Interesting Facts

• Big Ben the bell in the Parliament tower (Westminster Palace), London, England, was named for Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works when the bell was installed in 1856. The name is often used to refer to the huge clock in the tower.

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

• 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.

• Napoleon Bonaparte’s last words were, “France, armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine.” (“France, army, head of the army, Joséphine.”)

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

• Paper, umbrela, compass, gunpowder, peach was originated in China.

• 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 received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.

• The world Kýrie eléēson is Greek and means “Lord, have mercy upon us”.

• Islam is an an Arabic word which literally means obedience and peace.ISLAM is derived from the Arabic root “SALEMA”: peace, purity, submission and obedience. Koran is also an Arabic word ans means “reading”.

• The Gordian Knot  means a problem, solved by a bold stroke (“cutting the Gordian knot”).

• A ”sphinx”  is a mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head. The word sphinx comes from the Greek meaning “to strangle”. This name may be derived from the fact that lions kill their prey by strangulation, biting the throat of prey and holding them down until they die. The largest and most famous is the Great Sphinx of Giza. The head of the Great Sphinx is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra. The role of sphinxes was to protect royal tombs or religious temples.

• Canada is an Indian word meaning “Big Village”. Berlin is a Slavic word and means “mud”, “swamp”. And Madrid means – “meadow“.

• “Crossing the Rubicon” means taking a decisive and dangerous step, passing a point of no return.It refers to Caesar’s 49 BC crossing of the river, which was considered an act of war.

• “Walk to Canossa” means to humiliate oneself.

• The world “museum” was originated from ‘Mouseion’, the ancient Greek temple of Muses in Alexandria where art objects were known to be displayed.

• Most months are derived from Latin words or from the names of Roman gods and rulers. January, for instance, comes from Janus, the Roman god of doors and of beginnings and endings. Janus had two faces, one that looked forward and another that looked backward. January was named after Janus because the month looks both at the end of the previous year and the beginning of the new one. February comes from the Latin februare, “to purify.” The Latins celebrated the festival of forgiveness for sins on February 15. March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. April is likely named after the Latin aperire, or “to open,” signifying the opening of buds in the spring. May comes from the Roman goddess Maia, a deity associated with fertility. June comes from the goddess Juno, the chief Roman goddess. July is named after Julius Ceasar. August is named for Augustus Ceasar. The last four months are named after numbers. The original Roman calendar had only ten months and began in what is now March, so the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months of our calendar coincided with the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the Roman calendar. Septem is Latin for “seven,” octo is latin for “eight,” novem is Latin for “nine,” and decem is Latin for “ten.”

• Why are serials called Soap Operas? Television serials were originally used to advertise soap powder. In the early days of American Radio, advertisers literally wrote stories mainly to advertise their soap powder. These television serial producers enjoy the maximum freedom of twisting their stories to an extent whereby, even they tend to forget why the serial was originally started.

• The world “scapegoat” one that is made to bear the blame of others, someone who is punished for the errors of others.

• For ancient Egyptians onion was a symbol of the universe.  Just as each layer of the onion was wrapped in another, so was the underworld enveloped by the earth and in turn, by the heaven.  As some people today might swear on the Bible, the Egyptians took their oath on an onion.  They also presented onions to their gods as sacrificial offerings.

• The cat in ancient Egypt was a sacred and respected beast. When a cat died their former owners and occupants of the house would go into deep mourning and shave their eyebrows as a sign of grief. People are not the only mummies in Egypt, as the cat was also mummified significantly.Cats were not only protected by almost every occupant of Egypt, but also by the law.Herodotus stated a story of war between Egypt and Persia. The Persian general had decided to collect as many cats that his men could find or steal, knowing the great importance of the cat to Egypt. The soldiers then returned to the town of Pelusium and set the cats free on the battlefield. Horrified Egyptians surrendered the city to the Persians rather than harm the cats.

