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• The mushroom, Ganoderma applanatum can live for fifty years and grow to be two feet in diameter.
• When John F Kennedy was assasinated in 1963, it was not a federal felony to kill a President of the United States.
• Philosopher John Locke drafted the constitution for South Carolina.
• Mark Twain held a patent for a self-pasting scrapbook. The blank pages were coated with gum.
• Benjamin Franklin was not entrusted with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence as it was feared he might conceal a joke in it.
• Opium was so easy to acquire in the 19th century that a group of Chicago schoolgirls imitated the Confession of an Opium Eater but were disappointed at not experiencing the visions described by Thomas de Quincey.
• The Hunza people of northwest Kashmir are believed to be totally free of any form of cancer. The Hunza are also known for their longevity.
• Two epidemiologists from the University of Michigan identified the incidence of colds as being higher among better-educated people.
• A piece of the rare metal gallium being held in human hands will melt.
• Mosquitos have forty-seven teeth.
• England and Portugal have never been at war against each other. The longest unbroken peace between any nations.
• The Cape of Good Hope is not the most southerly tip of the African continent. Cape Agulhas extend 65 kilometres further south.
• Cape Horn is not the most southerley tip of the South American continent. Cape Horn is on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Fuerte Bulnes nearly 250 kilometres further north is the actual tip of the continent.
• For a ship to enter the Panama Canal from the West it must be in the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern end of the canal empties into the Pacific Ocean.
• The photograph of the first man at the summit of Mt. Everest is of the sherpa Tenzing Norkay. Norkay could not operate a camera so these duties were taken up by Edmund Hillary. It is not known which of the two men stood at the summit first.
• Coal dust is sprayed over some Russian fields. The dust absorbs heat and helps to speed up the melting of snow.
• The concept of a left and right shoe only occured after shoe manufacture became a machine process in the 1850s.
• 123 456 787 654 321 is 11 111 111 squared.
• The only part of the human body that has no blood supply is the cornea. It gains oxygen directly from the air.
• Up to 150 meteorite fragments hit Earth each year. There are only seven reported cases of people being hit by these fragments.
• A committee of the first US Senate selected "His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of the Rights of the Same" as the official title for the President. The House of Representatives disagreed.
• Morocco was the first country to officially recognise the United States.
• Rain contains vitamin B12.
• For a period of some years the town of Tweed in Ontario had a council consisting solely of women. In 1967, some men ran for council solely on the basis of their gender. One man was elected.
• The inhabitants of Trastevere, near Rome, have their own dialect which includes over two thousand words to describe human genitalia.
• In the sixteenth century in England an "hussy" was a housewife. The word was derived from the Old English "huswif".
• The word "journal" derives from the Latin word for day, "dies".
• Once described as fish eaten by man and vice versa, piranha make excellent eating."
• The word "Chuck" is an archaic term of endearment. It is possibly a corruption of the the word "chicken".
• The first Australian film was titled "The Early Christian Martyrs" and was released in 1899.
• Real book titles: The Madam as Entrepeneur: Career Management in House Prositution
• Real book titles: 100 years of British Rail Catering
• Real book titles: Tasty Dishes from Waste Items
• Iowa means "one who puts to sleep" in its original Sioux.
• After print classified ads on its front page for 181 years The Times of London first placed news on the front page on the 3rd May 1966.
• A Clementine is the hybrid of an orange and a tangerine.
• Mithridatism describes the immunity from poison that is developed after taking a series of small, non-fatal doses.
• The word "monosyllable" is a monosyllable.
• Facetiously, bacteriously, abstemiously and arteriously all contain all the vowels in correct order. Duoliteral is one of the few words that contains all the vowels in reverse order.
• Aside from the names of the Apollo 11 astronauts the only other personal name that appears on the moon plaque is that of Richard Nixon.
• The first female prime minister was Siromavo Bandaranaike who became the PM of Sri Lanka in 1960.
• The domestic washing machine was first marketed in Chicago in 1907 under the name "Thor".
• Mickey Mouse's original name was Mortimer.
• Zsa Zsa Gabor had to return her Miss Hungary (1936) crown because she was discovered to be underage.
• Over three quarters of the air we breath is made up of Nitrogen.
