A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet.

A poll of 3,000 Americans found that for 41 percent, the thing they're most afraid of is speaking before a group of people. 32 percent stated they were afraid of heights.

Air pollution may contribute to two percent of all deaths in the US, some 50,000 cases per year. A nine-year study of US cities showed a strong correlation between death rates and periods of significant pollution.

Barbers at one time combined shaving and haircutting with bloodletting and pulling teeth. The white stripes on a field of red that spiral down a barber pole represent the bandages used in the bloodletting.

Based on a US Justice Department study conducted between 1992 and 1996, workplace violence troubles 1.7 million Americans a year. Number of workers attacked or threatened per thousand: Police officers: 306, Private security guards: 218, Taxi drivers: 184, Prison guards: 117, Bartenders: 91, Mental health professionals: 80, Gas station attendants: 79.

Catholic Popes who died during sex: Leo VII (936-9) died of a heart attack, John VII (955-64) was bludgeoned to death by the husband of the woman he was with at the time, John XIII (965-72) was also murdered by a jealous husband, Pope Paul II (1467-71) allegedly died while being sodomized by a page boy.

For drinking, washing, etc., an average American uses 168 gallons of water per day. The average American residence uses 107,000 gallons per year.

For the 66% of American's who admit to reading in the bathroom, the preferred reading material is "Reader's Digest."

Forty-six US federal agencies have officers with the authority to carry firearms and arrest people.

Fourteen percent of the one million citizens of Nairobi, Kenya carry the AIDS virus. Some 20% of the Kenyan military is infected. (1997)

Gerald Ford, George Bush, Tommy Lasorda, Ted Koppel, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bill Clinton are all left handed.

Hans Christian Andersen, Cher, Tom Cruise, Albert Einstein, Whoopie Goldberg, Greg Louganis, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Gen. George S. Patton, are (were) all dyslexics.

How many American presidents are not buried in the United States? Five. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

In 1960, an estimated 4,000 people were over 100 years old in the U.S. By 1995 the number had jumped to : 55,000.

In most American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. This means that a wedding ring cannot be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes.

James Madison, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, was the shortest president of the US. Abraham Lincoln was the tallest at six feet, 4 inches.

Julius Caesar, Martin Luther and Jonathan Swift all suffered from Ménièr's disease. It is a disorder of the hearing and balance senses causing hissing, roaring or whistling sounds to be perceived.

Men commit suicide three times more frequently than women do. But women attempt suicide two to three times more often than men.

Midgets and dwarfs almost always have normal-sized children, even if both parents are midgets or dwarfs.

Monday's Child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child has to work for its living, But a child that's born on the Sabbath Day, Is fair and wise and good and gay.

Texas was one of the first states to adopt capital punishment by lethal injection -- in 1977.

The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.

The first US president to both be sued for sexual misconduct and forced to give a deposition while in office was William Jefferson Clinton.

The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time under the eyes of half the village!

The largest single-ticket jackpot winner in history is Jack Whittaker Jr. of West Virginia. In December 2002 he had the sole winning ticket for a $314.9 million jackpot in the U.S. Powerball lottery.

The New York phone book had 22 Hitlers listed before World War II ... and none after.

The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility-enhancing drugs and techniques.

The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

The US President's Cabinet is composed of: the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health/Human Services, the Secretary of Housing/Urban Development, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Secretary of Education.

Three chemicals are used to execute criminals by lethal injection. First, Sodium Thiopental is injected, causing the inmate to fall into a deep sleep. The second chemical agent, Pancuronium Bromide, a muscle relaxer, follows. This causes the inmate to stop breathing due to paralyses of the diaphragm and lungs. Finally, Potassium Chloride is injected, stopping the heart

The Gothic-style Washington National Cathedral contains the remains of the only US president buried in Washington: Woodrow Wilson. William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.

US Presidents who died on July 4th: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, James Monroe died in 1831.

US presidents who have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William H. McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963.

US Presidents who never attended college: Grover Cleveland, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S Truman, and George Washington.

US Presidents who never had children: George Washington, known as the "Father of the Country," James Madison, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, and Warren Harding.

US Presidents who never held any other elective office: U. S. Grant, William H. Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

US Presidents who owned slaves : George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.

US presidents who served an entire term without a vice president: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur.

US presidents who were survived by their fathers: John F. Kennedy and Warren Harding.

US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. Senate on August 19, 1957. He spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was the first US president to die in office. At 32 days, he also had the shortest term in office.

You share your birthday with at least nine million other people around the world.

A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.

According to National Geographic, Mt. Everest grows about 4 millimeters a year: the two tectonic plates of Asia and India, which collided millions of years ago to form the Himalayas, continue to press against each other, causing the Himalyan peaks to grow slightly each year

All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.

As of Dec. 31, 2000, the number of climbers summiting Mt. Everest reached 1314, and the number of deaths on the mountain reached 167.

At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is three times the size of Texas. By comparison, Iceland is only 39,800 square miles.

Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), making it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Forty-six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean; that's around 6 sextillion gallons of water. The Atlantic has 23.9 percent; the Indian, 20.3; the Arctic, 3.7 percent.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city in the US to put fluoride in their water.

