UNDER THE SEA
 A tuna fish can swim at a consistent rate of 9 miles per hour -- indefinitely.
It takes a lobster roughly seven years to grow to be one pound.
BIRDS
The Kiwi, a small, flightless bird native to New Zealand has been around for roughly 70 million years. It lays only one egg per year.
Blue Jay feathers aren't actually blue, they're gray--they only look blue because of the way they reflect light.
Break out the stuffing and gravy! The turkey has been around for 10 million years.
Speaking of turkeys--Apache Indians reportedly weren't their biggest fans, they considered them a whimpy bird and wouldn't eat them or use their feathers to make arrows.
BUGS
Garden snails travel at 0.03 miles per hour. At this rate, they could travel just over five miles in a week. In a year they could travel over 262 miles.
There are over 4,000 species of roaches in the world.
Dried roaches have been used by Chinese healers for centuries as cures for numerous ailments including fever and infertility.
Honeybees kill more people each year world-wide than venomous snakes.
ANIMALS
Cats have two sets of vocal chords, one for meowing and one for purring, consequently, cats can make over 100 different vocal sounds.
Bats can't walk. The bones in their legs won't support their weight.
In 1981 a dog (a Rottweiler mix) named Bosco was elected mayor of Sunol California. He served for a full 8-year term.
In Nakhla Egypt in 1911, a particularly unlucky dog become the only animal ever reported killed by a meteor.
Elephants can't jump, reportedly the only animal that can't.
In ancient Egypt killing a cat was punishable by death.
SCIENCE
Pass out the cigars! A new star is born in our galaxy every 18 days.
Blood makes a full circuit of the human body every 23 seconds.
Bubbles are round because the air inside presses equally on every side, making every side the same distance from the center.
Humans are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood there are only 206 thanks to fusing.
Don't forget to look up! Roughly 27 tons of space dust falls on the earth every day from space, making a total of almost 10,000 tons each year.
Don't forget to look down! When seen from above, rainbows are shaped like donuts.
Dream a little dream--The average person has over 1,460 dreams in a year.
According to statistics only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
HISTORY
The first European to reach the 'New World' was Leif Ericson in 1000AD, not Christopher Columbus (who never actually set foot on the main land of the American continent.) Ericson landed in present-day New Foundland and dubbed the area "Vinland." Along with his men, Ericson spent the winter of 1000 living there before returning to Greenland in early 1001. In 1964--backed by a unanimous Congress--President Lyndon Johnson issued a Presidential Proclamation officially naming October 9 as "Leif Ericson Day."
False advertising! The Hundred Years War lasted 116 years. (hehe--I guess that means only one person in two billion were alive for its duration ;-)
The first coin minted in the United States was a 1787 penny stamped with the logo "Mind Your Own Business." They were privately produced, not a product of the US Mint, which didn't begin minting coins until 1792.
In 1789, Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States as an independent nation.
The world's shortest war was in 1896, it was between Zanzibar and England and lasted 38 minutes. Zanzibar (an island off the coast of Africa--currently part of Tanzania) was part of the sprawling British Empire from 1890-93, but in 1896, at the death of the Sultan, a pretender entered the royal palace and in a bold move proclaimed himself the new ruler. Zanzibar however, was not without friends... and its importance to European/British trade interests made it worthy of defence. British Victorian gunboats were in the area, and two days later, three of them appeared, declared war, and diplomatically opened fire on the palace, successfully driving out the usurper and ending the war.
In 1972 American astronaut Eugene Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon.
Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States was never actually elected vice president or president. He was originally a congressman from Michigan who was elected to Congress 12 times, serving from 1949-1973. In 1973 however, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from the Nixon administration and Ford was selected to be the new Vice President, being sworn in on Dec. 6, 1973. The following year, President Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal, and Ford was sworn in as President on Aug, 9, 1974.
During the Bubonic plague, the smell of dead bodies and funeral fires permeated the air, causing people to carry flower petals in their pockets to combat the fowl aromas. It was this experiance which spawned the children's rhyme "Ring around the Rosie."
Ring around the rosie (This refered to marks which appeared on bodies as symptoms of the plauge)
A pocket full of posies (The helpful flower's in people's pockets)
Ashes, ashes... (The bodies of plauge victims were burned in mass funeral pyres to prevent the spread of the disease)
We all fall down (die)
(Cute little ditty isn't it?)
The poem lied! American patriot Paul Revere actually didn't complete his famous "Midnight ride." But he came close!