• When the English settlers landed in Australia, they noticed a strange animal that jumped extremely high and far. They asked the aboriginal people using body language and signs trying to ask them about this animal. They responded with “Kan Ghu Ru” the English then adopted the word kangaroo. What the aboriginal people were really trying to say was “we don’t understand you” – “Kan Ghu Ru”.

• In 510 B.C., hungry soldiers of the Emperor Darius were near the river Indus in India, when they discovered some “reeds, which produce honey without the bees.” The word ‘sugar’ is itself derived from an Arabic word  “sukkar” meaning  “gravel”. Later Alexander, the Great (356-232 B.C.) introduced sugar to Persia and the Mediterranean nations.

• In the 6th century Germanic people named “Langobard” invaded northern Italy and established a province Lombardy. In Middle Ages many  bankers and moneylenders lived in this province and so originated the word “lombard”.

• The Coliseum of Rome is built on the site of an artificial lake created by Nero.It was then known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, after the family name of the emperors who built it. The name “Colosseum” was not used until 7th century, and derives from the colossal statue of Nero that once stood here. After Nero’s death, the statue was transformed into a representation of Helios, the sun god. It remained standing until the Middle Ages, when it was probably melted down for its bronze.

• Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled “Gentlemen Only…Ladies Forbidden”…and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

• 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 son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

• Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

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

• The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

• Dolphins sleep with one eye open. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. All polar bears are left handed. Ants don’t sleep. Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. Elephants remain standing after they die. Mosquitoes have 47 teeth an a bear has 42 teeth. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the “General Purpose” vehicle, G.P.

• In the late 1700s, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board was folded down from the wall and used for dining. The “head of the household” always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Once in a while, a guest (who was almost always a man) would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. Sitting in the chair, one was called the “chair man”. Today in business we use the expression or title “Chairman or Chairman of the Board”.

• The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

• People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond. The tradition dates back to the Great Plague where the first symptoms of catching the illness were sneezing. The original phrase was actually God Bless You and (quite obviously) the intention was that by asking God to bless you, he would save you from the plague.

• Spain literally means “the land of rabbits”. Singapore means “City of Lions,” but none have ever been seen there.

• According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. The punishment? The offense was punishable by hanging.

• Leonardo da Vinci spent twelve years painting the Mona Lisa’s lips.

• The name “Yahoo” stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”

• In Albania, nodding the head means “no” and shaking the head means “yes.”

• Tibetans, Mongolians, and people in parts of western China put salt in their tea instead of sugar.

• In the memoirs of Catherine II of Russia, it is recorded that any Russian aristocrat who displeased the queen was forced to squat in the great antechamber of the palace and to remain in that position for several days, mewing like a cat, clucking like a hen, and pecking his food from the floor.

• The word “Nazi” is actually an abbreviation. The party’s full name was the Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte.

• The French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” derived its title from the enthusiasm of the men of Marseilles, France, who sang it when they marched into Paris at the outset of the French Revolution. Rouget de l’Isle, its composer, was an artillery officer. According to his account, he fell asleep at an instrument and dreamt the words and the music. Upon waking, he remembered the entire piece from his dream and immediately wrote it down.

• The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the sandstone from which it was built. After the War of 1812, during which it had been burned by Canadian troops, the outside walls were painted white to hide the smoke stains.

• The word wedding comes from the Anglo-Saxon “wedd” meaning a pledge. The tradition of the bride throwing the bouquet started in France in 1300.  The belief was that whomever caught the bouquet would be the next to marry.In Christian ceremonies the bride stands on the grooms left.  This was started when it may have been necessary for the groom to reach for his sword with his right hand in order to keep someone from riding up and stealing his bride during the wedding. The tradition of wearing wedding rings on the third finger has two sources: one started back in ancient times when it was believed that the third finger had a nerve that ran straight to the heart; the second is metaphorical, while every other finger can be extended to its full length and straightness alone, the ring finger can only be fully extended in the company of an adjacent finger.

