and white eggs. Aside
form color, they are identical. Most white eggs come from White Longhorns and
browns come from a commercial cross of Rhode Island Reds and Barred Plymouth
Rocks.
There is no
ice covering Iceland.
There is no
single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but
it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really
a black leopard.
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There
is no solid proof of who built the Taj Mahal.
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There is no
such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on plants.
There is
only ONE word in the English language with THREE CONSECUTIVE SETS OF DOUBLE
LETTERS.... Bookkeeper
There is
over 70,000,000 rats in New York, That is an average of about 9 rats per person
There is
zero gravity at the center of the earth.
There really
was a Cyrano de Bergerac. He lived from about 1620 to 1655, had a big nose and
dueled. He was also a science fiction writer who was the first person in
history to suggest that a rocket could carry someone into space.
There was no
soap in the ancient Mediterranean world. Olive oil was used to wash the body in
addition to cooking.
There was
once a law in Salem Virginia that made it illegal to leave home without knowing
where you were going.
There were
840 soldiers in the regular army when the U.S. War Department was established
in 1789. Their job was to supervise public lands and guard the Indian frontier.
There's a
town in New Mexico called Pie Town that consists of two restaurants and a post
office. It was originally a stoppong place along a long stretch of road. It's
famous for having good pies!
There's an
average of of 178 sesame seeds on a Big Mac bun.
There's
Arsnick(a dangerous poison) in dirt
There's
enough water preassure in one onion cell to cause a steam engine to explode.
Thirteen
muscles are used to make a person smile.
Thirty-five
percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
This is what
the red, white, and blue on the US flag represent: The Continental Congress
left no record to show why it chose the colors. However, in 1782, the Congress
of the Confederation chose these same colors for the Great Seal of the United
States and listed their meaning as follows: white to mean purity and innocence,
red for valor and hardiness, and blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
According to legend, George Washington interpreted the elements of the flag
this way: the stars were taken from the sky, the red from the British colors,
and the white stripes signified the secession from the home country. However,
there is no official designation or meaning for the colors of the flag.
This may
have been true on an older $5 bill, but I just scanned in one of the new ones
and took a real close look and found nothing. If anyone finds it on an old one,
please send in a pic or let me know.
This one is
deep...think about the cultural impact this could have: NO WAR HAS BEEN FOUGHT
WHERE BOTH COUNTRIES HAD A McDonalds
This sounds
feasible, but isn't true! Crapper actually invented the automatic shut-off
mechanism used in the modern toilet.
Thomas
Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and a cigar which
was supposed to burn forever.
Thomas
Edison was afraid of the dark.
Thomas
Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark
Thomas
Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter.
Thomasville,
North Carolina, prohibits airplanes from flying over the town on Sundays during
the hours between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Those
British are sophisticated people, in almost everything except their choice of
coffee. They still drink instant ten-to-one over fresh brewed.
Those hard,
plastic points on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets.
Though it
goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tectonic destruction from
an earthquake (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.)
Thousands of
people watched the Battle of Bunker Hill take place. People in the Boston area
sat on rooftops, in trees, on church steeples, and in the rigging of ships in
the harbor to watch the American revolutionaries battle the British.
Three
chemicals are used to execute criminals by lethal injection. First, Sodium
Thiopental is injected, causing the inmate to fall into a deep sleep. The
second chemical agent, Pancuronium Bromide, a muscle relaxer, follows. This
causes the inmate to stop breathing due to paralyses of the diaphragm and
lungs. Finally, Potassium Chloride is injected, stopping the heart.
Three
million people in the United States have an impairment of the back or limbs
that is a direct result of an accidental fall.
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The
winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
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The Wizard
of Oz was a Broadway musical 37 years before the MGM movie version was made. It
had 293 performances and then went on a tour that lasted 9 years.
The word
"checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah
Mat," which means, "The King Is Dead."
The word
"coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches
were invented and first used.
The word
"crap" came from Thomas Crapper-a famous plumber in the early days of
the toilet.
The word
"dude" is the name for an infected elephant butt hair.
The word
"earthling" was first found in print in 1593.
The word
"homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician
Karoly Maria Benkert.
The word
"honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader"
and first came into usage in the English language during the American
occupation of Japan following World War II.
The word
"karate" means "empty hand."
The word
"lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the
word you want.
The word
"maverick" came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan refused to
brand his cattle. Eventually any unbranded calf became known as a Maverick.
The word
"MOW" can be read the same way upside-down, hence the word ambigram.
Many other words can be written differently using special characters of writing
to make the word appear the same way from different points.
The word
"piano" is really an abbreviation for the word
"pianoforte."
The word
"pure" appears on the scroll held by the Quaker pictured on the
packages of Quaker Oats cereal.
The word
"queue" is the only word in the English language that is still
pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
The word
"samba" means "to rub navels together."
The word
"set" has more definitions than any other word in the English
language.
The word
"supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," from the movie Mary Poppins,
was added to the Oxford dictionary in 1964.
The word
"tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed
brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness,"
encouraged customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP,
has become a byword.
The word
"trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium" which is the place
where three roads meet, a public square. People would gather and talk about all
sorts of matters, most of which were trivial.
The word
Assassin is derived from a Middle Eastern religious and political sect known as
Hashishins. The name means 'hashish smoker'which refers to the practice of
taking hashish to induce visions of ecstacy before murdering their enemies as
their religious duty. They were very good at what they did.
The word
'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.'
The word
'cappuccino' is the result of several derivations, the original of which began
in 16th century. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played
an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its
Italian name came from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from
cappuccino, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The
French version of cappuccino was capuchin, from which came English Capuchin. In
Italian cappuccino went on to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with
steamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the
color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English
is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco. There is also the story line
that says that the term comes from the fact that the coffee is dark, like the monk's
robe, and the cap is likened to the color of the monk's head.
The word
gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning throat or gullet.
This is also the origin of the word gargle. The word describes the sound
produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early architecture,
gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.
The word
'geography' is derived from the greek words geo (the Earth) and graphein (to
write).
The word
gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnazein which means to exercise naked.
The word
'lethologica' describes the state of not being able to remember the word you
want.
The word
'monosyllable' actually has five syllables in it.
The word
'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the
first letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because
information was being gathered from all different directions.
The word
'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element'.
The word
quisling comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who
collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of Norway. The word now
means "traitor."
The word
racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right t
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The sandwich
is named for the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), for whom sandwiches were
made so that he could stay at the gambling table without interruptions for
meals.
The Santa
Maria was the only one of Columbus's ships not to return to Spain. It hit a
reef on December 5, 1492 and sank.
The saying
'once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one
calendar month. The last two occurred in January & March 1999. The next one
isn't until the end of 2001.
The
science-fiction series "Lost in Space" (set in the year 1997)
premiered on CBS in 1965.
The sea
contains about 1/2 of the world's known animal groups
The Sea of
tranquility is found on the moon.
The SEALs
have been deployed in Vietnam, Laos, Panama, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, and
Colombia.
The search
engine "Lycos" is named for Lycosidae, the Latin name for the wolf
spider family. Unlike other spiders that sit passively in their web, wolf
spiders are hunters, actively stalking their prey.
The secretary-bird
swallow hen's egg whole without breaking its shell.
The sentence
"The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the
alphabet!
The setting
sun is redder than the rising sun because the air at the end of the day is
generally dustier than it is at the beginning of the day.
The seven
archangels are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Chamuel, Jophiel, and Zadkiel.
The Seven
Deadly Sins are lust, pride, anger, envy, sloth, avarice and gluttony.
The seven
hills of Rome are the Palatine (on which the original city was built), the
Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine.
The seven
virtues are prudence, courage, temperance, justice, faith, hope and charity.
