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Grover Cleveland, the 24th president of the US, worked briefly as an executioner before becoming president. He hung at least two convicted criminals.

Noah Webster was referred to as "the walking question mark" during his student days at Yale.

When 7-year-old Shirley Temple’s life was insured with Lloyd’s, the contract stipulated that no benefits would be paid if the child film star met with death or injury while intoxicated.

Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to the poor in India, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Herman Melville shipped aboard the whaler "Acushnet," at age 21. He later wrote a book from the experience.

At age 13, Carl Sandburg quit school to work as a day laborer.

Marvin Hamlisch became the youngest pupil ever at the Julliard School of Music - at age 7.

Charles Dickens worked in a shoe polish factory at age 12.

The first U.S. president to use a telephone was James Garfield.

Meg Ryan turned down plum lead parts in the films "Steel Magnolias," "Pretty Woman," and "Silence of the Lambs." A few years after her rejection of "Silence of the Lambs," which earned Jodie Foster a Best Actress Oscar, Ryan disclosed to Barbara Walters in a television interview that she had felt the role "was dangerous and a little ugly. I felt it was too dark - for me."

Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokesmodel.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.

Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

Bette was married four times, her last to actor Gary Merrill which lasted ten years, longer than any of the previous three.

On her tombstone is written "She did it the hard way."

Bette Davis appeared in more than 100 films between 1931 and 1989. She made her first film called Way Back Home in 1931.

She passed away from cancer October 6, 1989.

Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts, on April 5, 1908.

Gerald Ford was one of the members of the Warren Commission appointed to study the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Pepin the Short, King of the Franks from 751 to 768 AD was four feet six inches tall. His wife was known as Bertha of the Big Foot.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams were all avid collectors and players of marbles. In their day, marbles were called "small bowls" and were as popular with adults as with children.

According to one source, Americans buy about 5 million things that are shaped like Mickey Mouse, or have a picture of Mickey Mouse on them, in the course of one day.

Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.

William Howard Taft is the only man ever to be President AND Chief Justice. The US Supreme Court appointment came second and was a job Taft enjoyed much more than the presidency.

The first Michelin Man costume (Bidenbum) was worn by none other than Col. Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.

Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch conservationist, banned Christmas trees in his home, even when he lived in the White House. His children, however, smuggled them into their bedrooms.

Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time.

Prince Harry and Prince William are uncircumcised.

Against Army regulations, George Armstrong Custer often wore a blue velvet uniform.

Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa and grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska.

James Garfield, 20th President of the United States, lived in the White House with his mother.

Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, remains the only person, to date, to have graduated from the West Point military academy without a single demerit.

Mary Todd once dated both Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. She chose Lincoln because he showed more promise, and she was right - he was good at everything but ducking.

I suppose someone should mention that Mae West never said "Come up and see me sometime." She said "Come on up sometime and see me." Cary Grant never said "Judy, Judy, Judy," and Cagney never said "You dirty rat..."

Actor Robert De Niro played the part of the Cowardly Lion in his elementary schools production of The Wizard of Oz. De Niro was 10 at the time.

Vincent Van Gogh painted his last painting, "Cornfield with Crows," and shot himself at age 37.

Mark Twain first learned to ride a bicycle at age 55.

O.J. Simpson had a severe case of rickets and wore leg braces when he was a child.

Galileo became totally blind just before his death. This is probably because of his constant gazing at the sun through his telescope.

Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle.

One year, Elvis Presley paid 91% of his annual income to the IRS.

Rap artist Sean "Puffy" Combs had his first job at age two when he modeled in an ad for Baskin-Robbins ice-cream shops.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt ate three chocolate-covered garlic balls every morning. Her doctor suggested this to improve her memory.

David Atchison, as president pro tempore of the Senate in 1849, was U-S president for one day - Sunday, March 4th - pending the inauguration of President-elect Zachary Taylor on Monday, March 5th.

Jonathan Davids, lead singer for Korn, played in his high school bagpipe band.

Orson Welles is buried in an olive orchard on a ranch owned by his friend, matador Antonio Ordonez in Sevilla, Spain.

Ellen DeGeneres was the first stand-up comedian Johnny Carson ever asked to sit on "The Tonight Show" guest couch during a first appearance.

Noah Webster was referred to as "the walking question mark" during his student days at Yale.

