STRANGE FACTS - 2
Centuries ago, clans that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down -- hence the expression "to get fired."
The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Round-The-Rosies' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.
Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz.
Lizzie Borden was acquitted.
Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."
Cat urine glows under a blacklight.
Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan. Mitsubishi built the Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star.
On the new one hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.
The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
The national flag of Italy was designed by Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte.
Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.
As part of its cargo, the Titanic carried a female Egyptian mummy, a Queen, on loan from the Royal Museum to the New York Museum of Natural History. The mummy was said to be cursed and was thought to be responsible for the deaths of several Egyptologists -- driving one mad before he died -- and for a rash of mysterious fires and accidents. The mummy went down with the ship... along with the 1,000+ other doomed souls that lost their lives that fateful night -- to the mummy's curse?
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.
The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905.
Melanie Griffith's mother is actress Tippi Hendren, best known for her lead role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply ' if you were my wife, I would drink it!'
142857 is a cyclic number, the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multipled by any number from 1 to 6. 142857 * 2 = 285714 142857 * 3 = 428571 142857 * 4 = 571428 142857 * 5 = 714285 142857 * 6 = 857142
King Kong is the only movie to have its sequel (Son of Kong) released the same year (1933).
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam."
Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott."
Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.
John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
A dragonfly has a lifespan of twenty-four hours.
A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon.
On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. This is the body's natural defense so you do not blow out your eyeballs.
"Evian" (the bottled water) spelled backwards is "naive."
Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box.
There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.
Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces.
The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
In the film 'Star Trek : First Contact', when Picard shows Lilly she is orbiting Earth, Australia and Papa New Guinea are clearly visible .. but New Zealand is missing.
George Washington grew marijuana in his garden. In fact the largest cash crop in the United States was marijuana for more than 150 years.
If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before you will die of oxygen deprivation.
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 front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.
Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on to form that band. He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna amount to nothin'."
Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on the radio newscast about the wreck. The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.
Alexander the Great was an epileptic.
When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings. |