• Valentine’s Day  originates from the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on 15 February in honor of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. During the festival, young men would draw the names of women from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year’s celebration. Often they would fall in love and marry. In 391 AD, Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity as the official religion of the Rome. The fertility festival was celebrated until 496 AD when Pope Gelasius replaced it with a similar celebration. For patron saint of the celebration, he chose the “lovers” saint, St Valentine. He also moved the date of the celebration from the 15 February to the date of St Valentine’s death, 14 February. Through the centuries, Valentines Day became to be remembered more as the festival of love instead of a religious day. At around 270 AD Rome was facing battles and civil uprising. The men were not keen to join the army. Emperor Claudius II believed that the men did not want to leave their loved ones and summarily canceled all marriages and engagements. Two priests, Valentine and Marius, disobeyed the decree and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. Valentine was caught on 14 February and dragged to jail. Later in the day he was clubbed to death and beheaded. It is said that, before his execution, Valentine himself had fallen in love with the jailer’s blind daughter. He signed his final note to her, “From your Valentine.”

• During the Gold Rush in 1849, some people paid as much as $100 for a glass of water!

• Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents.

• Persia changed its name to Iran in 1935.

• Kittens are born both blind and deaf. If you cut off a snail’s eye, it will grow a new one. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot. Crocodiles are blind in the water but very keen of sight in the air.Owls are the only bird that can see the color blue. Unlike all other insects, flies have five eyes. They have two large eyes and three smaller eyes between them.An ant can lift fifty times of it’s own weight. A cockroach can survive without it’s head for nine days. At the end of nine day, it dies because of hunger.

• Muhammad is the most common name in the world.

• The right lung takes in more air than the left.

• The word Eskimo literally means ‘raw meat eater’.

• In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

• The Bible is the most-shoplifted book in the world.Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries.

• In older people, memory is best early in the morning and then declines during the late afternoon.

• Oak trees are struck by lightning more than any other tree.

• The first alarm clock could only ring at 4 a.m.

• An olive tree can live up to 1,500 years.

• The word ‘News’ is actually an acronym standing for the 4 cardinal compass points – North, East, West, and South.

• The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ.

• Europeans in the Middle Ages used to call coffee the “Arabic Wine”.

• The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

• The heart of an astronaut actually gets smaller when in outer space.

• With the exception of Earth, all of the planets in our solar system have names from Greek or Roman mythology. This tradition was continued when Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered in more modern times. Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery in Roman mythology. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky. Venus is the Roman goddess of love and because of its shining presence. The planet is the brightest object in the sky beside the Moon and the Sun. Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name is based on Germanic and Old English words for “ground. Mars is the Roman god of War because of its red color, which reminded people of blood. Jupiter was the King of the Gods in Roman mythology, making the name a good choice for what is by far the largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is the Roman god of agriculture. Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god. Neptune, was the Roman god of the Sea. Given the beautiful blue color of this planet, the name is an excellent choice. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld in Roman mythology. Perhaps the planet received this name because it’s so far from the Sun that it is in perpetual darkness.

• At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

• Thailand used to be called Siam. Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters. China has more English speakers than the United States.Japan has approximately 200 volcanoes and is home to 10% of the active volcanoes in the world. In Greece, the climate is so warm that many of the cinemas do not even have roofs. The Dutch people are known to be the tallest people in Europe.The meaning of Siberia is “sleeping land.” There are about 6,800 languages in the world. Every continent has a city called Rome.Finland is also known as “the land of of the thousand lakes,” because of the over 188,000 lakes found in this country.The word Thailand means “land of the free.”There is a town in Norway called “Hell”. Vikings, after killing their enemies, used their skulls as drinking vessels.

• Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today. Pharaoh Ramses had 96 sons and 60 daughters.

• The word “diamond” comes from the Greek word “adamas,” which means “unconquerable.”Diamonds were first discovered in the riverbeds of the Golconda region of India over 4,000 years ago.

• Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory.

