Alabama
It is illegal to play dominoes on Sunday.
It is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.
Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.
Putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death.
Men may not spit infront of the opposite sex.
Masks may not be worn in public.
One must have windsheild wipers on one's car.
Solitare may not be played on Sundays.
In Aniston one can't wear blue jean's down Noble Street.
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Alaska
Huskies are not allowed in school buildings.
No child may build a snowman taller than himself on school property.
In Fairbanks it's illigal to feed alcholic beverages to a Moose.
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Arizona
Any misdemeanor comitted while wearing a red mask is considered a felony.
It's unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water.
In Glendale it's illegal to drive a car in reverse.
In Globe it's illegal to play cards in the street with a Native American.
In Hayden it's illegal to disturb bullfrogs or cottentailed rabbits with in the city limits.
In Nogales one can't wear suspenders.
In Tucson women can't wear pants.
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Arkansas
A man can beat his wife yet only once per month.
In Little Rock dogs can't bark after 6pm.
In Little Rock if a man and woman flirt with each other on the streets they could be jailed for 30 days.
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California
It is a misdemeanor to shoot at any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale.
It is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license.
Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet from a tavern,school or place of worship.
Woman can't drive while wearing a housecoat.
Bathhouses are illegal.
It's illegal to eat an orange while in the bathtub.
It's illegal to prevent children from playfully jumping over puddles of water.
In Pacific Grove, "molesting" butterflies can result in a $500 fine.
In Pasadena it's illigal for a secratary to be alone in a room with her boss.
In Long Beach, it is illegal to curse on a mini-golf course.
In Los Angeles it's illegal to cry on a witness stand in any state court.
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Colorado
If loose a pet cat must have a tail light.
In Denver it's illegal to mistreat rats.
In Denver it's also against the law to loan your next door neighbor your vacuum.
In Durango it's illigal to go out in cloathin unbecoming to one's gender.
In Logan County, it is illegal for a man to kiss a woman while she is asleep.
In Pueblo, it is illegal to let a dandelion grow within city limits.
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Connecticut
It's illegal to dispose of used razorblades.
Any one caught biking (riding a bicycle) over 65mph will be ticketed.
In Devon it's against the law to walk backwards after sunset.
In Hartford it's illegal to educate a dog.
In Hartford a man can't kiss his wife on sundays.
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Delaware
"R" rated movies can't be shown in drive in theaters.
Getting married on a dare is grounds for an annulment.
On Fenwich Island it's illegal to lie down on a beach at night.
In Lewes it's illegal to wear pants that are "form fitting" around the waist.
In Rehoboth one may not wisper in church.
In Rehoboth changing into or out of a swimsuit in a public restroom is prohibited.
In South Bethany anyone walking a dog must carry a bag with them to pick up the dogs "poops" or risk a $100 fine.
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Florida
Women can be fined for falling asleep under a hairdryer as can the salon owner.
It's illegal for a single, divorced, or widowed woman to Parachute on Sunday afternoons.
It's illegal to sing in a public place while attired in a swimsuit.
Walking with in 150ft zone between the streat and a beach while topless is prohibited.
It's considered an offense to shower naked.
It's illegal to skateboard without a license.
It's against the law to put livestock on a schoolbus.
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Georgia
It's illegal for a barber to advertise his prices.
It's illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole.
It's illegal to change the cloths on a store storfront maniquin unless the shades are drawn.
In Columbus it's illegal to sit on your porch in an indecent position.
In Johnsboro it's illegal to say "Oh,boy".
In Quitman it's illegal for chickens to cross the road.
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Hawaii
It's illegal to appear in public wearing only swimming trunks.
It's illegal to put pennies in your ear.
All residents may be fined for not owning a boat.
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Idaho
It's illegal to look unhappy.
Boxes of candy given as romantic gifts must weigh over 50lbs.
In Idaho falls it's illegal for anyone over 88 to ride a motercycle.
In Tamarack it's illegal to purchase onions after dark except with a special permit from the sheriff.
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Illinois
You may be arrested for vagrancy if you do not have at least a one dollar bill on your person.
In the city of Chicago,a hat pin is considered a concealed weapon, this law still applies to us today. Now it's part of the same law that makes it illegal for people to carry switchblades.
In Chicago it's illegal to take a French poodle to the opera.
In Joilet it's illegal for one to mispronounce the city's name.
In Zion it's illigal to teach pets to smoke cigars.
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Indiana
It's illegal to bathe in the winter time.
Liquor stores can't sell milk or cold soft drinks.
In Elkhart it's illegal for a barber to threaten to cut a childs ears off.
In Gary one can't attend a public theater or ride on public transport within 4 hrs of eating an onion or garlic.
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Iowa
A man with a moustache can't kiss a woman in public.
Kisses can't last for more than 5 minutes
In Dubuque any hotel within the city limits must have a water bucket and a hitching post in front of the building.
In Mount Vernon no one can pick a flower from a city park.
In Mount Vernon all softball dimond lights must be turned off at 10:30 pm.
Within Ottumwa city limits a man can't wink to any woman he doesn't know.
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Kansas
It's illegal for restaurants to sell cherry pie à la mode on Sundays.
In Witchita it's illegal to carry a concealed bean snapper.
In Witchita a husbands mistreatment of his mother-in-law, can't be used as grounds for a divorce.
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Kentucky
It's illegal to remarry the same man four times.
In Owensburrow a woman can't buy a hat without her husband's permission.
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Louisiana
One may either be fined 5thousand dollars, or sentanced to up to one year in prison for running an abortion advertisement.
It's against the law to gargle in public.
It's illegal to wear an alligator costume.
Catching lizards at night is prohibited.
In New Orlean's it's illegal for a woman to drive unless her husband is infront of the car waving a flag.
In Sulphur it's illegal to be an alcholic.
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Maine
The most money one can legally win gambling is three dollars.
After Jan 14th a person can be fined for having christmas decorations still up.
In Portland, it is illegal for men to tickle women under the chin with feather dusters.
It's also illegal to have untied shoe laces while walking down a street in Portland.
In Watervile it's illegal for one to blow ones nose in public.
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Maryland
It's Illegal to mistreat oysters.
In Baltimor it's illegal to scrub or wash sinks no matter how dirty they get.
In Halethorpe it's illegal to kiss another person for more than 1 second.
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Massachusetts
Mourners at a wake can't eat more than 3 sandwiches.
Snoring is illegal unless all bedroom windows are shut and securly locked.
It's illegal to wear a goatee with out a license.
Hunting on Sundays is prohibited.
It's illegal to go to bed without first having a full bath.
It's illegal to have a water gun fight/duel.
In Boston two people may not kiss in front of a church.
In Boston one can't eat peanuts while in church.
In Boston a citizen may not own more than 3 dogs.
In Marlboro a citizen can't own more than 2 dogs.
In Salem even a married couple can't sleep together in the nude in rented rooms.
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Michigan
A state law stipulates that a woman's hair legally belongs to her husband.
One can't swear in front of women or children.
Under state law dentists are officaly classified as "mechanics".
In Detroit, it is illegal to make love in a car unless it is parked on your property.
It's against the law to serenade your girlfriend in Kalamazoo.
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Minnesota
It's illegal to sleep naked.
All men riding motorcycles must wear shirts.
Every man in Brainerd is required by law to grow a beard.
In International Falls dogs can't chase cats up a telegraph pole, owners can be finned.
In Minneapolis, double-parkers can be put on a chain gang.
In St. Cloud hamburgers can't be eaten on Sundays.
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Mississippi
Cattle rustling is punishable by hanging.
In Oxford one may not spit on the sidewalks on the square.
In Oxford Motor vehicals on the squar are prohibited.
In Truro it is still legal to kill one's "servant."
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Missouri
A man must have a permit to shave.
In Excelsior Springs it's illigal to make a squirrel worry.
In Kansas city instilation of a four legged bathtub with toes that resemble those of an animal is prohibited.
In Marquette it's illegal for more than 4 unrelated persons to occupy the same living space.
