|
No.
|
Interesting Fact
|
|
21
|
The Greek island of Santorini was devastated by a huge volcanic eruption around 1600 BC.
Some people think that this event inspired the myth of Atlantis.
|
|
123
|
Bluey, an Australian Cattle Dog, was the oldest dog
whose age has been verified. It reached an age of 29 years, 5 months.
|
|
191
|
During Prohibition in the United States, criminals bought industrial alcohol and repurposed it for human consumption.
To prevent this, the government encouraged companies to add poisonous methanol (wood alcohol) to industrial alcohol.
Unfortunately, this didn't entirely prevent its consumption. It did, however, kill many of the people who
drank it. As many as 10,000 people might have died as a result
|
|
262
|
The Patagonian toothfish was rebranded as "Chilean sea bass" to make it more appealing in the American
seafood market. This is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to the Patagonian toothfish.
|
|
66
|
The Hughes H-4 Hercules, nicknamed the Spruce Goose, is the largest aircraft ever to fly. Due to wartime restrictions
on the use of metal, it was made of wood. But despite its name, it was made mostly of birch, not spruce.
|
|
47
|
Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006 after the discovery of Eris, a trans-Neptunian with a greater mass.
|
|
302
|
Since tracking began in 2005, only three Major League home runs have been measured at over 500 feet in distance.
But that distance was easily exceeded by Babe Ruth many times in his career. Why was Babe Ruth able
to hit so much harder than current players? Perhaps it was a difference in equipment.
Or maybe Babe Ruth was simply stronger than current players.
|
|
208
|
Quetzalcoatlus was possibly the largest animal to ever fly.
A pterosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous, it had a wingspan of over 10 meters in length.
|
|
113
|
The Hawaiian islands were once known to Europeans as the Sandwich Islands -
named by explorer James Cook after the 4th Earl of Sandwich.
|
|
86
|
There are currently 186,700 tonnes of gold above ground. At today's prices
of $1,300 an ounce, this is worth about 8.6 trillion dollars.
|
|
325
|
The word "arena" derives from "harena", the latin word for sand. In ancient Roman times,
gladiatorial arenas would be covered with sand to absorb the blood that was shed there.
|
|
212
|
Bob Marley's father was white.
|
|
224
|
A standard 185 gram frisbee can hold over three pints of beer.
|
|
234
|
In Australia, the sheep population, cow population and kangaroo population are all higher than the human population.
|
|
111
|
The only country to have a non-rectangular flag is Nepal.
|
|
36
|
Viking warriors served as elite troops in the army of the Byzantine Empire.
|
|
306
|
In the HBO series "Chernobyl", three heroic men are seen volunteering on a "suicide" mission in which they
waded through radioactive water. Many people assume that the men died of radiation poisoning.
But they didn't. In fact, two are still alive while the third died of unrelated heart disease in 2005.
|
|
171
|
The U.S. government made 1.5 million Purple Heart medals in 1945 in preparation for the invasion of Japan.
But the atomic bomb ended the war early and the Purple Hearts were never needed. Since the number of
medals produced has far exceeded the number of American casualties in every war since WWII,
these same Purple Hearts are still being given to troops injured in combat today.
|
|
166
|
According to the Global Slavery Index, there are 18 million people living in slavery in India.
This is four times greater than the number of slaves in the United States at the peak of American slavery.
|
|
182
|
Due to inbreeding, hemophilia was common among the royal lines of Europe.
|