Leslie Lynch King, Jr. is the birth name of American President Gerald. R. Ford. Ford was the son of Leslie Lynch King and his wife Dorothy Ayer Gardner, who divorced soon after the birth of their only child. When his mother married Gerald R. Ford, Sr. in 1916, he adopted the name Gerald R. Ford, Jr.

George Washington died after being bled by leeches.

James Garfield often gave campaign speeches in German.

Lincoln was shot on Good Friday.

President McKinley was shot while shaking hands with spectators.

Thomas Jefferson was once given a 1,235 pound hunk of cheese, giving us the term "the big cheese."

JFK was the first president born in the 20th century.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to ride in an automobile, fly on a plane, and go underwater in a submarine.

George Washington died the last hour of the last day of the last week of the last month of the last year of the 18th century.

Warren Harding was the first US president who could drive a car.

Charlie Chaplin was so popular during the 1920s and 1930s, he received over 73,00 letters in just 2 days during a visit to London.

Theodore Roosevelt was blind in his left eye.

Calvin Coolidge was sworn into office by his own father.

Grover Cleveland answered the White House phone, personally.

Lyndon Johnson died one mile from the house he was born in.

George Washington had to borrow money so he could travel to his inauguration.

Paul Cezanne had a parrot who he taught to say, "Cezanne is a great painter."

When John Wilkes Booth leaped onto the stage after shooting the President, he tripped—on the American flag.

Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word "I". Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once in their inaugural addresses.

Benjamin Franklin lived at 141 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA.

When the Hoovers did not want to be overheard by White House guests, they spoke to each other in Chinese.

The only president to be head of a labor union was Ronald Reagan.

Richard Nixon left instructions for "California, here I come" to be the last piece of music played (slowly and softly) were he to die in office.

James Buchanon is said to have had the neatest handwriting of all the Presidents.

Julius Caesar was self-conscious about his receding hairline.

George Washington was deathly afraid of being buried alive. After he died, he wanted to be laid out for three days just to make sure he was dead.

Roosevelt was the most superstitious president—he traveled continually but never left on a Friday. He also would not sit at the same table that held thirteen other people.

On April 14th, 1910, President Howard Taft began a sports tradition by throwing out the first baseball of the season. That happened at an American League game between Washington and Philadelphia. Washington won, 3-0.

President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to announce to the world that Maxwell House coffee is "Good to the last drop."

President Woodrow Wilson wrote all of his speeches in longhand.

Money man Cornelius Vanderbilt was an insomniac and a believer in the occult. He was not able to fall asleep unless each leg of his bed was planted in a dished filled with salt. He felt this kept out the evil spirits. It also kept out the snails, ants, and anyone with high blood pressure.

President Teddy Roosevelt died from an "infected tooth."

Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president of the United States to wear contact lenses.

At last check, the governor of Arkansas makes $60,000 a year. His salary is the lowest of all 50 states. A dozen or so states pay their governors more than $100,000 year, generally the more populous states. California pays its governor $131,000. Illinois comes in second at $130,000 and change, with New York, a close third at $130,000 even.

The ichneumon fly has a sense of smell so keen that it can locate a caterpillar deep inside a tree trunk.

In relation to its size, the ordinary house spider is eight times faster than an Olympic sprinter.

Crickets hear through their knees.

The berry butterflies (hypsa monycha) of Singapore, in their caterpillar stage, group around the top of a stem to foil predatory birds by imitating the appearance of a poisonous berry.

A mature, well-established termite colony with as many as 60,000 members will eat only about one-fifth of an ounce of wood a day.

A bee has four wings.

Insects make up two thirds of known species.

Scientists have actually performed brain surgery on cockroaches.

A swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts flew over Nebraska on July 20-30, 1874 covering an area estimated at 198,600 square miles. The swarm must have contained at least 12.5 trillion insects, weighing about 27.5 million tons.

Out of 20000 species of bees, only 4 make honey.

The largest insect in the world, the meganeuron, a prehistoric dragonfly, measured 29 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

The silkworm moth has lost the ability of flight due to domestication.

A typical Mayfly only lives one day.

Little Miss Muffet was arachnaphobic.

The katydid has supersonic hearing. It can hear sounds up to 4-5,000 vibrations per second.

Honeybees navigate using the sun as a compass, even when it is hidden behind clouds - they find it via the polarization of ultraviolet light from areas of blue sky.

The male of one species of insect related to the praying mantis can only reproduce after the female has bitten off his head.

Moths have no stomach.