• The Roman emperor Domitian took great pleasure in being secluded in his room for hours and catching flies and stabbing them with pens.

• There was once a country called Prussia. After World War II, it was divided among Poland, Germany, and the USSR.

• The 20th president of the United States James Garfield could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other at the same time.

• In 1785, the city of Paris removed bones from cemeteries to ease the overflow of dead people. They took these bones and stacked them in tunnels now known as the Catacombs. You can visit these tunnel attractions and work your way along long corridors, which are stacked with skulls and bones.

• The term “The Big Apple” was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang expression “apple” for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time – The Big Apple.

• The book “Little Red Riding Hood” was banned in 1990 by two school districts in California. They did this because in the book there was a picture of a basket that had a bottle of wine in it.

• After the death of the genius, Albert Einstein, his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study. Einstein was cremated and his ashes were spread over a river loc in New Jersey.

• French astronomer Adrien Auzout had once considered building a telescope that was 1,000 feet long in the 1600s. He thought the magnification would be so great, he would see animals on the moon.

• In the 19th century, it was common practice for a Japanese woman to dye their teeth black. They believed that this maintained healthier teeth.

• During World War II, Russians used dogs strapped with explosives to blow up German tanks. They trained the dogs to associate the tanks with food and ended up destroying about 25 German tanks using this method. And the 2nd Polish Corps had a brown bear named Wojtek, who helped move boxes of ammunition during the battle of Monte Cassino.

• The word Nike comes from Greek Mythology. Nike is the goddess of victory and was often depicted as a small winged figure whom the goddess Athene carried.

• To be born on Sunday was considered a sign of great sin during the Puritan times.

• Silk was developed in China were it was kept a secret for more than two thousands years. Anyone found trying to smuggle silkworm eggs or cocoons out of the country was immediately put to death.

• The word Karate means, “empty hand.”

• Niagara Falls actually stopped flowing back in 1848 for about 20 hours because there was ice that was blocking the Niagara River.

• The abbreviation Xmas for the word Christmas is of Greek origin. Since the word for Christ in the Greek language is Xristos, which starts with the letter “X,” they started putting the X in place of Christ and came up with the short form for the word Christmas.

• The word “laser” stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission by radiation.” The world’s first underground was the London Underground in 1863. It has 275 stations and 253 miles of track.

• Due to sugar shortages to make candy during World War II, movie theatre owners turned to popcorn, which is now the best selling snack at movie theatres today.The word Popcorn is derived from the middle English word “poppe,” which means “explosive sound”.

• U.S. President Calvin Coolidge liked to eat breakfast while having his head rubbed with Vaseline.

• The Japanese confiscated chess books during World War II thinking they were military codes. Japan did not have an organized chess federation until 1968.

• A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I. During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. They failed.

• When the Prussians surrounded Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, beef became so scarce that the people in Paris turned to eating horsemeat as an alternative. They still eat horse to this day.

• During the 19th century soldiers who had died in battle had their teeth pulled out to be used as dentures by other people.

• Cleopatra was ethnically Greek,  not Egyptian, descended from Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy I Soter. Her real name was Auletes!

• Japanese and South Korean kids are the best in the world at science and maths.American adults have spent more time than anyone in education.

• In the early days of film making, the people who worked on the sets were called movies. The films were called motion pictures.

• Because steel expands when it gets hot, the Eiffel Tower is six inches taller in the summer than in the winter.

• Unlike other animals, wolves have a variety of distinctive facial expressions they use to communicate and maintain pack unity.

• Chrysler built B-29’s that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant called Diamond Star.

• When Thomas Eddison died in 1941, Henry Ford captured his dying breath in a bottle.

• Before the 1800, there were no separately designed shoes for left and right feet.

• King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

• The Australian $5,$10,$20,$50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.

• The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer.

• A Viking tribe once raided England because they had run out of beer.