The seven
wonders of the ancient world werethe Egyptian Pyramids at Giza, Hanging Gardens
of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Colossus of Rhodes or huge bronze statue
near the Harbor of Rhodes that honored the sun god Helios, Temple of Artemis at
Ephesus, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Lighthouse at Alexandria
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The
sewing machine was patented on August 12, 1851, by Isaac Singer of Pittstown,
New York.
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The sex of
crocodiles is determined by the incubation temperature. Eggs incubated at
temperatures below 85 degrees become females. Those incubated above 95 degrees
become males. 2. Crocodiles are the closest living relatives to birds.
The
shallowest sea is the sea of Azov.It is 13 meters at its deepest.
The shape of
a plants' collenchyma cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the
same they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.
The shore of
the Dead Sea in Israel-Jordan is 1312 feet (400 meter) below sea level.
The shortest
"-ology" (study of) word is oology, the study of eggs.
The shortest
British monarch was Charles I, who was 4'9".
The shortest
verse in the Bible consists of two words: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35).
The shortest
war in history was between Zanzibar an England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered
after 38 minutes.
The shortest
word in the English language with all its letters in alphabetical order is the
word "almost."
The side of
a hammer is a cheek.
The
silhouette on the MLB logo is Harmon Killebrew.
The silkworm
consumes 86000 times its own weight in 56 days.
The single
highest temperature ever recorded in U.S. history was 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
It was recorded in Greenland Ranch, CA on July 10, 1913. The lowest recorded
temperature was minus 80 degrees on January 23, 1971 in Prospect Creek, AK.
The six most
dangerous occupations in America are; football player, firefighter, race-car
driver, astrnaut, police officer, and fisherman.
The size of
a newly born kangaroo is 2.5 cms.
The size of
a raindrop is around 0.5 mm 2.5 mm, and they fall from the sky on average 21
feet per second.
The
skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once
in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck.
The slanted
line that divides dates, fractions, choices, etc. (6/1/04) is called a virgule.
The sloth (a
mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on it's fur
The sloth
moves so slowly that it's fur offers a comfortable environment for algae to
grow.
The slowest
trainee on the SEALs obstacle course must wear a pink T-shirt that reads,
"Always a Lady".
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The model of
King Kong used in the original movie was only 18 inches tall.
The modern
Olympic Games were held in the first time in 1896 at Athens and were then
followed by the 1900 Paris games. The winter games were added in 1924.
The mola
mola or ocean sunfish lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.
The Mona
Lisa, by daVinci, is 2'6" by 1'9".
The Mona-Lisa,
now hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris, is valued today at $100,000,000.
The monastic
hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.
The Montreal
Canadians of the mid-1950s are the only team to win five straight Stanley Cup
championships.
The Monty
Python movie "The Life of Brian" was banned in Scotland.
The moon
actually has mirrors on it. They were left there by astronauts who wanted to
bounce laser beams off them, so that the distance to the moon can be measured.
The most
abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.
The most
collect calls are made on father's day.
The most
common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found
in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.
The most common
disease in the world is tooth - decay.
The most
common injury in bowling is a sore thumb.
The most
common street name in the United States is Second Street. First Street isn’t
first because many times the designation is replaced with the name Main Street.
The most
expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction was The Codex Hammer, a
notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $30.8 million.
The most
expensive movie memorabilia ever sold at an auction was Clark Gable’s Academy
Award for It Happened One Night. It sold for $607,500 on December 15, 1996.
The most
expensive painting ever sold at auction was Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent
van Gogh. On May 15, 1990, Ryoei Saito paid $75 million for it. He followed up
that spending spree by paying the second-highest price ever, $71 million for Au
Moulin de la Galette by Pierre Auguste Renoir, just two days later.
The most
frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the
Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy
woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house
sparrows, northern cardinals and european starlings.
The most
searched thing on yahoo.com every year is porn.
The most
snow accumulation in a one-day period was 75.8 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado,
in April 1921.
The most
successful X-rated movie of all time is Deep Throat. It cost less than $50,000
to make it and has earned more than $100 million.
The most
used line in the movies is "Lets get out of here."
The most
widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the
goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was
amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the
leaves and berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them!
The most
widely culticated fruit in the world is the Apple.The second is the Pear.
The motto
for the Olympic Games is Citius Altius Fortius. Translated, it means Faster
Higher Stronger.
The mouse is
the most common mammal in the US.
The movie As
Good As It Gets is called Mr. Cat Poop in China.
The movie
Quo Vadis had 30,000 extras.
The Museum
of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's 'Le Bateau' upside-down for 47
days before an art student noticed the error.
The muzzle
of a lion is like a fingerprint no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
The nail of
our middle finger grows the fastest and the nail of our thumb grows slowest.
The name
"Uncle Sam" for the U.S. came from a person known as Uncle Sam Wilson
of Troy, NY, who supplied food for the U.S. army in the war of 1812.
The name
Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as 'Ke-kou-ke-la.' Unfortunately, the
Company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that
the phrase means 'bite the wax tadpole' or 'female horse stuffed with wax'
depending on the dialect. Coke then researched Chinese characters and found a
close phonetic equivalent, 'ko-kou-ko-le,' which can be loosely translated as
'happiness in the mouth.'
The name for
Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator Frank Baum looked at his
filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z.
The name for
the middle part of the nose (the part that separates the nostrils) is called a
chaffanue
The name
'Intel' stems from the company's former name, 'Integrated Electronics'.
The name of
all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
The name of
the dog from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is Max.
The name of
the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
The name of
the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17,
1903, was Bird of Prey.
The name of
the Russian space station, Mir, means "peace."
The name
Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch dialect name for Saint Nicholas Sint
Klass.
The name Wendy
was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was never a recorded
Wendy before.
The name
Wendy was mad
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The flag of
the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during
times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red.
The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown
in war time.
The flavor
we think of as bubblegum is a combination of wintergreen, vanilla and cassia, a
form of cinnamon.
The flea can
jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a
football field.
The fleshy
projection above the bill of a turkey is called a snood.
The
following is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language:
"sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick".
The football
huddle started at Gallaudet University (the world's only accredited four-year
liberal arts college for the deaf) in the 19th century when the football team
found that opposing teams were reading their signed messages and intercepting
their plays.
The forth
railway bridge is a meter longer in summer than in winter due to thermal
expansion.
The Four
Freedoms by Norman Rockwell are the most widely reproduced and distributed paintings
in history.
The four
highest grossing movies of the 1940s were all animated motion pictures by
Disney (Bambi, Pinnochio, Fantasia, and Cinderella).
The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse, named in the Bible's Book of Revelation, are
Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Death.
The Four
Horsemen of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame played together for the last time
in 1925, as the Irish downed Stanford in the Rose Bowl, 27-10. The Four
Horsemen were Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher.
The four
principal characters from the cartoon series "The Chipmunks" are
Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and Dave.
The
fragrance of flowers is due to the essences of oil which they produce.
The French
philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.
The Fresh
Kills Landfill on Staten Island, NY opened in 1948 and is the world's largest
landfill. It covers 3,000 acres and receives 14,000 tons of garbage a day. It's
scheduled to close in 2002.
The Fresh
Kills Landfill site on Staten Island, New York, opened in 1948, is the world's
largest. It covers 3,000 acres and receives up to 14,000 tons of garbage a day.
It is scheduled to reach capacity and close by the year 2002.
The fruit of
the Cacao tree grow directly from the trunk. They look like small melons, and
the pulp inside contains 20 to 50 seeds or beans. It takes about 400 beans to
make a pound of chocolate.
The full
name of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is actually Uncle Tom's
Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly.
The full
Spanish name of the city of Los Angeles is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la
Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula." Translated, it means "The town of
Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion.”
The fungus
called truffles can cost $800 to $1,500 per pound. They are sniffed out by
female pigs, which detect a compound that is in the saliva of male pigs as
well. The same chemical is found in the sweat of human males.