If Monaco's ruling house of Grimaldi should ever be without an heir (male or female), the country will cease to be a sovereign state.

In 1771 the kingdom of Poland was larger in are than any other European country except Russia and had a bigger population than any other European country except France.

La Paz, Bolivia, at 11,900 feet above sea-level, is the highest large city in the world.

(According to Scholastic Book of World Records 2004, Wenchuan, China is the highest city in the world, at 16,730 feet about sea level. This city if part of Sichuan Province, southwest China. )

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway at New Orleans, Louisiana, is the world's largest bridge. It is almost 24 miles (about 38 kilometers) long.

Mexico City is sinking at a rate of 6 to 8 inches a year because it's built on top of an underground reservoir. Wells are drawing out more and more water for the city's growing population of more than 15 million people.

More water flows over Niagara Falls every year than over any other falls on earth.

Most landfilled trash retains its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years.

New Jersey, with 96, is the US state with the greatest number of hazardous waste sites.

Quito in Ecuador, South America, is said to have the most pleasant climate in the world. It is called the 'Land of Eternal Spring.' The temperature rarely drops below 46 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, or exceed 72 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

The abbreviation 'ORD' for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name 'Orchard Field.'

The Arctic ocean is the smallest and shallowest. The Arctic Ocean is the world's smallest ocean. It is mostly covered by solid ice, ice floes, and icebergs

The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world's longest frontier. It stretches 3,987 miles (6,416 km).

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 first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. London, England reached the mark in 1810 and New York, USA made it in 1875. Today, there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of 1 million.

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.

The Fresh Kills Landfill site on Staten Island, New York, opened in 1948, is the world's largest. It covers 3,000 acres and receives up to 14,000 tons of garbage a day. It is scheduled to reach capacity and close by the year 2002.

The Great Lakes are Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

The Great Lakes are the most important inland waterway in North America. All the lakes, except Lake Michigan, which lies entirely in the United States, are shared by the United States and Canada and form part of the border between these countries.

The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world.

The Great Lakes have a combined area of 94,230 square miles - larger than the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont combined.

The Hollywood sign was first erected in 1923. Conceived as a real estate ad, it originally read Hollywoodland. The sign stands 50 feet tall, stretches 450 feet across, weighs 450,000 pounds.

The largest US city in area is Juneau, Alaska, which covers 3,108 square miles. Los Angeles covers only 458.2 square miles.

The original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del rio Porciuncula, translating into:The Village of our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River.

The San Diego Zoo in California has the largest collection of animals in the world.

The seven hills of Rome are the Palatine (on which the original city was built), the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine.

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 square miles.

The tallest monument built in the US, the Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri, is 630 feet tall.

The US city with the highest murder rate is Detroit, with 45.3 homicides per 100,000 people.

The Vatican's Swiss Guard still wears a uniform designed by Michelangelo in the early 16th century.

The water in the Great Salt Lake of Utah is more than four times as salty as any ocean.

The wettest spot in the world is located on the island of Kauai. Mt. Waialeale consistently records rainfall at the rate of nearly 500 inches per year.

The world's smallest independent state is the Vatican City, with a population of about 1,000 - and a zero birthrate.

The world's highest railway is in Peru. The Central Railway climbs to 15,694 feet in the Galera tunnel, 108 miles from Lima. Tourists take it to get to the ruins of Machu Picchu.

The longest railway in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian Railroad, built 1891-1916, a network of railways connecting European Russia with Russian Far East provinces. It is 9,288.2 kilometres (5,787 miles) long and spans 8 time zones.

The world's longest suspension bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998. The 3,911-meter (12,831-feet) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is 580 meters (1,900 feet) longer than the Humber Bridge in England, the previous record holder.

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 Earth's continental plates (the Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate) pushing against one another.

A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat.

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

Colored diamonds are caused by impurities such as nitrogen (yellow), boron (blue). With red diamonds being due to deformities in the structure of the stone, and green ones being the result of irradiation.

Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and is also one of the most valuable natural substances. Diamonds are crystals formed almost entirely of carbon. Because of its hardness, the diamond is the most enduring of all gemstones. They are among the most costly jewels in the world, partly because they are rare, Only four important diamond fields have been found - in Africa, South America, India, and the Soviet Union.

In 1957, the Shipping port Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went on line. (It was taken out of service in 1982.)

In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.

Mineral deposits in caves: The ones growing upward are stalagmites, the ones growing downward are stalactites.

Natural gas has no odor. The smell is added artificially so that leaks can be detected.

Prussic acid, in a crystalline powder called Zyklon B, was used to kill in Germany's gas chambers. The gas would paralyze the victim's lungs, causing them to suffocate.

Sea water, loaded with mineral salts, weighs about a pound and a half more per cubit foot than fresh water at the same temperature.

Ten per cent of the salt mined in the world each year is used to de-ice the roads in America.

The Chinese were using aluminum to make things as early as 300 AD Western civilization didn't rediscover aluminum until 1827.

The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found in 1905, the original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown Jewels and the British Royal family's collection.