After learning the British were coming, Revere left Boston by boat, sailing across the Charles River to Charleston, where he gained his horse and set out for Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the impending invasion since both were wanted by the British government and could be hung if caught. Once in Lexington (evading capture once on the way from Charleston) and finding Adams and Hancock, he met up with William Dawes, who had left Boston shortly before him, traveling over land rather than the river in hopes at least one would reach Lexington. After reuniting they were joined by a third man, Dr. Samuel Prescott, and set out to warn Concord (which was five miles away, and temporary home of the Provincial Congress, but also a storehouse for militia guns).
However, on the road to Concord they were met with a British roadblock which they tried to get though, but were detained. Revere and Dawes were both captured, but Dr. Prescott managed to escape and he was the one to warn Concord of the approaching British.
FYI: After capture Revere was interrogated by the British, during which he greatly exaggerated the numbers of militiamen at Concord. They decided to take him back to Lexington, but by then word of impending British invasion had spread in the towns, causing townspeople to get up in arms, ringing church bells and firing guns to make noise. This scared the troops, making them afraid Revere had told the truth about the size of the militia... so now worried they were about to be attacked, they let Revere go, taking his horse and leaving him on foot to walk back to Lexington in the dark.
The BIBLE
At no point does The Bible name or number the wise men in the story of the nativity. The book of Matthew speaks only of wise men coming from the east, not how many actually came. The misconception of three wise men stems from the fact the Christ child was given three gifts from the wise men; those of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Thou shalt not steal? Strangely enough, The Bible is the most shoplifted book in the United States.
According to The Bible, Noah's ark had two windows.
The book of Exodus speaks of manna falling from the sky - Curious exactly what this tasty treat was? If so you're not alone. Translated from Hebrew, the word "manna" literally means "What is it."
FOLKLORE
Prior to the days of electricty or oil lamps, candles were the light of lifes. In the 1400 and 1500's however, candles were expensive, so to save money, a substitute was devised: a piece of reed or stick was coated with tallow and burned. When visting a house at the time, it was traditional to leave when the candle had completely melted away so the host wouldn't feel compelled to burn another one. Thus, if you stopped by your neighbor's house and he lit a nice long tallow-reed candle, it meant he was ready and willing to talk. If you stopped by and he lit a short reed candle though, it meant he didn't want to talk very long and you were therefore "getting the short end of the stick."
Got your goat? During the Middle Ages in Great Britain, it was commonly believed that a goat could be a relaxing influence on milk cows. Farmers often staked goats near their cows in an effort to relax them and make them produce more milk. Rival farmers would sometimes infiltrate barns and pilfer the goat, believing it would hinder the milk production of their enemy. This is where the modern phrase "Getting your goat" or "Got your goat" (meaning to anger or annoy someone) comes from.
Ever been saved by a bell? Be glad you didn't have it done the old fashioned way. Several hundred years ago, when a fresh batch of disease was sweeping Europe, comatose people were sometimes accidently declared dead and hastily buried to prevent the spread of contagion.
When authorities finally realized what had been happening (a give away when people occasionally woke up during their funerals) they began burying people with bell strings tied around their fingers. The string came up out of the grave and was attached to a bell. The theory was that if someone were accidently buried alive and woke up, they'd move around and pull on the string, thus ringing the bell and letting someone know what had happened. Someone (usually from a church or mortuary) would then watch the grave for several days armed with a shovel in case the bell rang. This was known as the "graveyard shift," and anyone who was rescued was therefore "saved by the bell."
Believe it or not, that fashionable canopy on top of your bed once had a purpose. During the Middle Ages, the roofs of houses were made of thatch (AKA--Straw) and while straw may have made nice insulation, it had several drawbacks... namely, it could leak like a sieve and attract bugs, mice, and any other critter that might take a notion to live in it. So, to protect their beds from mouse droppings, dead bugs, falling thatch, rain, or anything else that might suddenly fall from above, people rigged up a protective canopy... not only to keep their beds clean, but to prevent any unwelcome surprises in the middle of the night.
Getting married? The term "honeymoon" can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when a newly married couple was provided with enough honey wine (mead) to last for the first month of their married life.
MISCELLANEOUS
There are 293 ways to make change from a US dollar.
Along the same line, there's 44 million ways to get bingo on a bingo card.
The Capitol Building in Washington DC has 365 steps, one for each day of the year.
False advertising! A ten gallon hat only holds 3 quarts.
Fortune cookies were invented in 1918 in America.
If you multiply 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 you get 12,345,678,987,654,321
Buy the world a coke: Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation in the world.
Fun Fact! This page last brilliantly updated December 6, 2004
|