The furthest
point from any ocean would be in China.
The fuzz on
a tennis ball is intentionally included as a way to give the ball some definite
action when it hits the court. It also slows the flight of the ball through the
air.
The game of
volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan.
The Garfish
has green bones.
The gases
emitted from a banana or an apple can help an orange ripen. (Not sure which
fruits are concerned).
The gazelle
is a kind of antelope.
The gender
of Reptiles are determined not by the sex genes, but by the temperature in
which the egg is incubated. A certain temperature will produce a male and vice
versa for a female.
The genre of
art known as Cubism derived its name from a belittling remark made by Matisse
in reference to a Graque painting. Matisse said that the landscape looked as
though it were wholly made up of little cubes.
The Genus
and species of a gorilla are Gorilla gorilla.
The
geographic center of the United States is Smith County, KS. The geographic
center of North America is Pierre County, ND.
The giant
squid has the largest eyes in the world.
The giant squid
is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows
up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter.
The gila
monster is the only poisonous lizard in the United States.
The giraffe
has a black tongue which is 14 inches long.
The giraffe
has the highest blood pressure of any animal.
The giraffe
is the only animal born with horns.
The glue on
Israeli postage is certified kosher.
The glue on
Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
The
Gothic-style Washington National Cathedral contains the remains of the only US
president buried in Washington: Woodrow Wilson. William Howard Taft and John F.
Kennedy are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
The great
Gothic cathedral of Milan was started in 1386, and wasn't completed until 1805.
The Great
Lakes are Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
The Great
Lakes are the most important inland waterway in North America. All the lakes,
except Lake Michigan, which lies entirely in the United States, are shared by
the United States and Canada and form part of the border between these
countries.
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The city of
Venice stands on about 120 small islands.
The Civil
War in the United States elevated the popularity of coffee to new heights.
Soldiers went to war with coffee beans as a primary ration.
The clock at
the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. will gain or lose only one
second every 300 years.
The clock
tower that supports the famous clock 'Big Ben' at the house of parliament in
London, is 320 feet high. The bell from which the clock get it's name, weighs
13.5 tones.
The closest
star to the sun, Alpha Centauri, is never visible in the sky north of about 30
degrees Northern Lattitude.
The
cockroach has a high resistance to radiation and is the creature most likely to
survive a nuclear war.
The
cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs, covering a meter a second.
The Code of
Hammurabi made it forbidden to randomly mistreat slaves. However, the code also
stated that slaves were to be branded on the forehead and forbidden to hide or
mask the mark.
The coffee
filter was invented in 1908 by a German homemaker, Melitta Benz, when she lined
a tin cup with blotter paper to filter the coffee grinds.
The coffee
tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it
produces consistently for 15 or 20 years.
The coldest
capital city in the world is Ulaan Bator, Mongolia.
The coldest
outdoor temperature ever recorded on earth was 127 below zero in Antarctica on August
24, 1960.
The color of
a chile is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is the smaller the
pepper, the hotter it is.
The
combination "ough" can be pronounced in 9!! different ways; Read
this: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through
the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and
hiccoughed."
The
combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The
following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced,
thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling
into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The common
goldfish is the only animal that can see both infrared and ultra-violet light.
The complete
skin covering of the body measures about 20 sq. feet.
The complete
title of the Statue of Liberty is Liberty Enlightening the World
The complete
works of Shakespeare can be stored on 5 Megabytes.
The computer
in 2001: A Space Odyssey as a tongue-in-cheek reference to IBM. The name was
derived from the fact that the letters H-A-L precede the letters I-B-M in the
alphabet.
The computer
programming language ADA was named in honor of Augusta Ada King. The U.S.
Defense Department named the language after the Countess of Lovelace and
daughter of Lord Byron because she helped finance and program what is thought
to be the first computer, the "analytical engine” designed by Charles Babbage.
The
condensed water vapor in the sky left behind by jets is called a contrail.
The condom
made originally of linen was invented in the early 1500's.
The correct
name for the capital city of Thailand is rung Thep, and it's been this way for
over 130 years. Foreigners persist on calling it Bangkok.
The correct
response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is
"and the rest of the day to yourself."
The country
of Losotho is completely surrounded by the country of South Africa.
The country
of Tanzania has an island called Mafia.
The country
of Tonga once issued a stamp shaped like a banana.
The country
with the highest rate of cremations is Japan. In 1996, 98.7% of all deaths were
cremated.
The creators
of a new model of Chevys couldn't figure out why their car, the Nova, wasn't
selling well in Hispanic countries... until someone pointed out that 'Nova'
means 'No go' in Spanish.
The crew of
Apollo 11 who put the first man on the moon have the same initials as the first
men on earth. Armstrong : Adam Aldrin : Abel Collins : Cain
The crow is
the smartest of all birds.
The cruise
liner Queen Elizabeth II moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that
it burns.
The cruise
liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The Cullinan
Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found in 1905, the
original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown Jewels and
the British Royal family's collection.
The
curvature of the earth is pretty close to eight inches every mile, or 66 feet
every hundred miles.
The daughter
of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name of the sweet he
invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she went by the nickname
Tootsie, and in her honor, her doting father named his chewy chocolate logs
Tootsie Rolls.
The Death
Star death ray control panel from the original is actually the control panel of
Grass Valley Group GVG 300 Video (television) production switcher
The
Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (a variety of the marijuana
plant) paper
The deepest
hole ever made in the world is in Texas. It is as deep as 20 empire state
buildings but only 3 inches wide. (Who made it? A petroleum company)
The deepest
land point on Earth is the area around the Dead Sea in Israel. The Dead Sea is
located 1,312 below sea level.
The deepest
spot in any ocean is the Mariana Trench. It's 36,198 feet below sea level
(about seven miles).
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The
"London Bridge" is now in Arizona in the U.S.A. This fat cat(rich
guy) bought it for only $2.46 million dollars.
The
"Miss America" pageant made its network TV debut on ABC In 1954. Miss
California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner.
The
"O" when used as a prefix in Irish surnames means "descendant
of."
The
"save" icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the
shutter on backwards.
The
"save" icon in Microsoft©®™ Word's toolbar shows a floppy disk with
the shutter on backwards.
The
"Sesame Street" characters Bert and Ernie were named after Bert the
cop and Ernie the cab driver in Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful
Like."
The
"sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest
tongue twister in the English language.
The
"spot" on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He
was an albino.
The
"Spruce Goose" flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum
altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, it is the largest aircraft ever
built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320
feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon,
Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again.
The
"Twelve Days of Christmas" gifts: A partridge in a pear tree, two
turtledoves, three French hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese
laying, seven swans swimming, eight maids milking, nine ladies dancing, ten
lords leaping, eleven pipers piping, and twelve drummers drumming. (There are
364 gifts altogether)
The
"y" in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced
with a "th" sound, not "y". The "th" sound does
not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England used the
rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of
the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest
resembled thorn was the lower case "y".
The
"You Are Here" arrow on maps is called an ideo locator.
The #
symbols is often referred to as a "number sign" or "pound
sign." Its actual name is an octothorpe
The 1922
Essex was the first popularly priced car available with a closed body. The
two-door, six-cylinder sedan was called the Essex Coach and sold for $945.
The 1932
Olympics in Los Angeles was the first time the three-level winner's stand was
used for the medal ceremony.
The 1st 20
African slaves were brought to the US, to the colony of Virginia in 1619, by a
Dutch ship.
The 1st
Academy Awards ceremony to be telecast was the 25th, in 1953.
The 1st
Academy Awards were presented in 1927.
The 1st
annual Grammy Awards were awarded in 1959. The Record of the Year was
"Volare" by Domenico Modugno, the Album of the Year was "Peter
Gunn" by Henry Mancini and the winner of the best R&B performance was
"Tequila" by Champs.
The 1st
buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884.