The largest hailstone ever recorded was 17.5 inches in diameter - bigger than a basketball.

The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3) oxygen.

The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY.

All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean characters.

Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.

In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.

In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.

Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto.

On a clear night in the Northern Hemisphere the naked eye can discern some 5000 stars.

Robert Goddard a scientist and holder of 214 patents fired the first rocket using liquid propellant in 1926.

Sunday, July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, Edwin Aldrin was the second. They were members of Apollo 11, and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The Lunar Excursion Module was named the "Eagle." Michael Collins stayed onboard the mother ship, "Columbia."

The Apollo 11 plaque left on the Moon says, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. / WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND."

The first American satellite in orbit, Explorer I, was launched February 1, 1958.

The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field.

The three most recently discovered planets were Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930.

What we call the sky is merely the limit of our vision into the atmosphere. The sky, like the horizon, is always as far away as one can see.

A healthy individual releases 3.5 oz. of gas in a single flatulent emission, or about 17 oz. in a day.

A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.

According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week.

After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of white paper. It will probably appear pink.

An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.

Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)

Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.

Fingerprints serve a function - they provide traction for the fingers to grasp things.

Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

Humans shed and re-grow outer skin cells about every 27 days - almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime.

If it were removed from the body, the small intestine would stretch to a length of 22 feet.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

If you go blind in one eye, you'll only lose about one-fifth of your vision (but all your depth perception.)

In a lifetime the average US resident eats more than 50 tons of food and drinks more than 13,000 gallons of liquid.

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.

Jaw muscles can provide about 200 pounds of force to bring the back teeth together for chewing.

Lab tests can detect traces of alcohol in urine six to 12 hours after a person has stopped drinking.

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and water to fill a ten-gallon tank.

The average human produces 25,000 quarts of spit in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools.

The average person releases nearly a pint of intestinal gas by flatulence every day. Most is due to swallowed air. The rest is from fermentation of undigested food.

The body's largest internal organ is the small intestine at an average length of 20 feet

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell.

The largest cell in the human body is the female reproductive cell, the ovum. The smallest is the male sperm.

The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 square feet.

The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus.

The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective "sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors (or "sartors") at work.

The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.

The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.

The only time the human population declined was in the years following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague 'Black Death' in Europe.

The permanent teeth that erupt to replace their primary predecessors (baby teeth) are called succedaneous teeth.

The sound of a snore (up to 69 decibels) can be almost as loud as the noise of a pneumatic drill.

The tips of fingers and the soles of feet are covered by a thick, tough layer of skin called the stratum corneum.

There are four main Blood types: A, B, AB and O and each Blood type is either Rh positive or negative. Blood types in the US - Type O positive 38.4%, O negative 7.7%, A positive 32.3%, A negative 6.5%, B positive 9.4%, B negative 1.7%, AB positive 3.2%, AB negative 0.7%

"Fortnight" is a contraction of "fourteen nights." In the US "two weeks" is more commonly used.

A bathometer is an instrument for indicating the depth of the sea beneath a moving vessel.

Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5!

England and the American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar on September 14th, 1752. 11 days disappeared.

Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.

If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.

If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050.

In 1947, heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths.

More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man.

The anemometer is an instrument which measures the force, velocity, or pressure of the wind.

The base of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is large enough to cover 10 football fields.

The greatest snowfall ever in a single storm was 189 inches at the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl in February, 1959.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582 AD, and was adopted by Great Britain and the English colonies in 1752.

The highest point of the earth, with an elevation of 29,141 feet, is the top of Mt. Everest in Tibet.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the continental US was 134 degrees on July 10, 1913 in Death Valley, California.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the world was 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit at El Azizia, Lybia, on September 13, 1922.

The highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls in Venezuela, has a total drop of 3,121 feet.

The linen bandages that were used to wrap Egyptian mummies averaged 1,000 yards in length.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in the world was 129 degrees below 0 at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

The metal instrument used in shoe stores to measure feet is called the Brannock device.

The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.

The most snow accumulation in a one-day period was 75.8 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado, in April 1921.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in 1978 that it would alternate men's and women's names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women's groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names.

Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tectonic destruction from an earthquake (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.)

A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.

A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."

Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular during the Middle Ages.

"Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing.

In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.

In the 19th century, craftsmen who made hats were known to be excitable and irrational, as well as to tremble with palsy and mix up their words. Such behavior gave rise to the familiar expression "mad as a hatter". The disorder, called hatter's shakes, was caused by chronic mercury poisoning from the solution used to treat the felt. Attacking the central nervous system, the toxin led to behavioral symptoms.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

"Long in the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.

Oddly, no term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a variety of expressions referring to specific homosexual roles. Experts find this baffling, as the old Greek culture regarded male/male love in the highest regard. According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.

Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.

Poor whites in Florida and Georgia are called "crackers." They got the name from their principal staple food, cracked corn. Another theory states that the name comes from the days when they would drive cattle southward using the "crack" of their bullwhips to keep the animals in line and moving.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

The "y" in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a "th" sound, not "y". The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England used the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y".

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 popular saying came to mean that all ways or methods of doing something end in the same result, no method being better than another.