• After an opera, it is appropriate to yell bravo for a man and brava for a woman. If you want to cheer for two or more singers, use the plural form, which is bravi. If the group consists only of women, yell brave (BRAH-vay).  

• Plato once said that “a dog has the soul of a philosopher.”

• A man was outside taking a walk when it began to rain. He did not have an umbrella and he wasn’t wearing a hat. His clothes were soaked, yet not a single hair on his head got wet. How could this happen?

• The abbreviation Xmas for the word Christmas is of Greek origin. Since the word for Christ in the Greek language is Xristos, which starts with the letter “X,” they started putting the X in place of Christ and came up with the short form for the word Christmas.

• The Vikings wore wolf skins and drank wolf blood to take on the wolf’s spirit in battle.

• Rome’s last emperor was Romulus Augustus, whose name recalls both the founder of Rome and Rome’s first emperor. He was deposed by Odoacer, the leader of the Barbarians.

• One suicide victim who committed suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge left behind a note saying: “I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.”

• The ancient Romans built such an excellent system of roads that the saying arose “all roads lead to Rome,” that is, no matter which road one starts a journey on, he will finally reach Rome if he keeps on traveling.

• The human brain stops growing at age 18, and is 80% water. Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain. The storage capacity of the human brain is about 4 terabytes (4,000 gigabytes).

• Goethe couldn’t stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

• 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.

• The Greeks thought that when non-Greeks spoke, they were mumbling words that sounded like an indeterminate “barbar,” which led to the Roman word “barbarian.”

• Several religious sources claim that Roman emperor Nero was the Antichrist and will return as the Antichrist. Some scholars claim that the numbers 666 in the biblical Book of Revelation is a code for Nero.

• Once Churchill was asked what was the difference between Stalin and Hitler and he answered – “moustache”.

• Every year, in USA, “Competition For Liars” takes place. Everyone can take part in it except politicians, as they are considered “experts” in telling lies.

• When Christopher Columbus and crew landed in the New World they observed the natives using a pipe to smoke a strange new herb. The pipe was called a “tabaka” by the locals, hence our word tobacco.

• Aztecs believed that the sun died every night and needed a sacrifice to give it strength to rise the next day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to appease their sun god. Most of the victims were prisoners taken in wars. Around 1325, the Aztecs were looking for a place to build their capital. A priest had interpreted an omen to mean the site should be where the found an eagle, perched on a cactus, devouring a snake. And that’s why they chose what is now Mexico City; they found the eagle eating a snake while resting on a cactus. The scene is depicted on the Mexican flag.

• The city of St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, hence the name, St. Petersburg. But it wasn’t always that simple. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Russian leaders felt that Petersburg was too German-sounding. So they changed the name of the city to Petrograd -to make it more Russian-sounding. Then, in 1924, the country’s Soviet Communist leaders wanted to honor the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir I. Lenin. The city of Petrograd became Leningrad and was known as Leningrad until 1991 when the new Russian legislators -no longer Soviet Communists -wanted the city to reflect their change of government.

• The Bible was written by about 40 men over a period of about 1600 years dating from 1500 BC to about 100 years after Christ.

• Possible origin of ‘banana’is the following: ‘ba’, in Egyptian mythology is the soul. ‘Nana’, is another word for grandmother. So, banana may mean “the grandmother of the soul”.

• Mount Everest grows approximately 10 cm every year. Mount Everst in Nepal, China 8850 meters is 2.1 meters above it’s height which was determined in 1954.

• Sea turtles don’t age, they wont die unless they get an infection or get eaten by a larger animal. This means there could be a thousand year old turtle swimming around somewhere…..

• 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.

• Early on Coca-Cola was sold as a headache medicine.

• Before Columbus, Europe had never tasted potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, chocolate, pumpkins,  coconuts, pineapples, strawberries, and much more. All these food items are native to America. Although explorers brought potatoes back from the New World in the early 1500s, Europeans were afraid to eat them for fear that it would give them leprosy. It wasn’t until Louis XVI, who was looking for a cheap food source for his starving subjects, served them at the royal table that people were convinced potatoes were safe to eat. Until 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person’s life.