The 1st CMA
(Country Music Association) Awards, hosted by Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry,
were presented at an awards banquet and show in 1967.
The 1st
comic strip was "The Yellow Kid," in the New York World in 1896. The
cartoonist was Richard Felton Outcault.
The 1st
feature-length animated film, released by Disney Studios in 1937, was
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
The 1st
inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 were Jimmie Rodgers, Fred
Rose and Hank Williams were.
The 1st
interracial kiss on TV took place Nov. 22, 1968 between Captain James T. Kirk
(William Shatner) and Lt.Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) on an episode of "Star
Trek."
The 1st kiss
in a movie was between May Irwin and John Rice in "The Widow Jones,"
in 1896.
The 1st live
televised murder was in 1963, when Jack Ruby killed JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey
Oswald while millions of viewers watched.
The 1st
nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, commissioned by the United States Navy
in 1954, made her maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.
The 1st
performance of Handel's "Messiah" was on April 13, 1742 at the New
Music rooms in Fishamble St., Dublin. Because of the demand for space, the men
were asked not to wear their swords and the ladies not to wear hooped skirts.
The 1st
personal computer, the Apple II, went on sale in 1977.
The 1st
presidential news conference filmed for TV was in 1955. Eisenhower was the
president.
The 1st
televised presidential debate was September 26, 1960, between Nixon and
Kennedy.
The 1st time
the "f-word" was spoken in a movie was by Marianne Faithfull in the
1968 film, "I'll Never Forget Whatshisname." In Brian De Palma's 1984
movie, "Scarface," the word is spoken 206 times an average of once
every 29 seconds.
The 1st
unattended, 24-hour self-service laundromat in the United States was opened by
Nelson Puett in 1949 on North Loop in Austin, Texas.
The 1st US
federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. was in 1986.
The 1st US
federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) was enacted in 1909.
The 1st US
federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas in 1906.
The 1st US
Minimum Wage Law was instituted in 1938. The minimum wage was 25 cents per
hour.
The 1st US
Mormon temple was dedicated in Kirtland, Ohio in 1836.
The 1st US
zoo was built in Philadelphia, PA, in 1876.
The 1st
winner of the Academy Award for best picture, and the only silent film to
achieve that honor, was the 1927 film, "Wings."
The 2,000
Arabica coffee cherries it takes to make a roast
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Ribbon worms
eat themselves if they cant find food
Rice and
some other grains contain chemicals that can enhance brain functions.
Rice is the
staple food of more than one-half of the world's population.
Rice paper
isn't made from rice but from a small tree which grows in Taiwan.
Richard F.
has pointed out possible inaccuracies with the trivia for December 16th and
January 1st. For this reason, I have decided to pull them.
Richard
Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee are the only brothers who signed the
Declaration of Independence. Their cousin, Henry Lee, was a famous
Revolutionary War commander and the father of General Robert E. Lee.
Richard
Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters
from the word "criminal." William Jefferson Clinton is the second.
Richard
Nixon was the 1st US president to visit China in February, 1972.
Ricin is a
protein produced by the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, which is highly
toxic (the minimal lethal dose is around 1 µg / kg body weight, that means
1/15th of a milligram could kill a 150 lb. person). Ricin can be a dangerous
contaminant, making the production of castor oil a precisely controlled
process.
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Right
handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.
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Rin Tin Tin
was born to a war-dog mother in a German trench in France during World War I.
Deserted when the Germans retreated, the German shepherd puppy was found by an
American officer who happened to be a police-dog trainer from California.
During Rin Tin Tin's training after the war, the dog's intelligence came to the
attention of Warner Brothers, which signed the dog up for what turned out to be
a long career as one of the biggest box-office draws of the silent screen era.
Rising sea
levels caused by global warming could lead to major flooding in Shanghai and
Guangzhou and other Chinese coastal cities by year 2050. This could cause 76
million people to become homeless.
Roasted
coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavor within two weeks. Ground
coffee begins to lose its flavor in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins
to lose flavor within minutes.
Robert
Goddard a scientist and holder of 214 patents fired the first rocket using
liquid propellant in 1926.
Robert
Peary, who left pieces of the flag scattered at the North Pole was honored for
doing this.
Robert Todd
Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's oldest son) was in Washington DC during his father's
assassination as well as during President Garfield's assassination, and he was
in Buffalo NY when President McKinley was assassinated.
Robert
Wadlow is regarded as the tallest man ever known. He was 8'11" at the time
of his death at the age of 21.
Robert
William Thomson, a Scottish engineer, invented the first rubber tire in 1845.
Rodents
teeth never stop growing.
Roger
Bannister of Great Britain was the first man to run a mile in under four
minutes. On May 6, 1954, he ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
Roman
statues were made with detachable heads, so that one head could be removed and
replaced by another.
Ronald
Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale,
California.
Roosters
can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.
Rosalind
Franklin was the woman behind Watson and Crick's doudle helix DNA model. She
did all the experiments, but died before she was paid credit. Watson and Crick
merely took her results and interpreted it.
Roseanne's
fear is anyone touching her toes.
Roses may be
red, but violets are indeed violet.
Rudolph the
Red-nosed reindeer was actually created as a promotional figure for Montgommery
Wards department stores.
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Roulette
was invented by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. It was a by-product
of his experiments with perpetual motion.
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Rubber bands
last longer when refrigerated.
Rubbing
cocoa butter on your abdomen during pregnancy will prevent stretch marks.
Rudolph, the
Red-Nosed Reindeer, was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward
department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem
by Robert May, but weren't set to music until 1947. Gene Autry recorded the hit
song in 1949.
Rudyard
Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal
letter was reported to have said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just
don't know
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On June
26th, 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San
Francisco. (The text of the charter was in five languages: Chinese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish.)
On May 25,
1957, two men with the same name scored holes in one on the same golf course.
Edward Chapman got a hole in one on the eighth hole at Richmond, Surrey in
England. Later that day, Edward Chapman hit one from from the sixth tee.
On record,
the largest iceberg ever, was larger than the country of Belgium.
On record,
the only time it recently snowed in the Sahara Desert was on Feb.18,1979.
On September
13th, 1916 an elephant that had killed a man was hanged until dead from a rail
road crain in Erwin, Tennesee. On their first attempt the elephant fell to the
ground. It was very sad.
On the
cartoon show "The Jetsons," Jane is 33 years old and her daughter
Judy is 15 years old.
On the old
Canadian 2 dollar bill,the flag flying over the Parliament Building is NOT an
American flag.
On this
planet there is a can of SPAM opened every four seconds.
Once a human
reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells
a day. The cells will never be replaced.
One -
quarter of the world's cattle live in India.
One 75-watt
light bulb gives off more light than three 25-watt light bulbs.
One American
of every 16 will have one of the Top 12 most common last names.
One beaver
can cut down as many as 216 trees per year.
One in about
eight million people has progeria, a disease that causes people to grow faster
than they age.
One in every
2000 babies is born with a tooth.
One in every
9000 people is an albino.
One in every
four Americans has appeared on television.
One in
fourteen women in America is a natural blonde. Only one in sixteen men is.
One light
year the distance light travels in a year at the speed of 186,000 miles per
second is just under six thousand billion miles. Earth's nearest neighbor in
space, outside our own solar system is four light years away (about 24 trillion
miles).
One million
tons of oil is equivalent to about 13,000,000,000 kilowatt hours of
electricity.
One of the
greatest soldiers in history, Alexander the Great, was tutored by the greatest
thinker of all time, Aristotle.
One of the
holiest Christian holidays is named after a pagan goddess. The name
"Easter" derives from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, who governed the
vernal equinox.
One of the
largest carriers of hepitius B is diner mints.
One of the
many Tarzans, Karmuala Searlel, was mauled to death by a raging elephant on
set.
One of the
reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied
against hemp farmers (they saw it as competition).