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

The expletive, "Holy Toledo," refers to Toledo, Spain, which became an outstanding Christian cultural center in 1085.

The idiom "pillar of salt" means to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed and dead.

The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.

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 that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. Actually, that's a piece of folk etymology. The phrase refers to the use of rough and ready practical experience rather than formal procedures in getting something done. It's most likely that the saying comes from carpenters using the length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch long, to measure things. So "rule" refers to a ruler in the sense of measurement, not of despotism or male chauvinism. Other parts of the body were used as a ruler, too. A foot was determined by a pace, the distance from the tip of the nose to the outstretched fingers is roughly a yard, and horse heights are still measured by hands?the width of the palm and closed thumb is about four inches.

The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because that was the side that you put in on at the port.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."

The term "honeymoon" is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding.

The term "throw one's hat in the ring" comes from boxing, where throwing a hat into the ring once signified a challenge. Today it nearly always signifies political candidacy.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone's eye out.

The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.

The word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.

The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.

The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)

The word "coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used.

The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning throat or gullet. This is also the origin of the word gargle. The word describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.

The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions.

The word quisling comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of Norway. The word now means "traitor."

Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word "I". Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once in their inaugural addresses.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period

The shortest war on record, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted just 38 minutes.

The US federal income tax was first enacted in 1862 to support the Union's Civil War effort. It was eliminated in 1872, revived in 1894 then declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the following year. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the US tax system.

In 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service to protect former presidents and their spouses for their lifetime, unless they decline the protection. Recently, Congress limited the protection of former presidents and their spouses (elected after January 1, 1997) to 10 years after leaving office. President Clinton, who was elected in 1996, will be the last president to receive lifelong protection from the Secret Service.

Acupuncture was first used as a medical treatment in 2700 BC by Chinese emperor Shen-Nung.

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

At the height of its power, in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves.

Bock's Car was the name of the B-29 Bomber that dropped the Atom Bomb on Nagasaki.

Britain's present royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was changed in 1917, during WW1 because of German connotations. The name Windsor was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time the Battenberg family name of the cousins to the Windsors was changed into Mountbatten.

Canada declared national beauty contests canceled as of 1992, claiming they were degrading to women.

Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795 the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships.

Chicago's Lincoln Park was created in 1864. The original 120 acre cemetery had most of its graves removed and was expanded to more than 1000 acres for recreational use.

During the US Civil war, 200,000 blacks served in the Union Army; 38,000 gave their lives; 22 won the Medal of Honor.

Everyone in the Middle Ages believed -- as Aristotle had -- that the heart was the seat of intelligence.

Former President Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison in 1892, becoming the first (and, to date, only) chief executive to win non-consecutive terms to the White House.

Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit which included a large beaked head piece. The beak of the head piece, which made them look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims.

From the Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a number of medical duties including bloodletting, wound treatment, dentistry, minor operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originated in the Middle Ages, when it was a staff the patient would grip while the barber bled the patient.

In 1810 US population was 7,239,881. Black population at 1,377,808 was 19%. In 1969 US population reached 200 million.

In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters.

In England and the American colonies they year 1752 only had 354 days. In that year, the type of calendar was changed, and 11 days were lost.

In the Holocaust between 5.1 and 6 million of Europe's 10 million Jews were killed. An additional 6 million 'unwanted' people were also executed, including more than half of Poland's educated populace.

Martha Washington in the only woman whose portrait has ever appeared on a US currency note. Her portrait was on the face of the $1 silver certificate issues of 1886 and 1891, and on the back of the $1 silver certificate of 1896. Sacagewea and Susan B. Anthony are the only women represented on a US coin. Both were honored on a dollar coin.

More than 20,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest one-day fight during the Civil War.

Napoleon took 14,000 French decrees and simplified them into a unified set of 7 laws. This was the first time in modern history that a nation's laws applied equally to all citizens. Napoleon's 7 laws are so impressive that by 1960 more than 70 governments had patterned their own laws after them or used them verbatim.

Nevada was the first state to sanction the use of the gas chamber, and the first execution by lethal gas took place in February, 1924.

On April 12, 1938, the state of New York passed a law requiring medical tests for marriage license applicants, the first state to do so.

On August sixth, 1945, during World War Two, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.

On Dec. 10th 1901 the 1st Nobel prizes were awarded. Literature - Rene Sully-Prudhomme; Physiology - Emil von Behring; Chemistly - Jacobus van't Hoff; Physics - Wilhelm Roentgen; Peace - Jean Henri Dunant Frederic Passy.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union.

On June 26th, 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco. (The text of the charter was in five languages: Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.)

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

President George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart in 1782. It's a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.

Seven of the eight US Presidents who have died in office - either through illness or assassination - were elected at precisely 20-year intervals.

The "Spruce Goose" flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, it is the largest aircraft ever built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320 feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon, Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again.

The 1st 20 African slaves were brought to the US, to the colony of Virginia in 1619, by a Dutch ship.

The 1st nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1954, made her maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.

The 1st US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) was enacted in 1909.

The 1st US federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas in 1906.