• Abdul Kassam Ismael, Grand Vizier of Persia in the tenth century, carried his library with him wherever he went. Four hundred camels carried the 117,000 volumes.

• A scientist who weighed people immediately before and after death concluded that the human soul weighs 21 gms.

• Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox. When Napoleon wore black silk handkerchiefs around his neck during a battle, he always won. At Waterloo, he wore a white cravat and lost the battle and his kingdom.

• Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

• In the late 19th century, millions of human mummies were used as fuel for locomotives in Egypt where wood and coal was scarce, but mummies were plentiful.

• In Milan, Italy, there is a law on the books that requires a smile on the face of all citizens at all times. Exeptions include time spent visiting patients in hospitals or attending funerals. Otherwise, the fine is $100 if they are seen in public without a smile on their face.

• 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.

• 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!

• The Aztec Indians in Central America used animal blood mixed with cement building material for their buildings, many of which still remain standing today.

• The dragons and other monsters that graced the bows of the Viking ships were so fierce-looking that a law was passed in Iceland ordering the skipper of any Viking ship to remove the figurehead before entering port.

• Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag, it looks like two pennants glued on top of the other. Libya has the only flag which is all one color – green, with no writing or decoration on it. Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital. South Africa is the only country with three official capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.

• Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

• The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained “cats and dogs” and led to the current expression.

• 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 Boston University Bridge is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

• Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.

• Every rainbow is unique – each rainbow is formed from light hitting your eye at a very precise angle. Someone standing next to you will see light coming from a slightly different angle than you and therefore see a different rainbow.

• Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating.

• The most beautiful and incredible gift of love is the monument Taj Mahal in India. Built by Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife it stands as the emblem of the eternal love story. Work on the Taj Mahal began in 1634 and continued for almost 22 years and required the labor of 20,000 workers from all over India and Central Asia.

• The handkerchief had been used by the Romans, who ordinarily wore two handkerchiefs: one on the left wrist and one tucked in at the waist or around the neck. In the fifteenth century, the handkerchief was for a time allowed only to the nobility; special laws were made to enforce this.

• When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. Red -Love and respect, Deep pink – Gratitude, appreciation, Light pink – Admiration, sympathy, White –  Reverence, humility, Yellow – Joy, gladness, Orange –  Enthusiasm.

• When movie directors do not want their names to be seen in the credits, they use the pseudonym “Allen Smithee” instead since 1968. It has been used over 50 times up to now.

• The English word “soup” comes from the Middle Ages word “sop,” which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The first archaeological evidence of soup being consumed dates back to 6000 B.C., with the main ingredient being Hippopotamus bones!

• Ever since 1944 the town of Bunol, which is near Valencia, Spain has a festival called “Tomatina.” The festival occurs once a year on the last Wednesday of the month of August. People have a huge food fight and throw tomatoes at each other, and this festival is considered the world’s largest food fight.

• In Japan, the number four is considered to be unlucky because the Japanese word for four sounds very similar to the word death.

• In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

• While sailing along the Caribbean coast of South America in 1499, the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojedo saw Indian houses built over the water. The area reminded him of Venice, and he named it Little Venice, which in Spanish is Venezuela.

• The first commercial vacuum cleaner was so large it was mounted on a wagon. People threw parties in their homes so guests could watch the new device do its job.

• Due to sugar shortages to make candy during World War II, movie theatre owners turned to popcorn, which is now the best selling snack at movie theatres today. The word Popcorn is derived from the middle English word “poppe,” which means “explosive sound”.

• First emperor of China, Ch’in Shih Huang Ti built the Great Wall of China. He built the Great Wall because he was frightened of the “the barbarians” attacking him from the north. The Great Wall is often called “the longest cemetery in the world.” It got that name because so many thousands of workers died beneath the huge gray stones. Ch’in Shih Huang Ti slept in a different palace every night, he was sure his enemies would try to kill him if they knew where he would spend the night.  