Butterflies taste with their hind feet.

Maggots were once used to treat a bone infection called osteomyelitis.

If two flies were left to reproduce without predators or other limitations for one year, the resulting mass of flies would be the size of the Earth.

Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.

Fleas can accelerate 50 times faster than the space shuttle.

The dragonfly has about 30,000 lenses covering the retina of its eye, and thus sees many, many images where we see only one.

Worms can have up to ten hearts.

Scientists turn up as many as 10,000 new species of insects every year.

Tropical ants, when a flood sweeps down on them, roll themselves into a huge living ball which drifts upon the water, with the young safe and dry at the core.

Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood.

The leaf bug of ceylon (phyllum sicci folium) has legs and antennae the color and shape of leaves, has indentations on its body like the vein marks on a leaf, and hangs from branches, swaying in the breeze exactly like a leaf.

The beautiful but deadly Australian sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri) is the most venomous jellyfish in the world. Its cardiotoxic venom has caused the deaths of 66 people off the coast of Queensland since 1880, with victims dying within 1-3 minutes if medical aid is not available.

March 14 is "Save a spider day."

Ladybugs bleed to protect themselves. When alarmed, they release drops of a reddish or yellowish bitter tasting liquid from their mouths and from the pores at their joints. This repels prospective attackers.

Female mosquitos will obtain blood from humans and animals, but only to nourish their eggs. Their food actually consists of nectar and other plant juices.

The longest species of centipede is the giant scolopender (Scolopendra gigantea), found in the rain forests of Central and South America. It has 23 segments (46 legs) and specimens have been measured up to 10.5 inches long and 1" in diameter.

Any Female bee in a beehive could have been the queen if she had been fed the necessary royal jelly. All female bees in a given hive are sisters.

Tarantulas do not use muscles to move their legs. They control the amount of blood pumped into them to extend and retract their legs.

A mosquito has 47 teeth.

Bees have been known to cure rheumatism.

On an average day, a queen bee lays about 1,500 eggs.

Ants stretch when they wake up. They also appear to yawn in a very human manner before taking up the tasks of the day.

An ant can survive for up to two weeks underwater.

After mating, the female black widow spider turns on her partner and devours him. The female may dispatch as many as twenty-five suitors a day in this manner.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the best time to spray household insects is 4:00 p.m. Insects are most vulnerable at this time.

Some spiders have as many as eight eyes.

A mature, well-established termite colony with as many as 60,000 members will eat only about one-fifth of an ounce of wood a day.

A housefly can transport germs as far as 15 miles away from the original source of contamination.

A fly can react to something it sees and change direction in 30 milliseconds.

A dragonfly flaps its wings 20 to 40 times a second, bees and houseflies 200 times, some mosquitoes 600 times, and a tiny gnat 1,000 times.

A bee could travel 4 million miles (6.5 million km) at 7 mph (11km/h) on the energy it would obtain from 1 gallon (3.785 liters) of nectar.

Some crickets burrow megaphone-like tunnels that help transport the sound of their chirps as far as 2,000 feet away.

There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are humans on the entire earth.

Spiders have transparent blood.

Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.

62 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature required for a grasshopper to be able to hop.

Until very recently, no centipede was found that did not have an ODD number of leg pairs. Usually the number varies from 15 to 191 pairs, all odd. No one knows why. However, Chris Kettle, a doctoral student in ecology, recently found a centipede with 48 pairs of legs, an even number. The remarkable discovery was presented to the International Congress of Myriapodology in Poland and featured in the science journal Trends in Genetics. Mr. Kettle suspects a genetic mutation is responsible for the even number of leg pairs.

The tarantula spends most of its life within its burrow, which is an 18-inch vertical hole with an inch-wide opening. When male tarantulas are between the ages of 5 to 7 years, they leave the burrow in search of a female, usually in the early fall. This migration actually signals the end of their life cycle. The males mate with as many females as they can, and then they die around mid-November.

There are 4,300 known species of ladybugs in the world.

Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays nearly 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen bee, has a lifespan of around 24 days—he has no sting. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themselves to death within 40 days, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees will fly p to 9 miles to find pollen and nectar, flying at speeds as fast as 15 mph.

The social life in ants and termites has been accompanied by an extraordinary royal perk: a 100-fold increase among queen ants in average maximum lifespan, with some queens surviving for almost 30 years. This longevity can be attributed in part to the sheltered and pampered life of the royal egg layer.