The 1st US Minimum Wage Law was instituted in 1938. The minimum wage was 25 cents per hour.

The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from 1347 to 1351.

The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on October 15, 1794.

The first losing candidate in a US presidential election was Thomas Jefferson. He lost to John Adams. George Washington had been unopposed.

The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896. 484 contestants from 13 nations participated.

The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name "leathernecks."

The House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, won England's 'War of the Roses.'

The longest reigning monarch in history was Pepi II, who ruled Egypt for 90 years; 2566 to 2476 BC. The second longest was France's Louis XIV, who ruled for 72 years, 1643 to 1715.

The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day.

The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey.

The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.

The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.

The seven wonders of the ancient world were:
1. Egyptian Pyramids at Giza
2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon
3. Statue of Zeus at Olympia
4. Colossus of Rhodes - or huge bronze statue near the Harbor of Rhodes that honored the sun god Helios
5. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
6. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
7. Lighthouse at Alexandria

The shortest war on record was fought between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It was adopted as the international signal for distress in 1912, and the Titanic struck the iceberg in April of that year.

The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.

The USSR set off the largest nuclear explosion in history, detonating a 50 megaton bomb (2600 times the Hiroshima bomb) in an atmospheric test over the Novaya Zemla Islands, October 30 1961.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the sandstone it was built out of. 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 worldwide "Spanish Flu" epidemic which broke out in 1918 killed more than 30 million people in less than a year's time.

There are more statues of Sacajewa, Lewis & Clark's female Indian guide, in the United States than any other person.

Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5 p.m. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize 'this' was the day of the changeover.

Vermont, admitted as the 14th state in 1791, was the 1st addition to the original 13 colonies.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more to protect his eggs, which he keeps on his feet, covered with a feathered flap. During this entire time he doesn't eat a thing. Most father penguins lose about 25 pounds while they wait for their babies to hatch. Afterward, they feed the chicks a special liquid from their throats. When the mother penguins return to care for the young, the fathers go to sea to eat and rest.

A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A leech is a worm that feeds on blood. It will pierce its victim's skin, fill itself with three to four times its own body weight in blood, and will not feed again for months. Leeches were once used by doctors to drain "bad blood" from sick patients.

A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices).

All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their lives.

All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930.

An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride.

An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.

Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also believed that cats were sacred animals.

Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months.

At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life", an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog.

Bird eggs come in a wide variety of sizes. The largest egg from a living bird belongs to the ostrich. It is more than 2,000 times larger than the smallest bird egg, which is produced by the hummingbird. Ostrich eggs are about 7.1 inches long, 5.5 inches wide and typically weigh 2.7 pounds. Hummingbird eggs are half an inch long, a third of an inch wide and weigh half a gram, or less than a fifth of an ounce.

Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavor.

By feeding hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.

Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.

Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats.

Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine.

Chameleons can reel in food from a distance as far away as more than two and a half times their body lengths.

Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away.

Cojo, the 1st gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 1/4 pounds.

Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750 calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.

Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.

Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.

During World War II, the very first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks.

Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.

Every year, $1.5 billion is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on baby food.

Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.

Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.

George Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favorite was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favorite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis.

Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream.

Hippos have killed more than 400 people in Africa - more than any other wild animal.

Howler monkeys are the noisiest land animals. Their calls can be heard over 2 miles away.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.

In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

It takes 35 to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other types of fur coats are: beaver - 15; fox - 15 to 25; ermine - 150; chinchilla - 60 to 100.

Korea's poshintang - dog meat soup - is a popular item on summertime menus, despite outcry from other nations. The soup is believed to cure summer heat ailments, improve male virility, and improve women's complexions.

Lassie was played by several male dogs, despite the female name, because male collies were thought to look better on camera. The main "actor" was named Pal.

Lassie, the TV collie, first appeared in a 1930s short novel titled Lassie Come-Home written by Eric Mowbray Knight. The dog in the novel was based on Knight's real life collie, Toots.

Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride, ranging from 5 to 30 individuals, is closely related.

Lovebirds are small parakeets who live in pairs. Male and female lovebirds look alike, but most other male birds have brighter colors than the females.

Of all known forms of animals life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.

Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes.

Parrots, most famous of all talking birds, rarely acquire a vocabulary of more than twenty words, however Tymhoney Greys and African Greys have been know to carry vocabularies in excess of 100 words.

Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal.

Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.

Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.

Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that they can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves.

The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff - comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings.

The 1st buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884.

The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866.

The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs.

The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.

The biggest members of the cat family are Siberian and Bengal tigers, which can reach over 600 pounds.

The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.

The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court.

The blue whale is the loudest animal on Earth. The call of the blue whale reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This extraordinarily loud whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles underwater.

The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when 20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a children's diphtheria epidemic.

The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."

The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.

The chameleon has several cell layers beneath its transparent skin. These layers are the source of the chameleon's color change. Some of the layers contain pigments, while others just reflect light to create new colors. Several factors contribute to the color change. A popular misconception is that chameleons change color to match their environment. This isn't true. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly bring about a chameleon's change in color. The chameleon will most often change between green, brown and gray, which coincidently, often matches the background colors of their habitat.