One out of
every 43 prisoners escapes from jail. 94% are recaptured.
One penny
doubled everyday becomes over 5 million dollars in just 30 days.
One plain
milk chocolate candy bar has more protein than a banana.
One pound of
tea can make 300 cups of the beverage.
One quarter
of the bones in your body, are in your feet
One ragweed
plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
One square
mile of land contains more insects than total number of human beings on earth.
One tonne of
uranium produces the same amount of energy as 30,000 tonnes of coal.
Only 1
person in 2 billion will live to be 116 or older.
Only 16% of
able-bodied males in the American colonies participated in the Revolutionary
War.
Only 4
mayors of U.S. cities went on to become president: Calvin Coolidge, Grover
Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Andrew Johnson.
Only 3 words
in the English language end in "ceed": "proceed,"
"exceed," and "succeed."
Only 55% of
all Americans know that the sun is a star.
Only about
20% of harvested coffee beans are considered to be a premium bean of the
highest quality.
Only female
mosquitoes bite. Females need the protein from blood to produce their eggs.
Males only drink water and plant juice.
Only four
countries in the world start with the letter 'D'. They are Denmark, Dominica,
Djibouti and the Dominican Republic
Only
full-grown male crickets can chirp.
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Mercury is
the only planet whose orbit is coplanar with its equator. Venus and Uranus are
the only planets that rotate opposite to the direction of their orbit.
Methylphenidate
(Ritalin) is a medication prescribed for individuals (usually children) who
have an abnormally high level of activity or attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 3
to 5 percent of the general population has the disorder, which is characterized
by agitated behavior and an inability to focus on tasks. Methylphenidate also
is occasionally prescribed for treating narcolepsy. Methylphenidate is a
central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. It has effects similar to, but more
potent than, caffeine and less potent than amphetamines. It has a notably
calming effect on hyperactive children and a "focusing" effect on those
with ADHD.
Mexico City
is sinking at a rate of 6 to 8 inches a year because it's built on top of an
underground reservoir. Wells are drawing out more and more water for the city's
growing population of more than 15 million people.
Mexico City
is the oldest capital city in the Americas.
Mexico City
sinks ten inches per year.
Mexico once
had three presidents in one day.
Mice,
whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
Michael
Jordan has more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers
in Malaysia combined.
Michael
Myers, the villain of the Halloween movies, is named after a real person. When
Assault on Precinct 13 performed better than expected in England, director John
Carpenter decided to thank the English distributor by naming the main character
of his next movie after him.
Michelangelo
painted only one easel picture.
Michelangelo's
Last Judgment, which hangs on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, drew some harsh
criticism from one of the Vatican's officials because of the nudity. So
Michelangelo made some changes to his work: he painted in the face of the
complaining clergyman and added a donkey's ears and a snake's tail.
Mickey Mouse
is known as 'Topolino' in Italy.
Midgets and
dwarfs almost always have normal-sized children, even if both parents are
midgets or dwarfs.
Mike
Greenwell of the Boston Red Sox holds the major league record for the most RBIs
that accounted for all of his team's runs. In 1996, he batted in nine runs in a
game against the Seattle Mariners.
Milk as an additive
to coffee became popular in the 1680's, when a French physician recommended
that cafe au lait be used for medicinal purposes.
Milk is
actually considered to be a food and not a beverage.
Millie the
White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 99. And,
rightfully so.
Mineral
deposits in caves: The ones growing upward are stalagmites, the ones growing
downward are stalactites.
Minnesotans
are forbade from teasing skunks.
Minnows have
teeth in their throat.
Minors in
Kansas City, Missouri, are not allowed to purchase cap pistols; they may buy
shotguns freely, however.
Minus forty
degrees Celsius is exactly the same as minus forty degrees Fahrenheit.
Mockingbirds
can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing.
Modern coffee
brewing methods use approximately 200° water.
Moles are
able to tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day.
Monday is
the only day of the week that has an anagram, dynamo.
Monday's
Child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is
full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and
giving, Saturday's child has to work for its living, But a child that's born on
the Sabbath Day, Is fair and wise and good and gay.
Money isn't
made out of paper, it's made out of linen.
Monosodium
glutamate can be found in mushrooms thanx liz chell, tomatoes and meat. MSG is
safe to consume, and is essentially made of only water, sodium and glutamate.
It contains only 1/3 the amount of sodium found in table salt, and can reduce
salt intake in recipes.
Montana
mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.
Montgomery
Ward was the first company in the United States to advertise, "Satisfaction
guaranteed or your money back.” They did it in 1874, two years after company
founder Aaron Montgomery Ward launched his mail-order catalog.
Moon was
Buzz Aldrins mothers maiden name. (Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the moon).
More
Monopoly is printed yearly than real money throughout the world.
More people
are afraid of open spaces (kenophobia) than of tight spaces (claustrophobia).
More than
100 years ago, the felt hat makers of England used mercury to stabilize wool.
Most of them eventually became poisoned by the fumes, as demonstrated by the
Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Breathing mercury's fumes
over a long period of time will cause erethism, a disorder characterized by
nervousness, irritability, and strange personality changes.
More than
20,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the battle of
Antietam, September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest one-day fight during the
Civil War.
More than
25% of the world's forests are in Siberia.
More than
50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
More than
80% of all the world's earthquakes occur in the Pacific basin borders.
More than 92
465 people that did the death test in www.thespark.com claimed they had
leprosy.
More than
99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct
before the coming of man.
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It is only
appropriate to fly the US flag upside down in emergencies. It means "Help
Me, I am in Trouble!"
It is
physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
It is
possible to lead a cow up stairs, but not down.
It is Texas
law that when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall
come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
It is
unlawful for small boys to throw stones, at any time, at any place in the
District of Columbia.
It snows
more in the Grand Canyon than it does in Minneapolis and Minnesota.
It takes 120
drops of water to fill a teaspoon.
It takes 17
muscles to smile and 43 to frown.
It takes 20
different muscles to form a kiss.
It takes 25
muscles to swallow.
It takes
3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of
footballs.
It takes 35
to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other types of
fur coats are: beaver 15; fox 15 to 25; ermine 150; chinchilla 60 to 100.
It takes a
lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound.
It takes
about 1.25 seconds for moonlight to reach the Earth.
It takes
about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
It takes
about 48 hours for your body to completely digest the food from one meal.
It takes
forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg.
It takes
only 8 minutes for sunlight to travel from the sun to the earth, which also
means, if you see the sun go out, it actually went out 8 minutes ago
It takes
seven years for a lobster to weigh one pound.
It takes, on
average, 345 squirts from a cow’s udder to yield one gallon of milk.
It took
Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa. He never signed or dated the
painting. Leonardo and Mona had identical bone structures according to the
painting. X-ray images have shown that there are 3 other versions under the
original.
It took over
4 years to film milo and otis to get the animals to do what they are suppose
to.
It was
claimed that a Tiger shot dead by colonel Jim Corbett in 1907 had killed 436
people in India.
It was
discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its
stomach first, so that the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog
uses its' forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows
the stomach back down again.
It was
during the 1600's that the first coffee mill made its debut in London.
It was
proposed in the Rhode Island legislature in the 1970s that there be a $2 tax on
every act of sexual intercourse.
It was the
accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the
wedding, the bride's father would supply his
It was the
Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, CT, whose name -and lightweight pie tins
-gave birth to the modern Frisbee.
It was the
law in Scotland in 1288 that for each year known as "lepe yeare" any
maiden lady could ask the man she liked to be her husband. If he refused and
didn't have a good excuse he would be "mulcted of ye sum of one pound or
less" (essentially, he would owe her a dollar). France enacted a similar
law a year later.
It was the
left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince
tried to follow her. It was originally the right, but the translator messed up
again.