Fleas can jump more than 200 times their body length.

There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.

Small cockroaches are more likely to die on their backs than large cockroaches.

The average airspeed of the common housefly is 4 1/2 mph. A housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.

Scientists have identified more than 300 viruses capable of bringing fatal diseases to insects. The organisms are believed to be entirely different than those that cause disease in humans, and are thus harmless to man.

The only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees is the praying mantis.

Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

A nest in which insects or spiders deposit their eggs is called a "nidus".

The Giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.

Certain species of male butterflies produce scents that serve in attracting females during courtship.

The natural diet of Lady Beetles consists of soft bodied insects such as aphids, spider mites, and young caterpillars. Adults can consume up to 100 aphids a day.

There are about 5,000 species of coral known. Only about half of them build reefs.

A bison can jump 6 feet.

There are about 40 different muscles in a birds wing.

A 4-inch-long abalone can grip a rock with a force of 400 pounds. Two grown men are incapable of prying it up.

Gorillas do not know how to swim.

Unlike most cats, tigers love the water and can easily swim three or four miles.

A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.

While there are hundreds of species of sharks, only about seven are marketed and eaten with any regularity in the United States.

Despite being a nine-inch-tall bird, the roadrunner can run as fast as a human sprinter.

Contrary to popular belief, elephants are not afraid of mice, and they do not have any better memory than any other animal.

The flying gurnard, a fish, swims in water, walks on land, and flies through the air.

At birth a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.

Cats can run slightly more than 30 miles per hour.

The African lungfish can live out of water for up to four years.

The smallest of American owls, the elf owl, often nests in the Gila woodpecker’s cactus hole after the woodpecker leaves. The owl measures barely 6 inches tall. It specializes in catching scorpions, seizing each by the tail and nipping off its stinger. It then swallows the scorpion’s body, pincers and all.

Boredom can lead to madness in parrots. When caged by themselves and neglected for long periods of time, these intelligent, sociable birds can easily become mentally ill. Many inflict wounds upon themselves, develop strange tics, and rip out their own feathers. The birds need constant interaction, affection, and mental stimulation; some bird authorities have determined that some parrot breeds have the mental abilities of a 5-year-old human child. Should a neglected parrot go mad, there is little that can be done to restore it to normalcy. In England, there are "mental institutions" for such unfortunate creatures.

Mother-of pearl is not always white. It can be pink, blue, purple, gray, or even green. Nor is it produced only by the pearl oyster. The abalone and the pearl mussel both have shells that are lined with fine-quality mother-of-pearl.

The chameleon has a tongue that is 1.5 times the length of its body.

The more that is learned about the ecological benefits of bats, the more home gardeners are going out of their way to entice these amazing winged mammals into their neighborhoods. Bats are voracious insect eaters, devouring as many as 600 bugs per hour for 4 to 6 hours a night. They can eat from one-half to three-quarters their weight per evening. Bats are also important plant pollinators, particularly in the southwestern U.S.

Mother prairie dogs will nurse their young only while underground in the safety of the burrow. If an infant tries to suckle above ground, the mother will slap it.

The Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.

A skunk will not bite and throw its scent at the same time.

Gorillas beat their chests when they get nervous.

The kakapo is a nocturnal burrowing parrot of New Zealand that has a green body with brown and yellow markings. Its name is from Maori and means "night parrot."

The white elephant is the sacred animal of Thailand.

The whistling swan has more than 25,000 feathers on its body.

Wolf packs could be found in all the forests of Europe, and in 1420 and 1438, wolves roamed the streets of Paris.

Elephants communicate in sound waves below the frequency that humans can hear.

Elephants and short-tailed shrews get by on only two hours of sleep a day.

Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes, and humans all have seven neck vertebra.

The average life expectancy of a leopard in captivity is 12 years.

Reindeer like to eat bananas.

Apus Australiensis, a shrimp-like crustacean of arid central Australia, survives where other water animals would perish because its eggs hatch only after they have been dried out in the sun.

Lemon sharks grow a new set of teeth every two weeks. That means one shark will go through more than 24,000 new teeth in a year.

A parrots beak can close with a force close to 350 pounds per square inch.

The electric eel has an average discharge of 400 volts.

The greyhound dog can reach speeds of up to 42 miles per hour.

A woodchuck breathes 2,100 times an hour, but it only breathes ten times an hour while it is hibernating.