The Chinese, during the reign of Kublai Khan, used lions on hunting expeditions. They trained the big cats to pursue and drag down massive animals - from wild bulls to bears - and to stay with the kill until the hunter arrived.

The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874.

The English Romantic poet Lord Byron was so devastated upon the death of his beloved Newfoundland, whose name was Boatswain, that he had inscribed upon the dog's gravestone the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."

The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold night - so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm.

The fastest bird is the Spine-tailed swift, clocked at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.

The fastest -moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph.

The giant squid is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter.

The harmless Whale Shark, holds the title of largest fish, with the record being a 59 footer captured in Thailand in 1919.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or backward!

The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.

The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.

The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil.

The largest Great White Shark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000 pounds. It was found in a herring weir in New Brunswick in 1930.

The largest pig on record was a Poland-China hog named Big Bill, who weighed 2,552 lbs.

The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash.

The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.

The most frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, northern cardinals and european starlings.

The only dog to ever appear in a Shakespearean play was Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire life-span.

The pigmy shrew - a relative of the mole - is the smallest mammal in North America. It weighs 1/14 ounce - less than a dime.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History houses the world's largest shell collection, some 15 million specimens. A smaller museum in Sanibel, Florida owns a mere 2 million shells and claims to be the worlds only museum devoted solely to mollusks.

The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.

The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itself until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly.

The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.

The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.

The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.

There are around 2,600 different species of frogs. They live on every continent except Antarctica.

There are more than 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend more than 5.4 billion dollars on their pets each year.

There is no single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really a black leopard.

Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown. Unlike most fish, they can swim both backwards and forwards.

When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.

When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats.

Abraham Lincoln, who invented a hydraulic device for lifting ships over shoals, was the only US president ever granted a patent.

According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until the 1730's, India was the only source for diamonds in the world.

Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. This was the only vegetable flavored ice cream produced.

Elvis Presley made only one television commercial - an ad for "Southern Maid Doughnuts" that ran in 1954.

George Washington is the only man whose birthday is a legal holiday in every state of the United States.

Gerald Ford was the only US president not to have been elected to either the presidency or the vice presidency.

Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.

Grover Cleveland is the only US president to have been married in the White House.

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.

In 1969, "Midnight Cowboy" became the first and only X-rated production to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Its rating has since been changed to R.)

Notables who were the only child in their families include Ansel Adams, Hans Christian Andersen, Carol Burnett, Raymond Chandler, Eric Clapton, Linda Ellerbee, Louis Gossett, Jr., Robert Englund, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Ted Koppel, Ivan Lendl, Barry Manilow, Maria Montessori, Jack Nicholson, Flannery O'Connor, Al Pacino, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Robert Edwin Peary, Lisa Marie Presley, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frank Sinatra, Robin Williams, and Tiger Woods.

Only one foreign country--Liberia in Africa--has a capital city named after an American president. The capital is Monrovia, named after James Monroe.

Only one person ever won an Oscar by a write-in. In 1934 and 1935, write-in votes were permitted and Hal Mohr won an Oscar for Cinematography in 1935 for his work on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as a write-in. 1935 was the last year such votes were permitted.

Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any state of the United States.

The Beatles held the Top Five spots on the April 4th, 1964 Billboard singles chart. To date, they're the only band that has ever accomplished that.

The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court.

The city of Chicago has the only post office in the world where you can drive your car through.

The first graves in Arlington National Cemetery were dug by James Parks, a former Arlington Estate slave. Buried in Section 15, James Parks is the only person buried in Arlington National Cemetery who was also born on the property.

The hyoid bone in the throat is the only bone in the human body not joined to another.

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

The number 4 is the only number in the English language that has the same number of letters in its name as its meaning.

The only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution is treason - Article III, Section 3.

The only Englishman to become Pope was Nicholas Breakspear, who was Adrian IV from 1154 to 1159.

The only father and son to hit back-to-back home runs in a major league baseball game? Ken Griffey, Jr., and his father, Ken Griffey, Sr., both of the Seattle Mariners, in a game against the California Angels on September 14, 1990.

The only married couple to fly together in space were Jan Davis and Mark Lee, who flew aboard the Endeavor space shuttle from Sept 12-20, 1992.

The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.

The only part of the human body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.

The only river that flows both north and south of the equator is the Congo. It crosses the equator twice.

The only wood used by famed London cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale was mahogany.

The pecan tree is the only naturally growing nut tree in North American. It is native to the Texas, Mississippi and Mexico River Valleys.

The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly. It is also the only bird that walks upright.

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial (pouched mammal) indigenous to North America.

There's only one city in the United States named merely "Beach." It is found in North Dakota, which is a land-locked state.

When Pierre Trudeau wed Margaret Sinclair in 1971 he became the only Canadian Prime Minister to get married while in office. The couple divorced in 1984.

Zsa Zsa Gabor was the first - and only - recipient of a Golden Globe Award for "Most Glamorous Actress." She won the peculiar award in 1958. The category was deleted thereafter.

84% of a raw apple is water.

99% of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as jack-o-lanterns.