• A computer made by IBM is the subject of the longest patent ever filed with the UK patent office.
• The film "Gandhi" used the largest number of extras for any film - 300 000 for the funeral scene.
• A horse named Comanche was the only survivor from the losing side at the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn.
• Rhubarb and Asparagus are the only two perennial vegetables.
• Yak's milk is pink.
• mark twain' indicates a depth of 2 fathoms (3.6 metres).
• The "Ye" in "Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe" should be pronounced "The". The use of the letter y is the result of confusion over how to represent the thorn character. This character indicates a "th" sound but printers tended to use the letter y.
• 'Scotch Tape' is a result of the 3M company's decision to put adhesive only on the edges of its tape. The tape did not work properly and among the returns was the complaint that the company should take back its "Scotch Tape". A reference to the supposed stinginess of Scots people.
• The statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus in London is actually the 'Angel of Christian Charity'.
• Flying fish do not fly they glide.
• Pennsylvania is not named after William Penn - the Quaker, but his father - an admiral of the British Navy. Pennsylvania literally means Penn's Woodland.
• A prototype of the bra was patented in the US in 1914 to Mary Phelps Jacobs. The device was marketed by the Warner Brothers Corset Company of New York. The involvement of Otto Titzling (Titzlinger) in this invention while legendary is unsubstantiated.
• The kings on a pack of cards represent four specific figures in history: Spades - David, King of Israel; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts - Charlemagne & Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• A number of Catholic saints were husband and wife 'teams' including Claudian and Bassa, Flix and Liliosa, Timothy and Maura, Valerian and Cecilia, Adrian and Natalia.
• The cliches, 'The skin of my teeth', 'The land of the living' and 'See eye to eye' are all found in the Old Testament.
• Adolf Hitler's favourite film was 'King Kong'.
• Among the 1000 patents awarded to Thomas Edison were a vote recorder, a stock quotation machine, the phonograph, the electric pen, the mimeograph and the wireless telegraph.
• Among the party the Cortes took to Mexico in the 1500s were 5 oboe player, an acrobat and a sleight of hand master and puppeteer.
• Chloris Leachman is a former Miss Illinois and runner-up Miss America.
• Barry Manilow's earliest songs include jingles for Band-Aids, Dr. Pepper, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's and Pepsi.
• There is a correspondence between the twelve Hebrew tribes and the twelve signs of astrology.
• Parthenophobia is the fear of young girls.
• Men's beards grow the most on Wednesdays and the least on Sundays.
• The (mechanical) shark that appeared in Jaws, Jaws II and the Nude Bomb has a name - Bruce.
• If the US President was unavailable and the holders of the first twelve offices listed in the Presidential Succession Act where unable to assume the position the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development would become President.
• In sporting events the 8th placegetter receives a brown ribbon.
• The Seven Dwarves names: Bashful, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey.
• Cricket and Croquet were last played as Olympic sports in 1900.
• Gin is the shortened version of "Geneva Liquor".
• 26 nations have no coastline.
• Iran has been independent since 529 BC and is the world's oldest nation.
• The city of Mt Isa in Australia covers an area approximately equal to the size of Switzerland.
• Andorra is ruled by two co-princes: The bishop of Urgel and the President of France.
• The British ruled Cuba for one year (1762-63) until it was exchanged with Spain for Florida.
• Gustave Eiffel's 'other' great work was designing the framework for the Statue of Liberty.
• Many of the hills in Berlin are made from the piled up debris from war bombing.
• The Greek national anthem has 158 verses.
• The earliest dated words in the Oxford English Dictionary are 'Town' and 'Priest' both are recorded in the Laws of Ethelbert (601-4).
• There are at least ten countries where sheep outnumber people. The top five are, The Falkland Island, New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay and Mongolia.
• The first five countries to give women the vote were, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
• The most common food allergies are Wheat, Milk, Yeast, Eggs and Corn.
• Great Britain is the eight largest island in the world.
• The Maltese language is the only member of the Arabic family of languages that is written with the roman alphabet.
• The Yo-Yo was originally developed in the Phillipines as a weapon.
• So many Indonesians were taken to Surinam to work that they now form the largest ethnic group in that country.
• You can never be further than 120 kilometres from the sea in Great Britain.

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