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Interesting Facts - Page 130
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Air New Zealand used to operate sightseeing flights to Antarctica. The service came to a jarring end in 1979 when one of their flights crashed into Antarctica's second highest mountain, Mount Erebus, killing all 257 passengers and crew.
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Technically, an animal has been brought back from extinction, albeit briefly. The Pyrenean ibex went extinct in the year 2000. Three years later, scientists cloned the DNA of a dead Pyrenean ibex and brought a new one to life. Sadly, the clone died seven minutes after it was born. Thus the Pyrenean ibex is the only animal to go extinct twice.
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In the 1920s, the new leader of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, wanted to reduce the power of the Muslim religion. To help accomplish this, he banned women from wearing the hijab. His plan failed. Policemen refused to enforce the new law. So Atatürk got creative. He passed an edict that required prostitutes to wear the hijab. This did the trick nicely, and pretty soon hijabs were a thing of the past. Or so the story goes...
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From 300 B.C. to the present, the number of Greek speakers in the world has held steady at around 10 million.
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Dušan the Mighty, ruler of Serbia from 1331–1355, was quite possibly the tallest ruler to ever live. Supposedly, when his remains were measured in 1991, it was determined that he was 7 feet (214 cm) tall. And he had an appetite to match. His wine goblet could hold two liters of wine.
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Important note: the Pyrenean ibex is a subspecies, not a species.
The UAE, meanwhile, has One-Hundred-Fived their population.
SHENZEN RULES, SHENZEN HAILS, SHENZEN SHENZEN SHENZEN!
Source for the Shenzen stuff: MacroTrends, uses U.N. data.
Puyi, the last emperor of China, became emperor at age two.
I find the entire story quite fascinating, it's easy to forget about what historical rulers did after their period of power, and Puyi's legacy will always be first and foremost being the last emperor of China.
1) In 1876, meat rained from the sky in what came to be known as the Kentucky Meat Shower. The likely culprit was numerous vultures flying overhead that simultaneously projectile vomited.
2) Lake Mega-Chad was once the largest lake in the world, even larger than the Caspian Sea at over 400,000 kilometers squared. Comparing it to Lake Chad today, the surface area has decreased by about 99.6%. (not entirely sure my math is right)
3) Earthquake Lights, lights that appear in the sky before or during an earthquake, occur in about 0.5% of earthquakes and can occur weeks before the earthquake itself.
In green is modern-day lake Chad. Image by Peter in s (Wikipedia user)
Now, I know what are you thinking: "Ice in the Middle East? Are you high?" Well, those weren't your typical Crusades against the Muslims in Holy Land. (Also, there are some places in the Middle East where snow is not an unusual thing, like the Mzaar Ski Resort in Lebanon).
The Battle on the Ice was part of the Northern Crusades, in which the Catholic kingdoms fought several Pagan and Eastern Orthodox kingdoms located on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
Source: A documentary about the search for his tomb.
When asked by his physician to brush his teeth, Mao Zedong said, "Does a Tiger ever brush his teeth?"
It is impossible to stand anywhere in Michigan and Not be within 85 miles of a Great Lake
https://www.50states.com/facts/michigan.htm