• In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can’t flow.

• Karate actually originated in India, but was developed further in China and means “empty hand”.

• 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.

• From the Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a number of medical duties including wound treatment, dentistry, minor operations and bone-setting.

• Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832, left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years.

• A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why. Starfish don’t have brains. A giraffe can clean its ears with its tongue. A rat can go without water longer than a camel can. All the swans in England are property of the Queen. Domestic cats hate lemons or other citrus scents. Even a small amount of alcohol placed on a scorpion will make it go crazy and sting itself to death. Frogs cannot swallow without blinking. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Turkeys often look up at the sky during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown as a result. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason. Donkeys are commonly used by the Iraqi Rebels to launch rockets..

• Up to the age of six or seven months a child can breathe and swallow at the same time. An adult cannot do this. All babies are color blind when they are born. Babies cry but they don’t produce tears until one to three months after birth. Malaysians protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer. During the 1600’s, boys and girls in England wore dresses until they were about seven years old

• Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. The inventor of Vaseline ate a spoonful of the stuff every morning. Most Zambians don’t live to see their 40th birthday. You are more likely to be reported as having been killed by lightning in Cuba than in any other country. Luxembourgers are the world’s richest people. Mexico has the most Jehovah’s Witnesses per capita. There was no punctuation until the 15th century.

• An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.

• Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte both suffered from epilepsy. Because Napoleon believed that armies marched on their stomachs, he offered a prize in 1795 for a practical way of preserving food. The prize was won by a French inventor, Nicholas Appert. What he devised was canning. It was the beginning of the canned food industry of today.

• In Northern parts of China it was once a common practice to shave pigs. When the evenings got cold the Chinese would take a pig to bed with them for warmth and found it more comfortable if the pig was clean-shaven.

• The forest of Canadian Lake District is so dense that during winter the snow stays on top of the trees and the forest floor stays bare.

• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. Pearls melt in vinegar. Our heart beats over 100,000 times a day. We are born with 300 bones, but when we get to be an adult, we only have 206. Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for approximately sixty-nine years.

• Pablo Picasso’s full name was “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso”. While living in Paris (1900) Pablo had lots of financial problems and he burned many of his paintings to stay warm.

• In 1888, Hollywood was founded by Harvey and Daeida Wilcox, who named the city after their summer home in Chicago.

• Football was actually invented in China. First reports of the game can be found in writings dating from around 476 BC.when it was known as “cuju” (“kick ball”) and involved players kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk clothwhich was fixed on bamboocanes and hung about 9 m above ground.

• Goethe couldn’t stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

• Money isn’t made out of paper, it’s made out of cotton.

• The word “modem” is a contraction of the words “modulate, demodulate.” (MOdulate DEModulate)

• Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

• Vincent Van Gogh was an unstable and volatile man and well known as the tortured artist who cut off part of his own ear. The events leading up to this tragic accident were related to his friendship with Paul Gauguin. On one fated occasion van Gogh, in a terrible rage threatened Gaugin with a razor. Van Gogh calmed down later in the day and was filled with horror and remorse for the possible consequences of such an argument. As a result of this, and his instability, the tortured artist cut off his own ear. He voluntarily entered the asylum of Saint-Remy suffering with depression. Vincent Van Gogh sadly committed suicide at the age of 37 years old.

• Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God.

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

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

• One of the first forms of currency is the shekel. It was was originally both a unit of currency and a unit of weight and originated from Mesopotamia around 3000 BC.

• The traditional signal, from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, whether a pope has been elected: Black smoke means  no and white smoke – yes. The smoke is generated by burning conclave ballots and notes with chemicals to make the smoke the right color. To avoid any possible confusion, the cardinals decided to have white smoke accompanied by ringing bells. Straw is added to produce black smoke. And white smoke signifies that a new pope has been chosen.

• Three of America’s Founding Fathers, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, died on the Fourth of July.