In University City it's illegal for a person to have a yard sale in your "front yard". It's also Illegal to have more than 2 yardsales a year.
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Montana
It's a felony for a wife to open her husbands mail.
In Billings one can't raise pet rats.
In Excelsior Springs one can't throw a ball within city limmits.
In Helena no item can be thrown accross a street.
In Helana a woman's cloths must weigh more than 3lb 2oz before she can legaly dance on a saloon table.
In Whitehall it's illegal to operate a vehical with icepicks attached to it's wheels.
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Nebraska
It is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license.
It is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup.
In Omaha, barbers are forbidden from shaving their customers' chests.
If a child burps during a church service in Omaha, his or her parents may be arrested.
In Waterloo, barbers are forbidden from eating onions between 7am and 7pm.
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Nevada
It is illegal to drive a camel on the highway.
In Eureka, men who wear moustaches are forbidden from kissing women.
Every one walking the streets of Elko is required to wear a mask.
In Las Vegus it's illegal to pawn ones dentures.
In Nyala, a man is forbidden from buying drinks for more than three people other than himself at any one period during the day.
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New Hampshire
It's against the law to collect seaweed or rockweed from the seashore that is below the high watermark.
It's illigal to sell the cloaths of one's back to pay off a gambling dept.
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New Jersey
It is against the law to "frown" at a police officer.
It is illegal to slurp soup.
In Dumont it's illegal to spit on the sidewalks on Sundays.
In Newark, it is illegal to sell ice cream after 6pm, unless the customer has a note from his doctor.
In Trenton, it is illegal to throw a bad pickle in the street.
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New Mexico
In Carrizozo it's forbiden for a female to appear unshaven in public.
In Deming one can't spit on the steps of the opera house.
In Las Chruces one can't carry a lunch box down Main Street.
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New York
It's against the law to throw a ball at a person's head just for fun.
A license must be obtained for hanging cloths on a clothsline.
In Walden you can't give someone a drink of water with out a permit.
In NYC a woman is premited to go toppless in public provided it's not being used as a business. They can also ride the subway toppless (since it's okay for the men to do it too).
In NYC it's illegal to smoke with in 100 ft of a public building.
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North Carolina
It's illegal for a bingo game to last longer than 5 hrs (unless this game is being played at a fair).
In Asheville it's illegal to sneeze within city limmets.
In Charlotte women must have their bodies covered by atleast 16 yards of cloth at all times.
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North Dakota
It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
It is illegal to serve beer and pretzels at the same time in any bar, club, or restaurant
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Ohio
It's illegal to fish for whales on Sundays.
In Cleaveland it's illegal to operate a motor vehical while sitting in someones lap.
In Cleaveland it's also illegal for women to were patented leather shoes.
In Oxford it's illegal for a woman to stip off her cloathing while in front of a picture of a man.
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Oklahoma
Dogs must have a permit signed by the mayor in order to congregate in groups of three or more on private property.
Oklahoma will not tolerate anyone taking a bite out of another's hamburger.
People who make "ugly faces" at dogs may be fined and/or jailed.
Women can't do their own hair with out being licensed by the state.
Cars must be tethered outside of public buildings.
In Schulter it's illegal for a woman that's either wearing only lingere or a towel or who's totaly nude to gamble.
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Oregon
Dishes must drip dry.
Ice Cream can't be eaten on Sundays.
It's illegal to buy or sell marijuana, yet it's legal to smoke it on your own property.
It's illigal to be seen in public with the number 69 on any of ones clothing.
In Beaverton you must buy a $10 permit to instal a burglar alarm.
In Eugene it's illegal to show movies or attend a car race on Saturdays.
In Hood River juggling without a licence is prohibited.
In Stanfield no more than two people can share a single drink.
In Stanfield cloth towel dispensers are banned from restrooms.
In Willowdale no man may curse while having sex with his wife.
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Pennsylvania
A person who has particiapated in a duel is no longer elligible to become a Govenor.
A minister is prohibited from performing a marriage if either the bride or groom is drunk.
Men can't purchase alcohol without written concent of their wives.
In Morrisville women need a permite to wear cosmetics.
In Philidephia you can't put pretzels in bags.
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Rhode Island
When passing a car on the left you are required to make a loud noise.
It's illegal to throw pickle juice on a trolley.
In Newport, it's illegal to smoke a pipe after sunset.
In Providence it's against the law to to jump off a bridge.
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South Carolina
Musical Instruments may not be sold on Sundays.
A person must be 18 yrs old to operate a pinball machine.
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South Dakota
It's illegal to fall asleep in a cheese factory.
Movies that show police officers being struck, beaten, or treated in an offensive mannor are forbidden.
In Sioux Falls hotels are expected to have twin beds in every room which have to be atleast 2ft apart. A couple can't make love on the floor between the two beds.
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Tennessee
It's illegal to transport a skunk accross state lines (unless it's to be used at a zoo).
It is illegal to use a lasso to catch a fish.
In Dyersburg, it is illegal for a woman to call a man for a date.
In Memphis it's illegal to give any pie to a fellow dinner, it's illegal to take any unfinished pie out of a resteraunt.
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Texas
It's illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
You can't go bare foot without getting a special $5 permit.
It's illegal to sell ones own eye.
It is illegal to milk another person's cow.
In Houston, it is illegal to sell Limburger cheese on Sunday.
In LeFors, it is illegal to take more than three swallows of beer while standing.
In Mesquite it's illigal for children to have "unusual" haircuts.
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Utah
A husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence.
Birds have the right of way on highways.
In Monroe, daylight must be visible between partners on a dance floor.
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Vermont
A woman must obtain written permission from their husband to wear false teeth.
In Rutland it's illegal to allow ones car to backfire.
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Virginia
An unmarried person can not have sex, this crime is punishable as a class 4 misdemener.
Driving with out wearing shoes is phohibited.
It's illegal to tickle women.
In Lebanon it's illegal to kick your wife out of bed.
In Norfolk a man may face up to 60 days in jail for patting a woman's derriere (bottom).
Also in Norfolk spitting on a seagull is not tolerated.
In Richmond it's illegal to flip a coin at any eating establishment to see who pays for coffee.
In Victoria it's illegal to skate down the sidewalk of Maine Street.
In Virginia Beach it's illegal to ride on the handlebars of a bicycle.
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Washington
All lolipops are banned.
It's illegal to buy any meat product on Sunday.
One can't buy a mattress on a Sunday.
In Bremerton one can't shuck peanuts on the street.
In Lynden dancing and drinking may not occur at the same establishment.
In Spokane televisions can't be bought on Sundays.
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West Virginia
It is illegal to snooze on a train.
If you wear a hat inside a theater you can be fined.
Roadkill can be taken home for dinner.
In Nicholas County, no clergy members may tell jokes or humorous stories from the pulpit during church services.
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Wisconsin.
It is illegal to cut a woman's hair.
It is illegal to kiss on a train.
Unless a person spesificaly orders margarine it's prohibited to serve it as a substitute for butter.
In Foxpoint it's illegal for dogs to bark profusely, snarl or make any menicing gestures.
In St. Croix, women are not allowed to wear anything red in public
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Wyoming
In public theaters or places of amusement it's illegal to wear a hat that obstructs another persons veiw.
It's illegal for women to stand any closer to the bar than 5 feet while drinking.
It's illegal to tickle women.
Baseball rules were codified in 1846 by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club.
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Home plate is 17 inches wide.
The first 9 inning no-hitter baseball game was in Philedephia P.A on july 28th 1875. Joseph E Borden of Philedephia's National Association team won them a 4-0 victory over Chicago.
Ken Griffey Jr and Sr were the first father & son pair to hit back to back homers for the Seattle Marriners in the game against the California Angels on Sep 14th 1990.
In 1905, 18 men died from injuries sustained on the football field. President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in and instituted safety measures to make the game safer.
The 'huddle' in football was formed due to a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.
The dimensions of a regulation football feild are 360 ft long and 160 ft wide.
It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a years worth of footballs.
