More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food.
---The Iditarod dog sled race ? from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska ? commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome during a deadly diphtheria epidemic.
---The streets of Victor, Colorado, once a gold rush town, are paved with low-grade gold.
---Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.
---Drinking chocolate mixed with milk, wine, or beer was considered a must at fashionable social events in the seventeenth century.
---Time slows down near a black hole; inside, it stops completely.
---Living creatures create tiny weather systems called microclimates in their nests and burrows. For instance, bees fan their wings at the hive entrance during hot weather. This makes a cooling draft blow through the hive.
---Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song "Happy Birthday".
---The height of the 984-foot-tall Eiffel Tower varies, depending on the temperature, by as much as 6 inches.
---Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country and the second-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world.
---Benjamin Franklin devised the first wet suit for divers, as well as a primitive version of today's flippers.
---The Sears Tower is Chicago's tallest structure, towering at 1,454 feet. About 10,000 people go to work there Monday through Friday. The building has its own U.S. Post Official and ZIP code: 60606.
---Gertrude Ederle was still a teenager when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel on August 6, 1926. Not only did she swim the channel, but she broke the speed record held by a man.
---There are 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge log. The trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling, and striking.
---Silent-movie star Mary Pickford once owned both the jewels The Star of Bombay and The Star of India.
---Keanu Reeve trained for four months with a martial arts expert before filming The Matrix (1999).
---The U.S. Mint was authorized to produce one-cent copper coins on April 2, 1792. Originally, there were four designs struck: the "chain" cent, the "wreathed" cent, the "flowing hair" cent, and the "liberty" cent.
---Turning a clock's hands counterclockwise while setting it is not necessarily harmful. It is only damaging when the timepiece contains a chiming mechanism.
---Monaco is the second smallest country in the world and the principality has four distinct divisions. (1.) La Condamine, the business district. (2.) The Casino or Monte Carlo. (3.) Monaco-Ville which is on a rocky promontory and (4.) Fontvieille.
---The rare metal gallium melts at 86 degrees Fahrenheit. It is safe to touch; if you hold a piece of it in your hand and wait, it will melt.
---The first 12-ounce aluminum soda can was introduced in 1964 by Royal Crown Cola. Coke didn't start using aluminum until 3 years later, and that same year Pepsi came out with a seamless can.
---The Sears Tower contains enough phone wire to wrap around the earth 1.75 times and enough electrical wiring to run a power line from Chicago to Los Angeles.
---Badminton was first recognized as an official sport in the Olympic Games during the 1992 Summer Games. More than 1.1 billion people watched badminton's Olympic debut on TV.
---The streets of Victor, Colorado, once a gold rush town, are paved with low-grade gold.
---Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.
---Drinking chocolate mixed with milk, wine, or beer was considered a must at fashionable social events in the seventeenth century.
---Time slows down near a black hole; inside, it stops completely.
---Living creatures create tiny weather systems called microclimates in their nests and burrows. For instance, bees fan their wings at the hive entrance during hot weather. This makes a cooling draft blow through the hive.
---Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song "Happy Birthday".
---The height of the 984-foot-tall Eiffel Tower varies, depending on the temperature, by as much as 6 inches.
---Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country and the second-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world.
---Benjamin Franklin devised the first wet suit for divers, as well as a primitive version of today's flippers.
---The Sears Tower is Chicago's tallest structure, towering at 1,454 feet. About 10,000 people go to work there Monday through Friday. The building has its own U.S. Post Official and ZIP code: 60606.
---Gertrude Ederle was still a teenager when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel on August 6, 1926. Not only did she swim the channel, but she broke the speed record held by a man.
---There are 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge log. The trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling, and striking.
---Silent-movie star Mary Pickford once owned both the jewels The Star of Bombay and The Star of India.
---Keanu Reeve trained for four months with a martial arts expert before filming The Matrix (1999).
---The U.S. Mint was authorized to produce one-cent copper coins on April 2, 1792. Originally, there were four designs struck: the "chain" cent, the "wreathed" cent, the "flowing hair" cent, and the "liberty" cent.
---Turning a clock's hands counterclockwise while setting it is not necessarily harmful. It is only damaging when the timepiece contains a chiming mechanism.
---Monaco is the second smallest country in the world and the principality has four distinct divisions. (1.) La Condamine, the business district. (2.) The Casino or Monte Carlo. (3.) Monaco-Ville which is on a rocky promontory and (4.) Fontvieille.
---The rare metal gallium melts at 86 degrees Fahrenheit. It is safe to touch; if you hold a piece of it in your hand and wait, it will melt.
---The first 12-ounce aluminum soda can was introduced in 1964 by Royal Crown Cola. Coke didn't start using aluminum until 3 years later, and that same year Pepsi came out with a seamless can.
---The Sears Tower contains enough phone wire to wrap around the earth 1.75 times and enough electrical wiring to run a power line from Chicago to Los Angeles.
---Badminton was first recognized as an official sport in the Olympic Games during the 1992 Summer Games. More than 1.1 billion people watched badminton's Olympic debut on TV.