It wasn't
until 1913 that sports teams started using numbers on players' jerseys for
identfication. It first happened during a football game between the University
of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin.
It would
take 15,840,000 rolls of wallpaper to cover the Great Wall of China.
Italians do
not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is
given its own time.
Italians in
Italy consume a million and a half tons of spaghetti every year.
Italy now
has over 200,000 coffee bars, and still growing.
It's a
common myth that chocolate aggravates acne. Experiments conducted at the
University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy found that consumption of
chocolate -even frequent daily dietary intake -had no effect on the incidence
of acne. Professional dermatologists today do not link acne with diet.
It's a
diverse world we live in. In the U.S., football, basketball and baseball are
the three most watched sports on TV. In England, the top three most viewed are
soccer, Formula One auto racing and boxing. In Russia, it's soccer, ice hockey
and boxing. And in China, it's soccer, table tennis and swimming.
It's a good
thing lemmings are promiscuous, they produce 4 times as many females as males.
It's against
the law in Willowdale, Oregon, for a husband to curse during sex.
It's against
the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
It's been
estimated that man have been riding horses for over 3,000 years.
It's been
estimated that one out of every two hundred women is born with an extra nipple.
It's been
said that Adolph Hitler was a coprophiliac, which means he had a fetish for
women's feces. He also had a thing for being urinated on by women.
It's
believed that India gets its name from the Indus River. The interesting thing
is that none of the river is actually in India...it's in Pakistan.
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In Japan,
coffee shops are called Kissaten.
In Joliet,
Illinois it is illegal to mispronounce the name Joliet.
In July
1934, Babe Ruth paid the fan who caught his 700th career home run ball $20 to
get it back.
In July
1981, a tortoise was sentenced to death for murder. Tribal elders in Kyuasini,
a village in Kenya, formally condemned the tortoise because they suspected it
of causing the death of six people, apparently through magic. However, because
none of the villagers was prepared to risk the tortoise's wrath by carrying out
the execution, it was instead chained to a tree. The tortoise was later freed
after the government promised an official inquiry into the deaths.
In July,
1950, a patent was issued for an automatic spaghetti-spinning fork.
In Kansas it
is illegal to catch bullfrogs in a tomato patch.
In Kentucky
you need a license to walk around nude on your property.
In Kentucky,
50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
In Las
Vegas, it's against the law to pawn your dentures.
In Lebanon,
Virginia it is illegal to kick your wife out of bed.
In Lefors,
Texas it is illegal to take more than three swallows of beer at any time while
standing.
In
Lexington, Kentucky, it's illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket.
In
literature, the average length of a sentence is around 35 words.
In Los
Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
In Los
Angelos, California it is legal for a man to beat his wife with a leather strap
as long as it is less than two inches in width, or she gives him permission to
use a wider strap.
In M&M
candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the candy in
1941.
In Maine, it
is illegal to sell a car on Sunday unless it comes equipped with plumbing.
In Maryland,
men may not buy drinks for female bartenders.
In
Massachusetts you must have a license to wear a goatee.
In
Massachusetts, if you get caught eating peanuts in church , you can be jailed
for up to one year.
In
Massachusetts, it is forbidden to put tomatoes in clam chowder.
In
Massachusetts, it is unlawful to deliver diapers on Sunday, regardless of
emergencies.
In Memphis,
Tennessee it is illegal for a woman to drive by herself. A man must walk or run
in front of the vehicle, waving a red flag to warn approaching pedestrians and
motorists.
In Miami, it's
illegal for men to be seen publicly in any kind of strapless gown.
in microsoft
1998 edition if your keyboard isnt responding it displays "keyboard not
responding press enter to continue"
In most
advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
In most
advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
In most
American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from inclusion among the
assets in a bankruptcy estate. This means that a wedding ring cannot be seized
by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes.
In most
comic strips and magazine advertisments, the time on the clock is 10:10.
In most
watch advertisements the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
In Nags
Headm North Carolina you can be fined for singing out of tune for more than
ninety seconds.
In Nevada it
is illegal to ride a camel on the highway.
In New
Hampshire it is illegal to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing
euphoria.
In New
Jersey it is illegal to delay or detain a homing pigeon.
In New York
City it is illegal for a man to give 'The Standard Lear' to a woman. Violators
are forced to wear horse blinders.
In New York
City, approximately 1,600 people are bitten by other humans.
In Newport,
Rhode Island it is illegal to smoke from a pipe after sunset.
In Nicholas
County, W. Va., no member of the clergy is allowed to tell jokes or humorous
stories from the pulpit during a church service.
In Norfolk,
Virginia, a woman can't go out without wearing a corset. (There was a
civil-service jobfor men onlycalled a corset inspector). However, in
Merryville, Missouri, women are prohibited from wearing corsets because
"the privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young
woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male."
In North
America, the breed of dog called the Doberman Pinscher is spelled with one
"n". But in Europe where it originated, it's spelled with 2. The man
who bred for the Doberman spelled his last name (Dobermann) with 2 'n's as
well.
In North
Andover, Massachusetts citizens are prohibitied from carrying 'space guns.'
In North
Caroline it is illegal to make love on the floor of a hotel room between two
double beds.
In North
Dakota it is illegal to keep an elk in a sandbox in your backyard.
In NYC,
"it is disorderly conduct for one man to greet another on the street by
placing the end of his thumb against the tip of his nose and wiggling the
extended fingers of that hand."
In Oblong,
Illinois, it's punishable by law to make love while hunting or fishing on your
wedding day.
In October
1959 Elizabeth Taylor becam
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If you need
to remember pi, just count the letters in each word of the sentence: "May
I have a large container of coffee?" If you get the coffee and are polite
say: "Thank you," get two more decimal places. (3.141592653...). Here
is another sentance: How I wish I could calculate Pi. (3.141592)
If you pet a
cat 70 million times, you will have developed enough static electricity to
light a 60-watt light bulb for one minute.
If you pile
up the cans of Yeo's products, you would be able to reach the moon.
If you plant
an apple seed, it is almost guaranteed to grow a tree of a different type of
apple.
If you put a
drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to
death.
If you put a
piece of scotch tape on an inflated balloon, then stick it with a small pin or
needle, it won't pop.
If you put a
raisin in a champagne bottle, it will rise and fall continuously.
If you put a
raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to
the bottom.
If you
rubbed garlic on the sole of your feet, it would be absorbed and eventually
show up on your breath
If you
sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you
can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes
open by force, they can pop out. (DON'T TRY IT, DUMBASS)
If you
sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you
can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die
If you
strech your arms straight out as far as you can, thats about how tall you are.
Try it.
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If
you suffer from iatrophobia, you're afraid of doctors.
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If you take
any number between 1 & 9 and multipy them by 9 the sum of the two numbers
will always be 9 (ex: 7 X 9 = 63 ; 6 + 3 = 9)
If you take any
number, double it, add 10, divide by 2, and subtract your original number, the
answer will always be 5.
If you toss
a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950.
The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom more often.
If you
travel across the former Soviet Union you will cross seven time zones.
If you
traveled the speed of light, it would only take you 0.0000294 seconds to climb
Mt. Everest.
If you
wanted to count from one to one trillion and you started right now, counting
twenty-four hours a day, it would take you about 31,688 years.
If you wear
headphones for one hour, it increases bacteria in your ear 700 times.
If you were
at 0° latitude and 0° longtitude, you would be standing in the Atlantic Ocean
If you were
to go on vacation for eleven days, you'd have less than one million seconds to
enjoy it.
If you
yelled for 8 years 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound
energy to heat one cup of coffee.
If you fart
consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the
energy of an atomic bomb.
If you
yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you will have produced enough sound
energy to heat one cup of coffee. cool eh?
If you
yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound
energy to heat one cup of coffee. (unsure)
If your like
Jeanne Calment and live over 100, you are considered a Centurian.