• Forks used for eating was introduced from Byzantium into Greece about AD 1100 and traveled north into Italy and France. Queen Elizabeth I got in a lot of trouble when she first ate with a fork. The leaders of the Church of England said that she had insulted God when she didn’t use her fingers to eat meat. Of course, all of this happened back in the 1600’s, right after the fork was invented. Before then, and for a long time afterward, people used a knife or a spoon for eating but usually ate with their fingers. If you happened to be lucky enough to own a fork and wanted to eat out with it, you had to take it with you, because your friends probably didn’t own one, and if they did, they wouldn’t let you use it.

• Ludwig Van Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all time, believed that having cold water poured over his head helped him to dream up beautiful music.

• Eyeglasses were invented by an individual who lived and worked in the town of Pisa, Italy, in the year 1286. We know that he  was a craftsman who worked with glass, but we do not know his name. Chinese judges wore glasses for centuries before they were invented in Italy,but the Chinese glasses weren’t for seeing. They were not clear, but were clouded and were worn so that the expression in their eyes could not be seen while they were hearing a court case.

• William James Sidis, born in 1898, was widely regarded as the most intelligent person in the world. His father, a psychologist, believed he could teach James to be a genius. When he was 3 years old, James studied very difficult math, the kind most people study in college. When he was 5, he wrote a long article about medicine. The child was a genius, but was it because his father taught him or was it because he was born with a special talent? We can only guess. He  entered the  college when he was 12 andhe gave a speech that was too difficult for the other students and some of the teachers to understand.The hard work, however, was too much for James. He had to leave college and spend some time as a father’s mental hospital. He later graduated at 16.

• In the game of chess Persian word shah mat means “the king is dead”.

• According to recent research, orangutans are the world’s most intelligent animal other than humans. Orangutans do not live in large groups like other monkeys but live in solitude.When they meet in the forest, they usually ignore one another, although young orangutans are much friendlier and have special friends among their group.

• Libya is located in North Africa and borders on the Mediterranean Sea. Libya is one of the most barren countries in the world. More than 90 percent of Libya is desert, and there’s not a single river in the entire nation.

• Ethiopia is more than 4,900 years old, so it  is the oldest nation on earth.

• The war between Britain and Zanzibar was the shortest in history. It lasted a total of 38 minutes.

• Californium 252 is the most expensive element in the world. It costs $1000000 a gram.

• The word “comedy” is derived from the Classical Greek and originally means “laughter-provoking” song. And the word “tragedy” is also Greek, meaning “goat song”.

• While talking about this person, Honore de Balzac used to take his hat off to express his great respect towards him.  And he did this when he was talking about himself.

• The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt holds a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.

• Stadium – means “a measure of length” in Greek, equals 192,27 metres. According to a legend heracles covered a stadium breathlessly.

• The words on his ring would make Solomon the Wiser feel happy when he was sad and sad if he was happy. These words were: “It will pass”.

• Charles Dickens slept facing North. He thought it improved his writing.

• Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness.

• Einstein declined the presidency of the state of Israel when it was offered to him in 1952 by state leaders. The element einsteinium, discovered in 1952, was named in honor of Albert Einstein. When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn’t understand German.

• During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army.

• The only person whose birthday is a legal holiday all across the U.S. is George Washington.

• Mozart never went to school.

• In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows. In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die. In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals.

• The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence – he invented dynamite.

• The word “hooligan” originates from the Irish family with the surname Houlihan who lived in London suburb and were known for their wild lifestyle.

• Ronald Reagan was the only president to have ever worn a NAZI uniform. (He wore it as an actor in a movie).

• Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate roasted turkey as their first meal on the moon. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

• Julius Caeser’s autograph is worth 2 million dollars, but one has not been found yet.

• Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.

• Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”

• Coca-Cola is said to be  originally green.

• India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history. Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

• Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

• If a surgeon in Ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off.

• The first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in WW2 killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.