California, Texas, Ohio, Florida, New York, Missouri, and Pennsylvania all have more than 1 NFL team.
In Hockey the pucks have be known to reach speeds of 150 mph.
The Stanley cup was originaly only 7 1/2 inches high.
Golfers use an estimated $800 million worth of golf balls annually. A regulation golf ball has 336 dimples.
On Febuary 6 1970 the first golfball was hit on the moon by Alan Shepard.
The game of Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G Morgan.
Other Activities.
In 1875 Matthew Webb a 27 yr old British merchant navy captian became the first personknown to successfuly swim the English Channel.
The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on your side is called the Fosbury Flop.
Kite flying is considered a profesional sport in Thailand.
In bowling getting three strikes in a row is called a turkey.
The first person ever to record a perfect score (300) in an American Bowling Confrence Tournament was William Knox(of Philadephia PA), on March 10th 1924.
The first ever woman bullfighter was Patricia Mc Cormick of Big Spring Texas. She made her debute on January 20 1952 , and actualy killed two bulls on this occasion. In her first 2yrs she killed 80 bulls.
The first ever triple jump in figure skating was performed by Dick Burton in 1952.
In 1991 Vojai Reed becomes the first woman ever to take part in the Bassmaster professional fishing tournament.
In 1993 Julie Krone became the first female jockey ever to win a Triple Crown Race (horseracing).
As of the winter of 1994 The Winter Olympics and Summer Olymics are now held 2 yrs apart instead of on the same year.
Uncatagorized Facts.
A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the wright brothers first flight, these planes also hold 57,285 gallons of fuel.
Q is the only letter in the alphabet not used in naming any of the States in the United States.
6 is the smallest perfect number. A perfect number is one were the sum of it's divisors (numbers it can be divided by) equals the number itself (add all of divisors it equals said number) 1+2+3=6 (6x1=6, 3x2=6).
There are two Equinoxes each year one is the Autumnal Equinox (near Sep 23) and one is the Vernal Equinox (near March 21). The Equinox is where Earth itself has rotated so that the sun looks like it's crossing the Earths Equator (or Celstial Equator), either going north (Vernal Equinox) or south (Autumnal Equinox). The day of the equinox is also a time were day and night seem to be equal (timewise that is).
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Statistics.
These have been broken down into catagories. Now statistics are not always accurate, yet they do tend to provide some information.
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Human Statistics.
Over 2,500 left handed people are killed per year, from using products made for right handed people.
A person uses about 57 sheets of toilet paper per day.
There are over 9,700 juveniles in prisons across the United States.
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Animal Statistics.
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
Camels can survive in a desert without drinking for almost 3 months.
The Fin Whale can live to be 116 yrs old.
A Marion's Tortis Can live to be 152 years old.
The Leatherback is the biggest sea turtle and can weigh up to 1,500 lbs.
Almost 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.
Turkeys can see movement almost 100 yards away.
Woodpeckers can peck at a rate of 20 times per second.
Parrots can live to be 120 years old.
A catfish has over 27,000 taste buds more than any other animal.
The adult Ladybug/Ladybettle can eat up to 100 aphids a day.
A queen bee can lay up to 1,500 eggs in a day.
The ratio of people to ants is 1 to 1million.
History Information.
The second set of father-son presidents became a reality in the year 2000 as George W Bush was elected. The Bushes were the second father-son pair to hold office the first were the Adams.
The first synthetic human chromosome was constructed by US scientists in 1997.
Diet Coke was invented in 1982.
In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
In 1975 the first VCR went on sale to the public.
1973, Swedish confectionery salesman Roland Ohisson was buried in a coffin made entirely of chocolate.
1961 President John Kennedy formed the Peace Corps.
The Tiros 1 the first weather satelitte was launched from the United States on April 1st 1960.
The Barbi doll debuted on March 9 th 1959.
Spudnick 1 the first man-made object to circle the world was launched in 1957.
The first credit card was issued in 1951 by American Express.
The first human sex change was preformed in 1950 when the Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on a New Yorker named George Jargenson who changed his first name to Christine after the operation.
The FBI's most wanted list was started in 1950.
In 1942 Pan America was the first comercial airline to complete an around-the-world flight.
In 1937 the first social security payment was made.
In 1932 one year after the death of her husband the previous senator, Hattie Carway of Arkansas became the first woman elected to be a senator in the United States. She was also the first woman to preside over the senate in 1943.
On March 3 1931 "The Star Spangled Banner" was adopted as the United States national anthem.
In 1930 Ellen Church Became the first airline stewardess. She worked for United Airlines.
In 1926 Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket.
The first windsheild whiper was invented by Mary Anderson of Alabama USA in 1902.
The fist American subway system was built in Boston Massachuttes in 1897.
The shortest war in history was the 1896 war between England and Zanzibar which lasted 38 minutes. Zanzibar surrendered.
Shredded Wheat became the first ready to eat breakfast cereal in 1893.
Thomas Edison invented the talking doll in 1888.
August 1881 American humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the National Red Cross.
In 1876 the first Trademarked product was a British beer that went by the name of Bass Pale Ale. This was also the year the first paper money was issued in the United States.
In 1871 William of Prussia was named the first german emperor.
The Scott Brothers marketed the first toilet paper roll in 1867.
Great Britain was the first country to issue postage stamps in 1840.
The first kindergarden was founded by Fredrick Froebel in Germany in 1837.
In 1829 a man by the name of Louis Braille came up with the idea for using dots to represent writen words for the blind. This came to be known as Braille. Shortly after (1892) the Braille Hall typwriter was invented by Frank Haven Hall.
In 1825 England the first Locamotive pulled passanger train was operated by George Stephenson.
The Bicycle was patented on June 26th 1819.
In 1796 Napoleon was only 26 when he took comand of the French army of Italy.
In 1785 the American Congressional Navy was formed. As of the first day they had 2 frigates, 2 brigs, and 3 scooners. Sailors earned $8.00 a month.
In the Great Fire of London in 1666, only six people were killed.
In 1666 London the first blood transfusion was preformed. Yet this was animal blood transfusion from one dog to another dog.
The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo.
May 20th 1506 Christopher Columbus died in Spain.
The First hotdog or Frankfurter was said to be made in Frankfurter Germany in 1487.
In Germany Anne of Burgundy was the first woman to receive a dimond engagement ring from Maximillian the first in 1477.
The Deadliest Disease ever the Pneumonic form of the Black Death spread from 1347-1350.
The first spectacles were invented in 1280.
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Astronomical Facts.
Space is not a vacuum as there are atoms in space.
20000 pounds of space dust and other space debris fall on the Earth everyday. Some of these are mars rocks most of which have been found in antartica.
There are atleast 7,000 objects floating in space that are being tracked by Earth researchers. Only 5 % of these are satelites.
99% of our solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun. The sun also shrinks 5ft every hr. It's speculated that the sun's gravitational powers expand out further than even Pluto's orbit.
The Sun burns 9 million tons of gas a second.
Neptune's year is equal to 166 earth years.
The coldest place in the solar system is Triton which is Neptune's largest moon, which has a temp of -391degrees F just 69 degrees above absolute zero.
In 2006 Pluto was classified as a "Dwarf Planet".
Jupiter is the fastest rotating planet, which can complete one revolution in less than ten hours.
Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. The winter and summer seasons on this planet last 21 earth years each. This is a world of chill methane. This planet was discovered in 1781 by British Atronomist William Hershel.
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. The lenth of a day on Venus (sunrise to set) is equal to 243 earth days, yet it's years are only 224 earth days (it's years are shorter than it's days).
The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun.
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Geographical Facts.
Continents, States,and Cities.
On every continent there is a city called Rome.
About 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of their birth-place, this is called propinquity.
The longest U.S. highway is Route 20, which is over 3,365 miles.
Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A. The state of Tennessee was known as Franklin before 1796.
Montreal is the largest French-speaking city in the Western Hemisphere.
Panama is the only place in the world were you can see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean and set over the Atlantic Ocean.
Europe doesn't have any deserts it's the only continent without one.
Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Antarctica is also the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.
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Rivers and Oceans.
About 1/10th of the Earths surface is permanently covered in ice.
The oceans make up 70% of earths surface. The oceans also contain 97% of eaths water supply.
Salt is picked up from the soil of riverbeds by the fast flowing water and transfered to the ocean. When the ocean water evaporates the heavier salt stays in the ocean, and over the years the salt content continues to build.
There are now five Oceans recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization. The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, The Artic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. The Artic Ocean is the smallest of these 5. The strongest ocean current is the Agulhas current in the western part of the Indian Ocean it's speed is 6mph.
The Red Sea is red because of all the red algae in that area.
The Dead sea is not an ocean, it's a landlocked salt lake that is 45 miles long and 9 miles wide.
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Mountains, Deserts, and Rainforests.
The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere is Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. It rises 22,834 feet above sea level.
The largest desert in the world, the Sahara, is 3,500,000 square miles.
The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply.
The greatest mountain range is the Mid-Ocean Ridge, extending 64,374 km from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.The deepest point on the Earth's surface is in the Pacific Ocean located in the Marianas trench. This point is called the "Challenger Deep" and is 35,818 feet deep.
Mammals.
(Mammals are hairy animals, that give birth to live babys, humans also fall into this catagory. Some well known mammal subgroups are the cat/ feline family, the dog/ canine family, rodents, and marsupials who have pouches for carrying there young, are warmblooded animals).
Cat night vision is about 6 times better then that of a human at night. Small cats purs are equal to bigger cat's roars since the bones in their voice boxes are so tightly packed they can only move a little yet all cats have over 100 volocal cords. Cat's don't have collarbones though so they can fit through any opening that's the size of there heads.
The smallest cat is the Signapuras that weighs in at only 4lbs.
Underneath there fur Tigers also have striped skin.
At birth a Panda is smaller than a Mouse.
A Koala is not a true bear in a sense that unlike most bears it's a marsupial(has a pouch).
Polarbears are left handed.
Meerkats or Prarrie Dogs aren't dogs or cats yet are infact a type of mongoos that like most aren't affected by snake venom.
Beavers are North America's biggest rodents.
Sloths sleep 20 hours a day.
A mole can dig a tunnel 300 ft long in just one night.
Aardvarks are the only anteaters with teeth.
Porcupines can actualy float in water.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly. Bats only have one baby per year. Bat's legbones are so thin that they can't walk.
Rabbits can't vomit. Rabits are also more closely related to horses than to rodents.
A cow has four stomaches.Cows spots are like snowflakes there are never two cows with the same pattern of spots.Cows also only sleep 3 hrs a day.
The humps of Camels are were they store fat (not excess water as some thought).Camels also have 3 eyelids to protect there eyes from the sand.
Reindeer stay warm in the Artic cold by eating moss.
Giraffes are the only animals born with horns, both male and females come out with boney knobs on there forheads. The tongue of a Giraffe can grow to be 21 inches long.
Elephants are the largest land mammal on earth, and currently the largest land animal. Elephants can't jump, though they have knees on all four legs.
Grey Whales migrate 12,500 miles from the Artic to Mexico and back every year.
Orcas are members of the Ocean Dolphine or Delphinidea family. The shape of an Orca's dorsal fin coupled with the markings on it's saddle patch (located behind and below the dorsal fin) can be used to identify a spesfic Orca.
Dophins sleep with one eye open.
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Reptiles
(Reptiles are beings with a lot of skin that can be either smooth or rough. Most lay eggs. a lot of reptiles spend most of there time in the water or near the water, and are cold blooded).
Frogs don't drink water, they absorb it through there skin.
Crocodiles can't stick their tongues out.
An alligator's sex is determined by the temprature of the nest where the egg is hatched higher temps (90-93) male lower (82-86) female. They can also go through 2,000 to 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.
The Gila monster a slow moving nocturnal lizard that hunts by smell is one of only two truly poisonus lizards. Venom is contained in glands in the back part of a Gila's lower jaw, so that only by chewing can it bring it's venom into play.
Worlds largest anphibians are the Giant Salamanders they can grow up to 5ft in length.
Most snakes have 6 rows of teeth. Snakes usualy shead one whole layer of skin at once. Snakes are true carnivores as none of them eat any type of plant material.
Egg Eater snakes have complex digestive systems that allow them to swallow and break down eggs, then regergitate the shells.
Sea Snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world.
After mating the North American male Gardner Snake closes up the female's sexual opening with a plug made from his kidney secretions.
Rattlesnakes gather in groups to sleep throught the winter,sometimes up to 1,000 snakes will coil up together to keep warm.
The Black Necked Cobra of Africa spits venom into a victims eyes causing blindness.
The King Cobra is the largest of all poisonous snakes and can grow to over 13 ft. A bite from a King Cobra can kill an elephant in 4hrs.
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Dinosaurs.
(at first though most believed they were related to reptiles, yet they are now believed to have closer ties to birds. Like both they lay eggs, and most lived on land, yet all of them are extincted).
The Ankylosaurus's were the last of the armored dinosaurs to evolve and the biggest. They had large oval plates embedded (fused) in their leathery skins. They had a row of spikes coming out from either side of their bodies. They also had spikes around their necks and a club tail, these were considered the best armored
dinosaurs.
Brachiosauruses walked on four legs like other Saurapods. These plant eaters probably ate leaves of the tops of trees. They lived in herds, these dinos also had very small brains. Saurapods in general also had high blood pressure in order to keep them alive.
Corythosaurus's which name means "helmet head" were large duckbilled herbavores. These dinosaurs had head creasts which may have been used to make noises, to regulate body temprature, or to enhance their sense of smell.
Gallimimus was the chicken mimmic dinosaur. This bipedal carnivore lived during the late Cretasious period. It's the largest ornithornimid found to date at 11 ft height, 18 ft in length, and fully grown weighted up to 280 lbs.This dinosaur roamed what's now Mongollia. It resembels an ostrich.
Pachycephalosaurus was the thick skulled/ domed dino that might have used it's skull as a defensive weapon. Some say that males would challange each other to headbutting duels in order to win mates. The 10 inched domes of these dinos were flanked by a halo of five inched bone spikes. One of many bipedal plant eaters. He was also the largest and last of the "Bone head" family living in the late Cretacious period.This rare bread of Dinosaur was first found in Montana.
The Spinosauruses were named because this meat eater had a serries of nearal spines forming a fin that looked like a sail. This fin may have helped it controll it's temprature, and helped it durring mating rituals. It also had sharp straight teeth and a crocodile like lower jaw.
The name Tyrannosaurus Rex means tyrant lizard king. The arms of thes bipedal dinosaurs were only 3 ft long. Their teeth were cone shapped, and could tear through bone.They also had about 200 bones. Some state that this big dino could have been both a preditor and a scavanger (one who eats already dead animals).
The Triceratops were dinosaurs with three horns on there face, these dinos lived in herds and were plant eaters. Their horns may have been used in mating rituals or to fight of predators.
Since dinosaurs died out a long time ago, it's hard to know how accurate some of the information regaurding these creatures is.
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Birds
(Mostly feathered animals with more than 1/2 the species of birds being able to fly. All birds lay eggs).
The Peregrine Falcon can dive at a speed that may exceed 200 mph,making them the fastest animal alive.
The adult female Bald Eagle are 30% larger then the males. They reach maturity in 5-6 yrs. Their nests can be up to 8 ft across and weigh about a ton. These nests are usualy built to last as the Eagle tends to use it as a permanent home. The Bald Eagle mates for life.
The real reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water. it's also a fact that their eyes are bigger than their brains.
Vultures can soar for hrs without one beat of their wings.
Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp.
Kiwi's are flightless birds that live in New Zealand and have become the New Zealand National emblem.
Hummingbirds are the only type of birds that can fly backwards. Hummingbirds though can't walk.
The extint Dodo bird is believed to have been part of the parrot family.