If your
shoes squeak, it simply means that two layers of leather in the sole are
rubbing together. Driving a tack through the sole will often remove the squeak.
Imperia,
Italy is the home of the Agnesi Historical Museum of Spaghetti.
Impotence is
grounds for divorce in 24 states in the United States.
In
"Silence of the Lambs", Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) does not
blink in any scene.
In 10
minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons
combined.
In 1386, a
pig was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child
In 1516,
Friar Tomas sailed to the Caribbean bringing banana roots with him; and planted
bananas in the rich, fertile soil of the tropics, thus beginning the banana's
future in American life.
In 1638,
Sweden founded a colony in the New World in the Delaware River Valley. It was
called New Sweden.
In 1649, Massachusetts's
Puritan government ruled the following: "Any childe over 16 who shall
CURSE or SMITE their natural FATHER or MOTHER, or act in a STUBBORNE or
REBELLIOUS manner shall be put to death."
In 1659 the
state of Massachusetts outlawed Christmas.
In 1659, the
General Court of Massachusett
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Francis
Bacon died of hypothermia while trying to freeze a chicken by stuffing it with
snow.
Francis
Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the back
on an envelope. The music is from an old English drinking song called "To
Anacreon in Heaven."
Frank Baum
named "Oz" after a file cabinet in his office. One cabinet was
labeled "A to N," and the second was labeled "O to Z."
Frank Baum,
looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."
Frankfort,
Kentucky, makes it against the law to shoot off a policeman's tie.
Franklin
Pierce is the only President to have said "I promise" instead of
"I swear at his Inauguration. He did it for religious reasons.
Franz
Ferdinand was killed.. remember that the guys death partly caused the WWI.
Anyway, his death was almost unavoidable. After an attempted assasination using
a bomb failed, (because the bomb hit the rear mud flap of the car Ferdinand was
in and bounced away) authorities decided to change the route of Ferdinands
tour... but failed to inform the driver of the car. And so, unfortunately, at
one stage, the driver took a wrong turn and drove into an alley. While
reversing out, Princip (killer) came and shot Ferdinand and his wife at a
distance of 4-5 feet killing them. Ferdinand brought his wife to Serejavo to
celebrate their anniversary.
Frederic
Remington's sculpture The Bronco Buster has mistake in it: the cowboy is
wearing his spurs upside down.
Frederic-August
Bartholdi sculpted The Statue of Liberty.
Frederick
the great had his coffee made with champagne and a bit of mustard.
French
composer Erik Satie holds the record for shortest and longest composition in
the world. His piano piece Vexations lasts for just under a minute. However,
Satie states in the score that it should be played 840 times in succession a
nonstop playing time of 14 hours.
French was
the official language of England for over 600 years.
Fried
chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the US. The
next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham, and fried shrimp.
Fried
cockroach with garlic is used as medicine for the common cold
From 13th
June'1948 to 1st June'1958 a citizen of Los Angeles hiccoughed 160,000,000
times. People sent him 60,000 suggestions for cures.
From 1836 to
1896, the Red Flag Act in England required that any self-propelled vehicle be
preceded by a man carrying a red flag by day and a red lantern by night. In
effect, this limited the speed to four miles per hour and retarded the
development of all self-propelled vehicles, including the automobile.
From 70 to
80 percent of all ripe olives are grown in California's approximately 35,000
acres. In the 1700s, Franciscan monks brought olives to Mexico and then into
California by way of the missions. The first cuttings were planted in 1769 at the
San Diego Mission. Commercial cultivation of California olives began in the
late 1800s. Today, anywhere from 80,000 to 160,000 tons of olives are produced
in California each year.
From the
1500's to the 1700's, tobacco was prescribed by doctors to treat a variety of
ailments including headaches, toothaches, arthritis and bad breath.
From the
Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a number of
medical duties including bloodletting, wound treatment, dentistry, minor
operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originated in the
Middle Ages, when it was a staff the patient would grip while the barber bled
the patient.
Fuzzy
Zoeller defeated Tom Watson and Ed Sneed in the first sudden-death playoff at
The Masters in 1979.
G.I. Joe was
introduced at the annual American International Toy Fair in New York on Feb. 9,
1964.
Gabriel,
Michael, and Lucifer are the only angels named in the Bible.
Gabriel,
Michael, and Lucifer are the three angels mentioned by name in the Bible.
Gaetano
Albert "Guy" Lombardo did the first New Year's Eve broadcast of
"Auld Lang Syne," from the Roosevelt Grill in New York City in
1929/1930.
Galileo
became totally blind shortly before his death.
Gargling in
public is against the law in Louisiana.
Gatorade was
named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed.
General
Robert E. Lee was not a slaveholder and never believed in slavery. He never
believed in secession from the United States and strongly condemned it. He
decided to lead the armies of the South because he wanted nothing to happen to
his beloved Virginia.
General
Stonewall Jackson has two separate burial sites one for his amputated left arm
(Fredericksburg, VA) and one for the rest of his body (Lexington, VA).
Jackson’s left arm was shattered during the Battle of Chancellorsville by
friendly fire and was amputated the next day. He died a week later. (8-1-02)
George Crum
invented potato chips in 1853 at the Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New
York. Crum was part Indian, part black, a former guide in the Adirondacks.
George
Hancock invented a new game on November 30, 1887. It was played like baseball,
except a broomstick was used for a bat and a boxing glove was the ball. Since
the game was played indoors, it was originally called "indoor."
Walter Hakanson later renamed it "softball."
George
Harrison, with "My Sweet Lord," was the first Beatle to have a Number
1 hit single following the group's breakup.
George
Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, wrote under a pen name. His real name
was Eric Blair.
George
Washington had to borrow money to go to his own inauguration.
George
Washington named Washington D.C. "Federal City." It was changed to
"Washington D.C." after his death.
George
Washington who commanded the Continental Army as a four-star general was
promoted posthumously to the position of six-star "General of the Armies
of Congress" by an order of Jimmy Carter, who felt America's first
President should also be America's highest military official.
George
Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Nap
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Domestic
cats hate lemons or other citrus scents.
Dominica,
Mexico, Zambia, Kiribati, Fiji and Egypt all have birds on their flags.
Dominique
Larrey, Napoleon's chief surgeon, could amputate a leg in 13 seconds.
Don Mac
Lean's song "American Pie" was written about Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), who all died in the same plane
crash.
Don Quixote,
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, has been translated into more languages than
any book outside of the Bible.
Donald Duck
comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
Donald Duck
lives at 1313 Webfoot Walk, Duckburg, Calisota.
Donald
Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
Donkeys kill
more people annually than plane crashes
Don't even
think about having sex while in a moving ambulance in Tremonton, Utah as it is
very, very illegal. Of course, a stationary ambulance is another story.
Dr. Alice
Chase, who wrote 'Nutrition for Health', died of malnutrition. (not verified)
Dr. George
F. Grant received U.S. patent number 638,920 on December 12, 1899. His
invention? The golf tee. He created it because he didn't want to get his hands
dirty by building a mound of dirt to place his ball on.
Dr.
Guillotin merely proposed the machine that bears his name (which was rejected
by the crown) and he never made a working model. The first working model was
made by his assistant years later. When the machine attained infamy in the
French Revolution, Dr.Guillotin protested its use and went to his grave
claiming that the machine was unjustly named after him.
Dr. Joel
Poinsett, the 1st US ambassador to Mexico, brought the poinsettia to US in
1828. The plant, called "flower of the blessed night" in Mexico was
renamed in Poinsett's honor.
Dr. Seuss
pronounced his name "soyce".
Dr. Seuss
wrote "Green Eggs and Ham" after his editor dared him to write a book
using fewer than 50 different words.
Draftsmen
have to make 27,000 drawings for the manufacturing of a new car.
Dragonflies
are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
Dragonfly
larvae develop under the water and eject water from their anus to propel them
for short distances
Dreamt is
the only English word that ends in the letters "MT".