A cucumber is 96% water.

A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.

A pineapple is a berry.

Absinthe is another name for the herb wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and the name of a licorice-anise flavored green liqueur that was created at the end of the 18th century, and manufactured by Henry-Louis Pernod. Called the 'green Muse' it became very popular in the 19th century, but was eventually banned in most countries beginning in 1908. The reason is the presence of the toxic oil 'thujone' in wormwood, which was one of the main ingredients of Absinthe. Absinthe seemed to cause brain lesions, convulsions, hallucinations and severe mental problems. Thujone was the culprit, along with the fact that Absinthe was manufactured with an alcohol content of 68% or 132 proof.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the single-seeded fruit of the giant fan palm, or Lodoicea maldivica, can weigh 44 lbs. Commonly known as the double coconut or coco de mer, it is found wild only in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills.

Almonds are the oldest, most widely cultivated and extensively used nuts in the world.

Americans eat more bananas than any other fruit: a total of 11 billion a year.

An average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows.

Arrowroot, an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a thickener in cooking.

Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.

Banana oil never saw a banana; it's made from petroleum.

Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, like all herbs do.

Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.

Cranberries are one of just 3 major fruits native to North America. Blueberries and Concord grapes are the other two.

Dr. Joel Poinsett, the 1st US ambassador to Mexico, brought the poinsettia to US in 1828. The plant, called "flower of the blessed night" in Mexico was renamed in Poinsett's honor.

Eggplant is a member of the thistle family.

From 70 to 80 percent of all ripe olives are grown in California's approximately 35,000 acres. In the 1700s, Franciscan monks brought olives to Mexico and then into California by way of the missions. The first cuttings were planted in 1769 at the San Diego Mission. Commercial cultivation of California olives began in the late 1800s. Today, anywhere from 80,000 to 160,000 tons of olives are produced in California each year.

From the 1500's to the 1700's, tobacco was prescribed by doctors to treat a variety of ailments including headaches, toothaches, arthritis and bad breath.

Ginger has been clinically demonstrated to work twice as well as Dramamine for fighting motion sickness, with no side effects.

Hydroponics is the technique by which plants are grown in water without soil.

In 1865 opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product was distilled from it that yielded 4 percent morphine. In 1867 it was grown in Tennessee: six years later it was cultivated in Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana and cocaine could be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist.

In 1924, Pope Urban VIII threatened to excommunicate snuff users.

In 1932 James Markham obtained the 1st patent issued for a tree. The patent was for a peach tree.

In Siberia, in 1994, a container full of marijuana was discovered in the 2,000-year-old grave of a Scythian princess and priestess, among the many other articles buried with her.

In the Netherlands, in 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of cheese, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of clothes for a single bulb of the Viceroy tulip.

Morphine was given its name in 1803 by the discoverer, a 20 year old German pharmacist named Friedrich Saturner. He named it after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially.

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.

One pound of tea can make 300 cups of the beverage.

One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.

Oranges, lemons, watermelons, and tomatoes are berries.

Orchids have the smallest seeds. It takes more than 1.25 million seeds to weigh 1 gram.

Peanuts are beans.

Plants that need to attract moths for pollination are generally white or pale yellow, to be better seen when the light is dim. Plants that depend on butterflies, such as the poppy or the hibiscus, have more colorful flowers.

Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America.

Rice paper isn't made from rice but from a small tree which grows in Taiwan.

Tea was so expensive when it was first brought to Europe in the early 17th century that it was kept in locked wooden boxes.

The California redwood - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are the tallest and largest living organism in the world.

The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe.

The fragrance of flowers is due to the essences of oil which they produce.

The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.

The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.

The pineapple was symbol of welcome in the 1700-1800's. That is why in New England you will see so many pineapples on door knockers. An arch in Providence RI leading into the Federal Hill neighborhood has a pineapple on it for that very reason. Pineapples were brought home by seafarers as gifts.

The plant life in the oceans make up about 85 percent of all the greenery on the Earth.

The popular name for the giant sequoia tree is Redwood.

The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.

The world's tallest grass, which has sometimes grown 130 feet or more, is bamboo.

There are more than 700 species of plants that grow in the United States that have been identified as dangerous if eaten. Among them are some that are commonly favored by gardeners: buttercups, daffodils, lily of the valley, sweet peas, oleander, azalea, bleeding heart, delphinium, and rhododendron.

Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated plant; grown on every continent except Antarctica.

When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit.

When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning of rose colors:
Red = Love and respect
Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation
Light pink = Admiration, sympathy
White = Reverence, humility
Yellow = Joy, gladness
Orange = Enthusiasm, desire
Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality
Pale blended tones = Sociability, friendship

Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever since the Greeks discovered its therapeutic power nearly 2,500 years ago.

Wine grapes, oranges, figs and olives were first planted in North America by Father Junipero Sera in 1769.

Aspirin went on sale as the first pharmaceutical drug in 1899, after Felix Hoffman, a German chemist at the drug company Bayer, successfully modified Salicylic Acid, a compound found in willow bark to produce Aspirin.

Cocaine was the first local anesthetic; being used as such from about 1884 onwards.