Dolphins can kills sharks by ramming them with their snout.

The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. She must be able to see another pigeon in order for her ovaries to function. Her own reflection will work if no other pigeon is available.

Fish can be susceptible to seasickness.

The blue whale can go up to 6 months without eating.

You can cut up a starfish into pieces and each piece will grow into a completely new starfish.

Penguins only have sex once a year.

Australia has the largest sheep population.

Beavers do not eat fish.

The only place in Europe where monkeys live free is Gibraltar.

The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.

Sharks can sense a drop of blood from 2.5 miles away.

The male howler monkey of Central and South America is the noisiest animal which can be heard clearly for distances of up to 3 miles.

Males lions can sleep for up to 20 hours a day.

Giant squids have eyes as big as watermelons.

Birds do not have sweat glands, so their bodies cannot cool down through perspiration. Their bodies cool by flight or, when at rest, panting.

The sea lion can swim 6,000 miles, stopping only to sleep.

Cats purr at 26 cycles per second, the same as an idling diesel engine.

The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one gram of it can kill 150 people. Just to handle the substance can put one in a coma.

To see at night as well as an owl, you would need eyeballs as big as a grapefruit.

The only venomous British snake is the adder.

A castrated rooster is called a capon.

A house cat has 18 claws.

The jackrabbit is not a rabbit; it is a hare.

Since housecats are clean and their coats are dry and glossy, their fur easily becomes charged with electricity. Sparks can be seen if their fur is rubbed in the dark.

Because birds carrying messages were often killed in flight by hawks, medieval Arabs made a habit of sending important messages twice.

Mussels can thrive in polluted water because of an inborn ability to purify bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

The blow of a whale has a strong, foul odor. It apparently smells like a combination of spoiled fish and old oil. Because whales have such terrible breath, sailors believed at one time that a whiff of it could cause brain disorders.

The leech has 32 brains, 32 more than most humans.

There are about 500 different kinds of cone snails around the world. All have a sharp, modified tooth that stabs prey with venom like a harpoon. Most cone snails hunt worms and other snails, but some eat fish. These are the ones most dangerous to people. The nerve toxin that stops a fish is powerful enough to also kill a human.

A camel can lose up to 30 percent of its body weight in perspiration and continue to cross the desert. A human would die of heat shock after sweating away only 12 percent of body weight.

The largest species of seahorse measures 8 inches.

While there are hundreds of species of sharks, only about seven are marketed and eaten with any regularity in the United States.

Despite being a nine-inch-tall bird, the roadrunner can run as fast as a human sprinter.

Contrary to popular belief, elephants are not afraid of mice, and they do not have any better memory than any other animal.

The flying gurnard, a fish, swims in water, walks on land, and flies through the air.

At birth a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.

Cats can run slightly more than 30 miles per hour.

The African lungfish can live out of water for up to four years.

The smallest of American owls, the elf owl, often nests in the Gila woodpecker’s cactus hole after the woodpecker leaves. The owl measures barely 6 inches tall. It specializes in catching scorpions, seizing each by the tail and nipping off its stinger. It then swallows the scorpion’s body, pincers and all.

Boredom can lead to madness in parrots. When caged by themselves and neglected for long periods of time, these intelligent, sociable birds can easily become mentally ill. Many inflict wounds upon themselves, develop strange tics, and rip out their own feathers. The birds need constant interaction, affection, and mental stimulation; some bird authorities have determined that some parrot breeds have the mental abilities of a 5-year-old human child. Should a neglected parrot go mad, there is little that can be done to restore it to normalcy. In England, there are "mental institutions" for such unfortunate creatures.

Mother-of pearl is not always white. It can be pink, blue, purple, gray, or even green. Nor is it produced only by the pearl oyster. The abalone and the pearl mussel both have shells that are lined with fine-quality mother-of-pearl.

The chameleon has a tongue that is 1.5 times the length of its body.

The more that is learned about the ecological benefits of bats, the more home gardeners are going out of their way to entice these amazing winged mammals into their neighborhoods. Bats are voracious insect eaters, devouring as many as 600 bugs per hour for 4 to 6 hours a night. They can eat from one-half to three-quarters their weight per evening. Bats are also important plant pollinators, particularly in the southwestern U.S.

Mother prairie dogs will nurse their young only while underground in the safety of the burrow. If an infant tries to suckle above ground, the mother will slap it.

The Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.

A skunk will not bite and throw its scent at the same time.