Dry ice does
not melt, it evaporates.
Dry wine is
a wine that has been completely fermented, meaning that only 0.1% of the sugar
remains.
Due to
precipitation, for a few weeks K2 was bigger than Mt Everest.
Dueling is
legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
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Duffel
bags are named after a town of Duffel, Belgium, where they were first made.
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Dunkirk,
France is the site of the largest military evacuation in history. During World
War II, some 340,000 Allied troops were evacuated to England. The retreat by
sea took place between May 26 and June 4, 1940.
During a
severe windstorm or rainstorm the Empire State Building may sway several feet
to either side.
During
conscription for World War II, there were nine documented cases of men with
three testicles.
During Hell
Week (the most grueling portion of training) the trainees get 4 hours of sleep.
During his
entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, "Red Vineyard at
Arles".
During his
entire lifetime, Herman Melville's timeless classic of the sea, 'Moby Dick',
only sold 50 copies.
During his
lifetime Paganini published only five compisitions. He didn't expect anybody to
be able to play them, and at that time nobody could.
During its
entire life time a housefly never travels more than a hundred feet from the
place where it was born.
During
pregnancy, the average woman's uterus expands up to five hundred times its
normal size.
During the
1600's, boys and girls in England wore dresses until they were about seven
years old.
During the
Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their
weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners
traded gold for potatoes.
During the
American Civil War the Union soldiers were issued eight pounds of ground
roasted coffee as part of their personal ration of one hundred pounds of food.
And they had another choice: ten pounds of green coffee beans.
During the
average human life, you will consume 70 assorted bugs as well as 10 spiders whilst
you sleep.
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Boiled grape
juice was the fluid used as a lubricant for the first contact lenses. Eugene
Flick, who invented contact lenses in 1887, chose boiled grape juice over sugar
water to lubricate the thick glass lenses that covered the entire eye.
Books on
religion outnumbered works of fiction by a 2 to 1 margin in 1870 England.
Sixteen years later, novels surpassed religious works.
Born on
November 2, 1718, British politician, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich,
is credited with naming the 'sandwich.' He developed a habit of eating beef
between slice of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.
Both George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their
plantations.
Both Hitler
and Napoleon were missing one testicle.
Bourbon
whiskey gets its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky, where local distillers
developed the drink around 1800.
Bowlers are
allowed to have a maximum of five finger grip holes on a regulation bowling
ball.
Boy George
used to go out with his drummer.
Bozeman,
Montana, has a law that bans all sexual activity between members of the opposite
sex in the front yard of a home after sundownif they're nude. (Apparently, if
you wear socks, you're safe from the law!)
Brabara
Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.
Brain damage
occurs at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brazil
accounts for almost 1/3 of the world's coffee production, producing over 3-1/3
billion pounds of coffee each year.
Brazil got
its name from the nut, not the other way round.
Brazil is
the fifth largest country in the world (behind Russia, Canada, China and the
United States). It’s only 300,000 square miles smaller than the United States.
Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan and the Sudan round out the Top 10.
Brazil is
the location of the worlds widest road. 160 cars can drive side by side.
Brazil is
the only country to have played in every World Cup soccer tournament.
Brigham
Young invented the department store. Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution
(ZCMI as it's known to those in Utah) is still in operation in Salt Lake City.
Britain's
first escalator was installed in Harrods in 1878.
Britain's
present royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was
changed in 1917, during WW1 because of German connotations. The name Windsor
was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time the Battenberg family name
of the cousins to the Windsors was changed into Mountbatten.
Broccoli and
cauliflower are the only vegetables that are flowers.
Brown eggs
come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from hens
with white feathers and white ear lobes.
Bruce Lee
was so fast that they actually had to slow film down so you could see his
moves.
Bruce Lee
was the Hong Kong 'cha cha' dance champion in 1958 He was also an American born
in San Francisco and had a German grandfather.
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Bubble
gum contains rubber.
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Buckingham
Palace has 602 rooms.
Bullet proof
vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by
women.
Bullfrog
Dietrich of the Chicago White Sox was the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter
while wearing eyeglasses. He did it in 1937.
Bulls are
colorblind, it is the motion of the cape which angers them.
Bulls are
not attracted to the color red
Bulls don't
really get angry when they see the color red, it's really movement that makes
them charge.
Bumping
foreheads with a hands shake is the traditional greeting in Tibet.
Bunny
rabbits poop almost every time they hop around in a newly-explored area.
Butterflies
cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Butterflies
taste with their feet.
BVD stands
for the organizers of the company: Bradley, Voorhies, and Day.
By 1850, the
manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of the
U.S.
By age
sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
By feeding
hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.
By raising
your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
By the time
a child finishes elementary
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Approximately
25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal, and approximately
20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever.
Approximately
40,000 tons of meteoric dust hits the Earth each year.
Approximately
850 peanuts make a 18 oz jar of peanut butter.
Approximately
one out of four injuries by athletes involve the wrist and hand.
Arabic
numerals are not really Arabic; they were invented in India.
Argentineans
eat more meat than any other nation in the world an average of 10 ounces per
person per day.
Aristedes
won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875.
Armadillos
along with humans are the other creatures that can contract leprosy.
Armadillos
can be house broken.
Armadillos
can have up to four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.
Armored
knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their
king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
Army doctor
D.W. Bliss attended to two presidents after they were shot by assassins. In
1865 he was one of the 16 doctors who tried to save Abraham Lincoln. In 1881 he
supervised the care of James Garfield.
Around 2,000
left-handed people die annually due to improper use of equipment designed only
for right handed people.
Around 22%
of Americans are teenagers.
Around the
16th century the Yo-Yo was used by Philipinos to stun prey from trees.
Arrowroot,
an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a thickener in cooking.
As artists
and traders in medieval cities began to form organizations, they instituted
tough initiation ceremonies. For example, journeymen in Bergen, Norway, were
shoved down a chimney, thrown three times into the sea, and soundly whipped.
As bananas
ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana
the sweeter it will taste.
As late as
1820, the universe was thought to be 6,000 years old. It is now thought to be
between 15 and 20 billion years old.
As
mentioned, the first Fords used Dodge engines. Many ford vehicles now use
Nissan engines, especially in Mini-vans.
As much as
80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by YOUR HEAD! visit
microshield
As of
14.10.2003, only 0.6% of people actually sign the guestbook. Its true. Over
120,000 visitors. Yes, the statistic did go down.
As of 1996,
Hee Haw holds the record for the longest running weekly first-run syndicated
show in the history of television. It spanned over 4 decades, from the late
'60s to the early '90s, airing every Saturday night at 7:00.
As of 2004,
there are two men for every woman in the United Arab Emirates.
As of Dec.
31, 2000, the number of climbers summiting Mt. Everest reached 1314, and the
number of deaths on the mountain reached 167.
As specified
by the Christian church, the canonical hours are matins, lauds, prime, terce,
sext, none, vespers, and compline.
Aspirin was
the first drug offered as a water-soluble tablet in 1900.
Aspirin went
on sale as the first pharmaceutical drug in 1899, after Felix Hoffman, a German
chemist at the drug company Bayer, successfully modified Salicylic Acid, a
compound found in willow bark to produce Aspirin.
Assuming
that all the offspring survived, 190,000,000,000,000,000,000 flies could be
produced in four months by the offspring of a single pair of flies.
Astronaut
John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed
from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.
Astronaut L.
Gordon Cooper was so relaxed on the morning of his launch into space in May 1963
that he fell asleep in his space capsule while waiting for blastoff.
Astronaut
Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon with his left foot.
Astronauts
are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in
a spacesuit damages them.
Astronauts
become between two and three inches taller when in space.
Astronauts
brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been
analyzed.
Astronauts
grow taller in space
At 188
decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is
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