Cocaine works in a totally different way from narcotics such as morphine or heroin. Heroin works on receptor sites in the brain which are stimulated by the drug to produce pain-relieving and mood-enhancing chemicals. Cocaine on the other hand works by stimulating the central nervous system, and like alcohol, is processed through the liver.

'Crack' is the street name given to cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of cocaine that can be smoked. The term 'crack' refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated), presumably from the sodium bicarbonate. 'Crack Cocaine' is still cocaine. It is simply a different chemical process applied to cocaine powder that allows cocaine to be smokeable. This means that the 'high' from Crack Cocaine is much stronger and more immediate (taking about 8 seconds to reach the brain); and also shorter lived then from the powder.

Despite the fact that federal spending on the drug war increased from $1.65 billion in 1982 to $17.7 billion in 1999, more than half of the students in the United States in 1999 tried an illegal drug before they graduated from high school. Additionally, 65% have tried cigarettes by 12th grade and 35% are current smokers, and 62% of twelfth graders and 25% of 8th graders in 1999 report having been drunk at least once.

Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Street names for heroin include "smack," "H," "skag," and "junk." Other names may refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area, such as "Mexican black tar."

In an article in 1998, The Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that adverse drug reactions may cause more than 100,000 deaths a year in the US alone.

In the US, Delaware, Virginia and Michigan rank as the top three states for Ritalin use, and most of the prescriptions are for elementary and middle school age children. Doctors in these states prescribe at least 33 grams for every 1,000 residents, 56 percent more than the national average, according to figures compiled by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is a medication prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have an abnormally high level of activity or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 3 to 5 percent of the general population has the disorder, which is characterized by agitated behavior and an inability to focus on tasks. Methylphenidate also is occasionally prescribed for treating narcolepsy. Methylphenidate is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. It has effects similar to, but more potent than, caffeine and less potent than amphetamines. It has a notably calming effect on hyperactive children and a "focusing" effect on those with ADHD.

More than 100 years ago, the felt hat makers of England used mercury to stabilize wool. Most of them eventually became poisoned by the fumes, as demonstrated by the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Breathing mercury's fumes over a long period of time will cause erethism, a disorder characterized by nervousness, irritability, and strange personality changes.

Ricin is a protein produced by the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, which is highly toxic (the minimal lethal dose is around 1 µg / kg body weight, that means 1/15th of a milligram could kill a 150 lb. person). Ricin can be a dangerous contaminant, making the production of castor oil a precisely controlled process.

'Soldiers disease' is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.

The anti-malarial drug quinine is taken from the bark of the Andean cinchona tree.

The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor.

The chemical n-acetyl-cysteine found in raw eggs is proven to help hangovers.

The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of blood pumped per heartbeat.

The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The membranes of certain nerve cells in the brain contain protein receptors that bind to THC. Once securely in place, THC kicks off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana

The major side effects from abusing anabolic steroids can include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice (yellowish pigmentation of skin, tissues, and body fluids), fluid retention, high blood pressure, increases in LDL (bad cholesterol), and decreases in HDL (good cholesterol). Other side effects include kidney tumors, severe acne, and trembling.

The rosy periwinkle plant, found in Madagascar, is used to cure leukemia.

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including at least 50 that cause, initiate or promote cancer such as tar, ammonia, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and benzopyrene.

Traces of cocaine were found on 99% of UK bank notes in a survey in London in 2000.

Presidential "grave" facts

1. Most-visited presidential grave: John F. Kennedy's in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

2. The only other president buried in Arlington: William Howard Taft.

3. The only president buried in Washington, D.C. proper: Woodrow Wilson, who was laid to rest in the National Cathedral.

4. The only president buried on the grounds of a state capitol: James Polk in Nashville, Tenn.

5. The only presidents buried together: John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams are in a basement crypt in Quincy, Mass.

6. The two presidents who died on the same day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died July 4, 1826.

7. The states with the most presidential burial sites: Ohio and Virginia (tie).

A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated.

Over 2500 left handed people are killed each year from using products made for right handed people.

In 1845, President Andrew Jackson's pet parrot was removed from his funeral for swearing.

When Thomas Edison died in 1941; Henry Ford captured his last dying breath in a bottle.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Orange County, California. Number one is heart disease.

When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed that his small intestine contained five gold Krugerrands. (not verified)

Dr. Alice Chase, who wrote 'Nutrition for Health', died of malnutrition. (not verified)

On average, people fear spiders more than they do dying. However, statistically you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by the bite of a poisonous spider.

Cockroaches can live for nine days without their heads, at which point they die of starvation.

Humanity general people facts.	Plants and Biology.
Geography.	Drugs, Medicine, Medications and Chemicals.
Minerals & Science.	Death, Dying and Graves
Space & The Universe.	Art and Architecture
The Human Body.	Food, Food Origins,& Recipes
Time & Measurement.	Games and Sports
English Language & Word Origins.	Bugs and Insects
History & Historical Events.	Trivia About Coffee
Animals, Bugs & Insects.	Trivia About Chocolate
Unique, Unusual,& Other Wonders.	Trivia About Bananas