The African Penguin or Blackfoot Penguin lives of the cost of Africa and spends most of it's time in the water looking for fish. They molt for three weeks during a year during this time they can't swim, which means they don't eat.
The Arctic Tern is a small bird that makes the longest migration of all birds as it spends it's summers in the Arctic and winters in the Antarctic.
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Sea Creatures.
(not all the Sea creatures under this title are fish. These are creatures found in rivers, lakes, or oceans).
The comon goldfish is the only animal that can see in both ultra violet and infer-red light.
A worn out or dislodged sharks tooth will be replaced in 24 hrs by the next tooth in line.
Sharks are immune to cancer.
The Whale Shark is the largest fish and can be over 50 feet wide and weigh about 2 tons. They also have 300 rows of teeth.
Mako sharks are the fastest swimmers at 43mph.
The Sand Sharks are the only sharks that have an air bladder, which alows them to float.
The Astralian Stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world.
A prick from the barbs of a Zebra fish can cause gangreen, convulsions, cardiac failure, and even death.
In the case of reproduction the seahorse is the only animal on earth that has it were the male get's pregnate. what happens is that the female releases her eggs into a special pouch in the males stomach, the male fertilizes these eggs and then the stomach takes on the rounded shap of pregnancy.
The giant squid has the largest eyes of all the animals in the world.
Octopus pupils are rectangular.
A starfish can have up to 16 arms. They are also the only animals that can turn there stomachs inside out.
The Linckia Columbia starfish can regenerate it's whole body from a 1/2 inch severed peice.
An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts enough power to start 50 cars.
One of the most lethal venomes comes from the Sea Wasp, a member of the jellyfish family found in Austrailia.
Clams have a row of eyes around there shells.
The second most numerous of living things are mollusks - soft bodied animals with hard shells.
Shrimp can only swim backwards. Shrimps hearts are in there heads.
The blood of a lobster is colorless, until exposed to oxygen then it becomes a blueish color.
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Bugs&Insects.
(Bugs and Insects are both considered small multi legged things, some of which can fly, some are helpful, while others are harmful).
Earth Worms have 5 hearts.
Slugs have 4 noses.
A snail can sleep for three years. Most snails are hermaphrodites (both male and female).
Female black widow spiders eat their mates after mating. Only the bite of a female black widow is poisonus.
Desert Tarantula's are reluctant to sting humans, yet if they do it's venome is almost a kin to that of a bee sting. These huge and hairy spiders have even been known to eat small birds.
Scorpians have been on this earth since well before the dinosaurs. There are atleast 25 species of these arachnids that have stingers that are leathal to humans. Some of these bugs can even go a year without food. Scorpians can also have up to 12 eyes.
Leaches have 32 brains.
Bee's stingers have barbs, which makes them hard to pull out, wasps don't and that's why they can sting a victim repeatedly. Bee's can see in ultraviolet light.
Inchneumon belong to the same family as bees and wasps, play an important role in controling some of the U.S more harmful insects. They have long tails with ovipostors that can peirce several inches of wood.
A roach will live 9 days without it's head. These insects also have white blood. Roaches use their feelers as noses and can reconize freinds and family by their distinctive odors.
The Rinoceros beetle can carry up to 850 times it's weight on it's back.
Fireflies/Glowbugs are actualy members of the beetle family. Glowworms are the flightless female versions of this insect.
The average housefly lives for one month. These creatures have been known to carry more diseases than any other animal in the world.
A flea can jump 350 times it's body length.
Mosiquitos have 47 teeth.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Termites work all day without rest, and they've been around for 250 million years. Termites king and queen stay together for life (a rarety among social insects).
An ant can lift 50 times it's weight or pull 30 times it's weight. An ant's brain contains 250,000 brain cells. Ant's can't chew there food, they move there jaws sideways to extract the juices from there food.
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People Information
(It's believed in evolutionary theory that we decended from monkeys, and apes).
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute. Human eyes don't freeze because of the salt in our tears.
Women dream more than men, and children dream more than adults. More people dream in black and white than in color. People dream an average 5 times per night each dream gets longer than the last, ranging from 10 to 45 minutes. An average person has atleast 1,460 dreams a year. The average person falls asleep in 7 minutes.
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women are.
Men loose about 40 hairs a day while women loose about 70 hairs a day.Men can usualy read smaller print than women while women usualy hear better than men do.
10% of men are left handed, while only 8% of women are left handed.
Atleast 100,000 chemical reactions take place in the human brain every second. A normal human brain weighs 3 lbs, and all but 10 oz of that is water. Human brain cells are the longest living cells in the human body, they can last a lifetime.
Humans create and kill about 15 million red blood cells per second.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. As babies we are born with 300 bones, yet by the time we reach adulthood we have only 206 bones in our bodies.
Babies are born without knee caps they don't appear until they are 2-6years old.A newborn babie's head accounts for 1/4 of it's total weight.
Human ribs move about 5 million times per year each time a person breaths. A person breaths in almost 7 quarts of air a minute.
Bones can endur up to 24,000 lbs of presure per square inch.
The average life span of a taste bud is 10 days. A tongue print is as unique as a finger print. The tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body. It's imposible for a person to lick their own elbow.
Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands. Human fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails. Only 7% of the population are lefties.
When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart. A sneeze travels out of your mouth at over 100 m.p.h. On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.
With quality sleep a human immune system is strengthened, cells are repaired, and mental functions are sharpened. 1/3 of a human's life is spent sleeping.
People who have never married are 7.5 times more likely to be hospitalized in a state or community psychiatric facility than those who married.
A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.
The average person takes about 18,000 steps per day. Average persons hand flexes it's finger joints atleast 25 million times in there lifetime.
The average person over fifty will have spent 5 years waiting in lines. During an average life time a person eats about 60,000 lbs of food. In a life time a person will spend atleast 2yrs on the phone.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Food Information.
Fish is brain food as it's an excelent source of omega-3 fatty acids which is important in the development of the brain. It also helps reduce plague infestation in the artries. Also a source of vitamin B that helps with cognative ability and memory.
English sailors came to be called Limeys after using lime juice to combat scurvy
Apples are more efficient than caffeine for waking you up in the morning. Apples are part of the rose family.
Bannana's are fruits that are part of the berry family since they have seeds within their fleshy pulp. The bannana tree could be classified as a herb tree since the trunk isn't a real trunk yet instead is formed by thinly wrapped leaf sheets. This makes Banana's the worlds largest herbs. Bannanas also contain a natural chemical that can induce happyness in a person, which is also found in Prozac.
Strawberries are the only fruit which has seeds on the outside.
High Bush Blueberry bushes can produce Blueberries for 40-50 yrs before dying.
Capsaicin which gives Chile Pepers their heat acts as a disieas preventing phytochemical and could act as a anticoagulant that could prevent blood clots.
There are more than 1,000 varieties of cherries in the United States.
Tomatoes and Tomato products may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer and or breast cancer cooked tomatoes are better than raw ones though.
An average ear of corn has 800 kernels arranged in 16 rows.
Green Veggies that contain vitamine D can prevent heart diseas and cancer and even prevent nerual tube defects in unborn-babies. And while carrots are thought to be good for the eyes Green Veggies have more lutien in them than Carrots (which helps fight off macular degeneration).
Asparagus is a low calorie source of folateand potassium. Stalks are also high in antioxidants. This veggie spoils quickly and if not refrigerated loses 1/2 it's vitamin C and much of it's flavor in 2-3 days.
Yogurt while like most of the calcium rich dairy products is good for your bones. It also contains good bacteria that help maintain proper digestive health and help boost a persons immune system.
Rice plants may have up to 55,000 genes.
The crust of a slice of bread has 8 times the amount of cancer fighting antitoxins than the center of the same slice of bread would have.
Nuts can help reduce the likely hood of cancer and heart dicsease if eaten regularly. Most have antioxidin vitamin E and some have Artery uncloging monosaturated fats. About 850 peanuts are needed to make an 18oz jar of peanut-butter.
Egg shells can have up to 17,000 tiny pores on it's surface.
Oatmeal, Nuts, Soy, and other fiber rich fruits and vegetables are known to reduce cholesterol.
Black or Green Tea (and some others) can also help prevent the risk of Cancer or Heart Disieas.
Honey is the only food product that doesn't spoil period.
Health Information.
Listening to loud music can make one have hearing problems and posibly go deaf.
Sitting to close to the T.V will fatigue a persons eyes, yet will not permently damage them, the same is true if one is reading with not that much light.
Don't rub your hands in snow if frostbitten. Gradual warming is key yet rubbing the area with anything may damage more tissue.
Chicken Soup isn't a true cure for colds.
Heart Disease is a bit genetic so while being active may help reduce ones risk of getting a heart attack.
Neither Stress nor Acid are triggers for an ulcers. 90% of ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection usualy linked to the H.pylori bacteria. Stress, acids, and dieting can worsen the syndromes of an ulcer
The old adage feed a cold and starve a fever is not one that should be praticed since people with fevers tend to need more calories and though fluids are encourged while fending of a cold there's no need to over eat.
Exercise can help you build muscles, yet were a person looses weight, depends more on genetics than it does a spesific exercise.
Daily exercise has shown to improve blood cholesteral levels, prevent bone loss, boost ones energy level, release tension, improve one's self image, etc.
Gardening is the best exercise for maintaining healthy bones.
If you use a straw while drinking sugary drinks like soda, it will keep the sugar away from your teeth.
Deadly Poisons
Botulinum said to be the deadliest poison known to man. When contracted the nervouse system shuts down and you die a very painful death.
Anthrax if you touch it you will infect you, yet inhailing it is even deadlier. Symtoms are like that of a cold or flue, followed by complete respitory collapse.
Cyanide most often suspected poison in crime movies. Produced from certian bacteria,fungus, and plants. Exposure by inhaliation or diggestion leads to seizurs, cardiac arrest, and ultimately death.
Strychnine a pesticide of the bitterest substance known to man. This substance causes unstoppable spasms that start at the head and neck and soon spread to every muscle in the body. Death occures from the total exhaustion of the body from the intense convolsions and asphyxiation .
In Redondo Beach, Calif., a police officer arrested a driver after a short chase and charged him with drunk driving. Officer Joseph Fonteno's suspicions were aroused when he saw the white Mazda MX-7 rolling down Pacific Coast Highway with half of a traffic-light pole, including the lights, lying across its hood. The driver had hit the pole on a median strip and simply kept driving. According to Fonteno, when the driver was asked about the pole, he said, "It came with the car when I bought it."
The record for the world’s worst drivers is a toss-up between two candidates: First, a 75-year-old man who received 10 traffic tickets, drove on the wrong side of the road four times, committed four hit-and-run offenses, an caused six accidents, all within 20 minutes on October 15, 1966. Second, a 62-year-old woman who failed her driving test 40 times before passing it in August, 1970 (by that time, she had spent over $700 in lessons, and could no longer afford to buy a car).
Richard Milhouse Nixon was the first US President whose name contains all the letters from the word "0." William Jefferson Clinton is the 2nd.
A Hawaiian stamp of 1851 with a face value of 2 cents was the sole reason Gaston Leroux, a Parisian philatelist, murdered its owner, Hector Giroux.
Lawsuits filed by California inmates cost the taxpayers more than $25 million in 1994.
Archduke Karl Ludwig (1833-1896), brother of the Austrian emperor, was a man of such piety that on a trip to the Holy Land, he insisted on drinking from the River Jordan, despite warnings that it would make him fatally ill. He died within a few weeks.
Peter Karpin, a German espionage agent in World War I, was seized by French Intelligence agents in 1914 as soon as he entered the country. Keeping his capture a secret, the French sent faked reports from Karpin to Germany and intercepted the agent's wages and expense money until Karpin escaped in 1917. With those funds the French purchased an automobile, which, in 1919, in occupied Rurh, accidentally ran down and killed a man, who proved to be Peter Karpin.
When police arrived in Appleton, Wisconsin to remove a woman's children because of a complaint that she had given her 11-year-old daughter a "swirlie" (Holding her head in a flushing toilet). The woman reportedly said, "I haven't had a vacation in 13 years, go ahead and take them!"
A reward of $1,000 was offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of a man robbing taxi drivers. The man turned himself in and demanded the reward as a result. He received a 20 year sentence for aggravated robbery instead.
The Belgium news agency Belga reported in November that a man suspected of robbing a jewelry store in Liege said he couldn't have done it because he was busy breaking into a school at the same time. Police then arrested him for breaking into the school.
A couple robbing a store caught on camera could not be identified until the police reviewed the security tape. The woman filled out an entry form for a free trip prior to robbing the store.
A lawyer defending a man accused of burglary tried this creative defense: "My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offense committed by his limb." "Well put," the judge replied. "Using your logic, I sentence the defendant's arm to one year's imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses." The defendant smiled. With his lawyer's assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out.
In 1970, Russel T. Tansie, an Arizona lawyer filed a $100,000 damage lawsuit against God. The suit was filed on behalf of Mr. Tansie's secretary, Betty Penrose, who accused God of negligence in His power over the weather when He allowed a lightning bolt to strike her home. Ms. Penrose won the case when the defendant failed to appear in court. Whether or not she collected has not been recorded.
A man went in to rob a bank. He demanded the clerk to give him all the money. They told him to go sit out in his car and they would bring him the bags of money. He agreed and went out to his car. In the meantime, the people in the bank called the police. When they got there the man was still sitting in his car waiting for the money and they arrested him.
In South Carolina, an inmate who was paralyzed behind bars says in a lawsuit that Spartanburg County jail guards should have stopped him from doing back flips off a desk in his cell. Torrence Johnson, who is suing for unspecified damages, said recently that he fell and crushed a vertebra while being held in maximum-security in 1998.
R.C. Gaitlan, 21, walked up to two patrol officers who were showing their squad car computer felon-location equipment to children in a Detroit neighborhood. When he asked how the system worked, the officer asked him for identification. Gaitlan gave them his drivers license, they entered it into the computer, and moments later they arrested Gaitlan because information on the screen showed Gaitlan was wanted for a two-year-old armed robbery in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dennis Newton was on trial for the armed robbery of a convenience store in district court when he fired his lawyer. Assistant district attorney Larry Jones said Newton, 47, was doing a fair job of defending himself until the store manager testified that Newton was the robber. Newton jumped up, accused the woman of lying and then said, "I should have blown your head off." The defendant paused, then quickly added, "If I'd been the one that was there." The jury took 20 minutes to convict Newton and recommended a 30-year sentence.
A Texan convicted of robbery worked out a deal to pay $9600 in damages rather than serve a two-year prison sentence. For payment, he gave the court a forged check. He got his prison term back, plus eight more years.
A man was arrested and charged with the robbery—of vending machines. The man posted bail, entirely in quarters.
A teenager in Belmont, New Hampshire robbed the local convenience store. Getting away with a pocket full of change, the boy walked home. He did not realize, however, that he had holes in both of his pockets. A trail of quarters and dimes led police directly to his house.
A judge in Louisville decided a jury went "a little bit too far" in recommending a sentence of 5,005 years for a man who was convicted of five robberies and a kidnapping. The judge reduced the sentence to 1,001 years.
Eugene-Francois Midocq, a French thief and outlaw, evaded the police for years, turned police spy, joined the force as a detective, and ultimately used his knowledge of crime to establish a new crime-fighting organization, the Surete.
Tyson Mitchell of Iowa City, Iowa walked into the police station, for some reason that nobody understands, and asked the dispatcher if he was wanted for any crimes. He was and was also arrested, on the spot. But wait! There's more! The police found several bags of cocaine in his pocket.
Organized crime is estimated to account for 10% of the United States' national income.
In a stroke of irony, the maximum security prison in St. Albans, Vermont, was responsible in 1996 for sending out public relations brochures enticing tourists to visit Vermont.
A guy wearing pantyhose on his face tried to rob a store in a mall. When security came, he quickly grabbed a shopping bag and pretended to be shopping, forgetting that he was still wearing the pantyhose. He was captured and his loot was returned to the store.
A man robbed a convenience store and ran out with a bag full of cash. He got down the street and realized he had left his car keys on the counter. When he returned to the store, he was promptly arrested.
Eleven days before the statute of limitations was to expire on the Brink's robbery in Boston, Massachusetts, that netted nearly $3 million in January 1950, one of the robbers confessed and betrayed his fellow robbers.
Spies must always know how to go underground—it's in the nature of their job. But during World War I, Heinrich Albert, a German operative in the United States, failed miserably at this task.
The guy was carrying in his briefcase plans to sabotage American factories. So what does he do? He takes the New York City subway and manages to leave his briefcase on the train! American agents following him recovered the documents.
Airport security personnel find about six weapons a day searching passengers.
One legend claims stealing someone's shadow (by measuring it against a wall and driving a nail through its head) can turn the victim into a vampire.
Avoid people who talk to themselves. According to Ukrainian legend, that could indicate a dual soul and the second one doesn't die! Also watch out for the seventh son of a seventh son, a person born with a red caul (amniotic membrane covering the head), or a child born with teeth. A vampire can result if a cat or dog walks over a fresh grave, a bat flies over the corpse, or the person has died suddenly as a result of suicide or murder. Unfinished business can also cause a body to rise, as can inadequate burial rites, including a grave that is too shallow.
Most vampires are described in folklore as flushed and ruddy, with swollen bodies and bloated faces. Often, they can be identified because they're sitting up in the grave.
According to folklore, there are a number of ways to protect yourself from vampires, including the ever-popular wearing of garlic or a religious symbol. You can slow a vampire down by giving him something to do, like pick up poppy seeds or unravel a net. (They're quite compulsive.) Cross water and he can't follow. If you can find the body, give it a bottle of whiskey or food so it doesn't have to travel. If that doesn't work, either shoot the corpse (may require a silver bullet) or drive a stake through the heart. And remember, the vampire won't enter your dwelling unless invited.
Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads.
In Dante's "Inferno" the Ninth Circle of Hell is reserved for those who betray family or country. The denizens of this deepest circle, who are frozen in ice, include Judas (betrayer of Christ) and Cassius and Brutus (betrayers of Julius Caesar).
Abe Silverstein, who headed NASA's Space Flight Development Program, proposed the name Apollo for the space exploration programs in the 1960's. He chose that legendary Greek name because the virile Apollo was a god who rode through the skies in a magnificent golden chariot. The precedent of naming manned spacecraft for mythological gods had been set earlier with Project Mercury, also named by Silverstein.
Some people consider the $1 bill unlucky because there are so many 13's on it: 13 stars, 13 stripes, 13 steps, 13 arrows and even an olive branch with 13 leaves on it. Of course the $1 bill is unlucky - if it was lucky it would be a $100 bill.
The name of the legendary Lady Godiva's horse - Aethenoth
An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.
When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway.
According to legend, if a hare crosses a person's path as he starts out on a journey, the trip will be unlucky and it's best to return home and start again. If a pregnant woman sees a hare, her child may be born with a hare-lip. If a hare runs down the main street of a town, it foretells a fire. Cornish legend says that girls who die of grief after being rejected by a lover turn into white hares and haunt their former beaus.
Ancient Greeks wove marjoram into funeral wreaths and put them on the graves of loved ones. The wreaths served as prayers for the happiness of the deceased in a future life.
Breaking of a glass is traditional in some wedding ceremonies. This custom symbolizes different things. To some its the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and for some its the represents the fragility of a relationship.
In Greek culture, brides carry a lump of sugar in their wedding glove. It's supposed to bring sweetness to their married life.
Placing a wreath on a grave is part of an ancient belief it was necessary to provide comforts for the dead and give them gifts in order for their spirits to not haunt the mourners. The circular arrangement represents a magic circle which is supposed to keep the spirit within its bounds.
The Sphinx at Giza in Egypt is 240 feet long and carved out of limestone. Built by Pharaoh Khafre to guard the way to his pyramid, it has a lion's body and the ruler's head.
The Vikings believed that the Northern lights which are seen from time to time in the north sky were caused by the flashing armor and spears of Odin's handmaidens as they rode out to collect warriors slain in battle.
One gift-giving taboo in China is the giving of straw sandals, which are associated with funerals, and therefore considered bad luck.
Crossing one's fingers is a way of secretly making the sign of the Cross. It was started by early Christians to ask for divine assistance without attracting the attention of pagans.
One sign of rain that farmers once searched for was for their pigs to pick up sticks and walk around with them in their mouths.
During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of onions to the front.
Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about a thousand years.
On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.
One superstition says that if a girl leaves her house early on Valentine's Day and the first person she meets is a man, then she will be married within three months.
Less romantic was the old historical opinion that Valentine's Day is a good day to prepare eels for the purposes of magic. Eating an eel's heart was once believed to enable a person to see into the future.
The reason one wears a wedding ring on the third finger is that (tradition says) there is supposed to be a vein which goes directly from that finger to the heart—i.e., the seat of love. Also, not everyone wears that wedding ring on the third finger of the LEFT hand. In some traditions, such as the Jewish one, it is worn on the right hand. Also, I'm given to understand that nuns ("brides of Christ") wear a wedding ring, again on the right hand.
To prevent evil spirits from entering the bodies of their male children, parents dressed them in blue. Blue was chosen because it's the color of the sky and was therefore associated with heavenly spirits.
Girls weren't dressed in blue, apparently because people didn't think that evil spirits would bother with them. Eventually, however, girls did get their own color: pink. Pink was chosen because of an old English legend which said that girls were born inside of pink roses.
The famous Citgo sign near Fenway Park in Boston is maintained not by Citgo, but by Boston's historical society.
The natural diet of Lady Beetles consists of soft bodied insects such as aphids, spider mites, and young caterpillars. Adults can consume up to 100 aphids a day.
Certain species of male butterflies produce scents that serve in attracting females during courtship.
The Giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.
A nest in which insects or spiders deposit their eggs is called a "nidus".
Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
The only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees is the praying mantis.
Scientists have identified more than 300 viruses capable of bringing fatal diseases to insects. The organisms are believed to be entirely different than those that cause disease in humans, and are thus harmless to man.
The average airspeed of the common housefly is 4 1/2 mph. A housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.
Small cockroaches are more likely to die on their backs than large cockroaches.
There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.
Fleas can jump more than 200 times their body length.
Crickets don't chirp by rubbing their legs together, they make the noise by rubbing their wings together.
The social life in ants and termites has been accompanied by an extraordinary royal perk: a 100-fold increase among queen ants in average maximum lifespan, with some queens surviving for almost 30 years. This longevity can be attributed in part to the sheltered and pampered life of the royal egg layer.
Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays nearly 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen bee, has a lifespan of around 24 days—he has no sting. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themselves to death within 40 days, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees will fly p to 9 miles to find pollen and nectar, flying at speeds as fast as 15 mph.
There are 4,300 known species of ladybugs in the world.
You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.
The tarantula spends most of its life within its burrow, which is an 18-inch vertical hole with an inch-wide opening. When male tarantulas are between the ages of 5 to 7 years, they leave the burrow in search of a female, usually in the early fall. This migration actually signals the end of their life cycle. The males mate with as many females as they can, and then they die around mid-November.
Until very recently, no centipede was found that did not have an ODD number of leg pairs. Usually the number varies from 15 to 191 pairs, all odd. No one knows why. However, Chris Kettle, a doctoral student in ecology, recently found a centipede with 48 pairs of legs, an even number. The remarkable discovery was presented to the International Congress of Myriapodology in Poland and featured in the science journal Trends in Genetics. Mr. Kettle suspects a genetic mutation is responsible for the even number of leg pairs.
62 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature required for a grasshopper to be able to hop.
Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.
Spiders have transparent blood.
There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are humans on the entire earth.
A spiders web is made of two types of silk, one sticky and the other not. The spider begins the web with the non sticky silk and forms the "spokes". After the frame is constructed and secure, the spider goes back with the sticky silk and completes the web design we are so familiar with, connecting spoke to spoke. They will also add rows connecting the spokes to allow them access for web maintenance.
Spend time watching a spider and you will see that they painstakingly avoid the sticky silk and walk on the spokes. Should the spider be startled and walk in the sticky silk it will affix to the spider the same as it would you or any thing else.
Spiders recycle their webbing, so a spider that gets stuck in its own web may eat its way out.
Some crickets burrow megaphone-like tunnels that help transport the sound of their chirps as far as 2,000 feet away.
A bee could travel 4 million miles (6.5 million km) at 7 mph (11km/h) on the energy it would obtain from 1 gallon (3.785 liters) of nectar.
A dragonfly flaps its wings 20 to 40 times a second, bees and houseflies 200 times, some mosquitoes 600 times, and a tiny gnat 1,000 times.
A fly can react to something it sees and change direction in 30 milliseconds.
A housefly can transport germs as far as 15 miles away from the original source of contamination.
A mature, well-established termite colony with as many as 60,000 members will eat only about one-fifth of an ounce of wood a day.
The silkworm's silk comes out of its mouth as a thread of gooey liquid, so that nice silk blouse you spent a fortune on is really just worm spit.
What is billed as the world's largest weather vane sits on the shores of White Lake in Montague, Michigan. It's 48 feet tall with a 26-foot wind arrow and adorned with a 14-foot replica of a 19th-century Great Lakes schooner.
The world's largest coffee pot is located in Davidson, Saskatchewan. It measures 24 Feet(7.3 Meters) tall, is made of sheet metal and could hold 150,000 8 ounce cups of coffee.
The Tokyo World Lanes Bowling Center is the largest bowling establishment in the world. It has 252 lanes and one very tired pinsetter.
The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique 170 ft. tall water tower was built in 1949 by W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant. In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this piece of local history was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance.
The longest Monopoly game ever played was 1,680 hours long, that's 70 straight days!
The longest Monopoly game in a bathtub was 99 hours long.
The highest wind velocity ever recorded in the United States was 231 miles per hour, on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, in 1934.
Howard Kinsey and Mrs. R. Roark, during a game of tennis, batted the ball back and forth 2001 consecutive times.
The World's Largest yo-yo resides in the National Yo-Yo Museum in Chico, California. Named "Big Yo," the 256-pound yo-yo is an exact scale replica of a Tom Kuhn "No Jive 3 in 1 Yo-Yo." Fifty inches tall and 31.5 inches wide, the yo-yo is made of California sugar pine, Baltic birch from the former USSR, and hardrock maple. It was first launched in San Francisco on October 13, 1979.
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language—823 words without a period.
The largest web-footed bird is the albatross.
On July 31, 1994, Simon Sang Sung of Singapore turned a single piece of dough into 8,192 noodles in 59.29 seconds!
At 12 years old, an African named Ernest Loftus made his first entry in his diary and continued everyday for 91 years.
Toronto, Ontario was home to the biggest swimming pool in the world in 1925. It held 2000 swimmers, and was 300ft x 75ft. It is still in operation.
In 1968, Steve McPeak traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles on a unicycle. The trip took him six weeks, but he planned for the long bike journey. He brought an extra tire and a spare heinie.
The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, is cracked and has never been rung. The bell was being stored in a Moscow shed which caught fire. To "save" it, caretakers decided to throw water on the bell. This did not succeed, as the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever.
Shakespeare's most talkative character is Hamlet. None of his other characters have as many lines in a single play. (Falstaff, who appears in several plays, has more lines total).
The largest school in the world is a k-12 school in the Philippines, with an enrollment of about 25,000.
France had the first supermarket in the world. It was started by relatives of the people who started the Texas Big Bear supermarket chain.
If you walked the entire length of the China's Great Wall, you would be walking farther than the distance between New York City and Miami, Florida. The wall stretches for over 1,500 miles. The driving distance between New York and Miami is just over 1,250 miles. Provided you don't get lost.
In Muddy, Illinois, the post office measures only 7½ by 10½ feet, about the size of a garden shed. If it wasn't for a sign hanging above the door stating, "U.S. Post Office, Muddy, IL., 62965," finding the tiny, wooden building could be difficult. It is believed to be one of the smallest post offices in the United States.
Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply.
The world's tallest mountains, the Himalayas, are also the fastest growing. Their growth - about half an inch a year — is caused by the pressure exerted by two of the earth's continental plates (the Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate) pushing against one another.
The biggest hog ever recorded was a creature named Big Boy who weighed in at 1, 904 pounds.
Belgian driver Jenatzy was the first to reach a speed of over 100km/h in his electrically powered car 'La Jamais Contente' in 1899.
Never mind what you saw in the film "The Poseidon Adventure." The biggest wave on record, reported by a reliable source, was estimated to have attained a height of 112 feet. It was measured, at some distance, I hope, by a tanker traveling between Manila and San Diego in 1933. The wind was blowing at 70 mph at the time.
On December 15, 1998, the Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center in Skokie, Illinois attempted to set the inaugural world's record for largest number of dreidels to be spun at one time. At least 200 people were needed to set the record.
The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America.
Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors.
The Bible is the number one shoplifted book in America.
he English-language alphabet originally had only 24 letters. One missing letter was J, which was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. The other latecomer to the alphabet was U.
"Fan" is an abbreviation for the word "fanatic." Toward the turn of the 19th century, various media referred to football enthusiasts first as "football fanatics," and later as a "football fan."
The proper name of our sole natural satellite is "the Moon" and therefore...it should be capitalized. The 60-odd natural satellites of other planets, however are called "moons" (in lower case) because each has been given a proper name, such as Deimos, Amalthea, Hyperion, Miranda, Larissa, or Charon.
The word "snorkel" comes from the German word "schnoerkel", which was a tube used by German submarine crews in WW2. The subs used an electric battery when traveling underwater, which had to be recharged using diesel engines, which needed air to run. To avoid the hazard of surfacing to run the engines, the Germans used the schnoerkel to feed air from the surface into the engines.
The name "fez" is Turkish for "Hat".
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful plough man strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
"The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
"Jerkwater" is a railroad term. Until about fifty years ago, most trains were pulled by thirsty steam engines that needed to refill their boilers from water towers next to the tracks. But some towns were so small and inconsequential that they lacked a water tower. When trains stopped in those places, the crew had to find a nearby stream or well and, bucket-brigade style, "jerk" the water to the train. Those little dots on the map became known as jerkwater towns.
Malcolm Lowry had pnigophobia—the fear of choking on fish bones.
Augustus Caesar had achluophobia—the fear of sitting in the dark.
Androphobia is a fear of men.
Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women.
Pentheraphobia is a fear of a mother-in-law.
Scopophobia is a fear of being looked at.
Phobophobia is a fear of fearing.
Mageiricophobia is the intense fear of having to cook.
Papaphobia is the fear of Popes.
Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.
Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
Incredible means not believable. Incredulous means not believing. When someone's story is truly incredible, you ought to be incredulous.
The terms "prime minister," "premier" and "chancellor" all refer to the leading minister of a government, and any differences from nation to nation stem from different systems of government, not from title definitions.
Tennis pro Evonne Goolagong's last name means "kangaroo's nose" in Australia's aboriginal language.
A "sysygy" occurs when all the planets of the our Solar System line up.
The most common letters in the English language are R S T L N E. Sound familiar? Watch an episode of "Wheel of Fortune"...
A "necropsy" is an autopsy on animals.
EEG stands for Electroencephalogram.
The English word pajamas has it's origin in Persian. It is a combination of the Persian words pa (leg) and jamah (garment).
The ZIP in zip code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan."
Yucatan, as in the peninsula, is from Maya "u" + "u" + "uthaan" meaning "listen how they speak," and is what the Maya said when they first heard the Spaniards.
Punctuation was not invented until the 1500's.