interesting facts2

babies

There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of.

Scientists have determined that fungi are more closely related to human beings and animals than to other plants.

In some (maybe all) Asian countries, the family name is written
first and the individual name written second

Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860

A German World War II submarine was sunk due to malfunction of the toilet.

Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States.Long Beach, WA

The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter.

The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula"

9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.This isn't true; Joseph Swan did.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

The Population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas.

Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is not considered an insult! Despite the expensive food, tipping is welcome as in any other country.

The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds.

The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds.

Pinocchio was made of pine.

Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.

A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.

New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.

There was once a town in West Virginia called "6."

The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.

Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox.

Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll.

Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.

There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.

The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.

"Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.

On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.

Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.

Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.

On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

Blue and white are the most common school colors.

Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.

In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.

A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.

America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla.

Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.

Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.

The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.

The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.

The doorbell was invented in 1831.

The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.

Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.

There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.

Napoleon was terrified of cats.

The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.

The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.

The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.

The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.

The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.

The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.

France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.

The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback."

The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.

George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.

Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.

The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.

Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.

The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.

The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.

The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.

Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939.

Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated.

The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used.

Toilet paper was invented in 1857.

Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States.

Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church.

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

Kermit the Frog is left-handed.

Nondairy creamer is flammable.

The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.

If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0. Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel proved this wrong.

The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.

The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.

When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio.

The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.

The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.

The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h.

At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.

The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours.

The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse.

You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals.

Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names.

In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung.

By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing.

The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.

More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%).

Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl.

A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours.

Whales die if their echo system fails.

Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually.

Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps.

It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar.

Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night.

Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle.

In deep space most lubricants will disappear.

America once issued a 5-cent bill.

The average person can live 11 days without water.

In 1221 the daughter of Genghis Khan ordered the killing of the entire population of the city of Nishapur (about 60,000) in one hour. The order came after her husband killing. (Moguls claim that 1.7 million were killed)

There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.

In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000.

More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.

It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States.

King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats.

Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers.

Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand.

The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956.

More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States.

The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.

The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres.

There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.

During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury.

The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawai'ian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina).

Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.

City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.

State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%.

Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7.

Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%.

Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%.

Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400.

Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage."

The youngest Pope was 11 years old.

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer."

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (This was challenged and proved wrong by the TV show "Mythbusters")

The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service.

Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles

Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem