[Misafir]

Traffic lights were in use before there were motorcars

Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar. In 1868, a lantern with red and green signals was used at a London intersection to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.

When motorcars were introduced to the US in the late 1890s, Police Officer William Potts used railroad signals for street traffic, adding the amber light. His electric traffic lights were installed in 1920 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. They were manually controlled. The first automatic traffic light was invented later in 1920 by Garrett Morgan and first used in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

The human head contains 22 bones

The human head contains 22 bones, consisting the cranium and the facial bones. The cranium is formed by 8 bones: the frontal bone, two parietal bones, two temporal bones, the occipital bone in the back, the ethmoid bone behind the nose, and the sphenoid bone. The face consists of 14 bones including the maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw).

The cranium protects the brain, which, for an average adult male weighs 1375 gram (49oz). The brain of Russian novelist Turgenev, weighed 2021g (71oz), Bismarck's brain weighed 1807g (64oz), while that of famous French statesman Gambetta was only 1294g (46oz). Women's brains are slightly smaller than men's. The largest woman's brain recorded weighed 1742g (6oz). Einstein's brain was of average size.

An elephant's brain weighs 5000g (176oz or 11 lb), a whale's 10000g (352oz or 22lb). In proportion to the body, the whale has a much smaller brain than man. This seem to give man the edge, until it was discovered that the dwarf monkey has 1g of brain per 27g (0.95oz) of body, and the capuchin monkey has 1g of brain per 17,5g body, whereas man has 1 gram of brain to 44g of body.

Eating with a fork was once considered scandalous

Forks were first used in the Middle Ages, but eating with one was considered scandalous. In the 11th Century, when a Greek princess died shortly after introducing forks at her wedding with a Venetian Doge (chief magistrate) Domenico Selvo, it was perceived as divine punishment.

While forks were a regular feature on the tables of nobles in Italy since the 11th Century, and used in France in the 14th Century, it was introduced in England only in 1611 by Thomas Coryat through his book "Coryat's Curdities Hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Savoy, Italy, &c." Even then, he was mocked about promoting the use of forks and called "Furcifer," meaning fork-bearer.

The upper classes of Spain were using forks in the 16th Century, as could be told from a large assortment of forks that were recovered from the wreck of La Girona, which sank off the coast of Ireland in 1588. In 1630, Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts had the first and only fork in colonial America.

So what did people eat with before using forks? They used wooden spoons, knifes and, of course, their hands.

[Misafir]

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea

The very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo, it is said. The NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 (the Kosovo war) killed more animals than people. "Smart" weapons, such the Tomahawk missile is supposed to hit a postage stamp at 300km or more (200 miles or more). But only two out of thirteen actually hit the target. One skimmed over the house of a small farmer a few kilometres (miles) off target, straight up a track, through bushes, and exploded in the farmer's field, killing seven sheep, one cow and a goat. The farmer kept the missile nosecone as a souvenir.

To err is human. To really mess things up you need a computer

On 5 October 1960 an early-warning system warned the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) of a massive Soviet nuclear missile strike approaching the United States. What happened is that a fault in a computer system had removed two zeros from the radar's ranging components, detecting the missile attack at 4 000km (2,500 miles) away. The radar was actually detecting a reflection from the moon, located 400 000km (250,000 miles) away.

On 3 June 1980 a massive Soviet missile attack was again registered by computers. 100 nuclear-armed B-52s were immediately put on alert. A computer fault was detected in time, but three days later the same error occurred and again the bombers were put on alert. The problem was later traced to the failure of an integrated circuit in a computer, which was producing random digits representing the number of missiles detected.

On 10 January 1984, Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, recorded a message that one of its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles was about to launch from its silo due to a computer malfunction. To prevent the possible launch, an armoured car was parked on top of the silo.

The history of nuclear weapon accidents is as old as their introduction

The US Department of Defence (DoD) first published a list of nuclear weapon accidents in 1968 which detailed 13 serious nuclear weapon accidents between 1950-1968. An updated list released in 1980 catalogued 32 accidents. At the same time, documents released by the Navy under the Freedom of Information Act cited 381 nuclear weapon incidents between 1965 and 1977.

A number of nuclear cases involve ships or submarines colliding at sea or, in some cases, submarine nuclear power units becoming unstable and the subs having to be abandoned. According to Greenpeace there have been more than 120 submarine accidents since 1956. The most recent incident, in August 2000, was the loss of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea. The Kursk is the seventh nuclear submarine lost, five of them Russian, two American. There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

[Misafir]

Only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still survives

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that still survives. Can you name the other six?

They are:

1) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were built on the banks of the Euphrates river by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

2) The gigantic gold statue of Zeus was built by the sculptor Pheidias at Olympia.

3) The temple of Artemis was erected in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus in honour of the Greek goddess of hunting and wild nature.

4) The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a huge tomb constructed for King Maussollos, Persian satrap of Caria.

5) The Colossus of Rhodes was a massive statue erected by the Greeks in honour of Helios the sun-god.

6) The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built by the Ptolemies on the island of Pharos.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built near the ancient city of Memphis for Pharaoh Khufu in the period of the Fourth Dynasty, between 2613 and 2494BC. The Greeks refered to it as the Pyramid of Cheops. A true wonder, it is immense: according to Mysteries of the Unknown, it covers a ground area of 13.1 acres (32,4 hectares), composed of some 2.3 million limestone blocks average two-and-a-half tonnes each, enough stone to build a wall of foot-square cubes two-thirds around the globe at the equator, a distance of 16,600 miles (26 500km).

[Misafir]

• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

• The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)

• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

• The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.

• There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

• The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.

• The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container.

• David Prowse, was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.

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

• There are only thirteen blimps in the world.

• Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States.

• The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp.

• Naugahyde, plastic "leather" was created in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

• The Swiss flag is square.

• The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation.

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

• If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian.

• No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die.

• The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

• Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river.

• The name for fungal remains found in coal is sclerotinite.

• The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

• Emus cannot walk backwards.

• It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.

• The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America.

• Both writer Edgar Allen Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were kicked out of West Point.

• The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH.

• The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruit cake. That way it will save until the first anniversery.

• The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves.

• The forward pass was created by the football team at Saint Louis University.

• In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) wrote, there is at least one song about rain.

• A kind of tortoise in the Galapagos Islands has an upturned shell at its neck so it can reach its head up to eat cactus branches.

• The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu.

• Parthenogenesis is the term used to describe the process by which certain animals are able to reproduce themselves in successive female generations without intervention of a male of the species. At least one species of lizard is known to do so.

• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.

• The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead".

• The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.

• "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis."

• All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.

• Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag (it looks like two pennants glued on on top of the other)

• Libya has the only flag which is all one color with no writing or decoration on it

• The only borough of New York City that isn't an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx.

• The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were the first baseball team to win the World Series after being relocated.

• The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

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

• The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.

• Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors.

• Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other. The eight states are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

• Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U.S

• The Western-most point in the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, Washington.

• There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard.

• The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles.

• Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."

• The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota.

• The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.

• Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.

• If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.

• There are six five words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate and duumvir, residuum.

• The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines.

• Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.

• Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211.

• The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular.

• The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird.
  
• Camel's milk does not curdle.

• "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.

• The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

• A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality.

• The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate."

• Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died.

• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

• Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.

• Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.

• Hamsters love to eat crickets.

• The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts.

• The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.

• The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas.

• In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

• Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean.

• The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

• Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album

• All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed.

• The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.

• The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God.

• Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff.

• An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.

• Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.

[Misafir]

• ...that during the Rus'-Byzantine War in 907 Oleg of Novgorod reportedly circumvented the chaining of the Bosporus by putting his ships on wheels and sailing them overland (pictured) to Constantinople?
• ...that the town of Scone was the coronation site of Kings of Scotland for several centuries?
• ...that in Homer's Iliad, the charioteer Meriones is described as being a "peer of murderous Mars"?
• ...that in the Sso rite of the Beti of Cameroon, one initiate was designated the ritual butt of the other candidates' jokes?
• ... that at Masa, an elite New York City restaurant, no menus are available, because the chef, Masa Takayama, cooks whatever he wants?
• ... that the earthquake-proof designs of the Nagoya TV, Tsutenkaku, the Sapporo TV, the Beppu, and the Tokyo Towers were all engineered by Tachu Naito?
• ...that former Congolese general Laurent Nkunda was a psychology student before helping Laurent-Désiré Kabila to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko?
• ...that the Southern Islands of Singapore (pictured) are being developed into a getaway for the ultra-wealthy, similar to Dubai's Palm Islands?
• ...that South African cricketer Geoff Griffin took a hat-trick in his second Test match, at Lord's in 1960, but was no-balled repeatedly for throwing in the same match and in the exhibition match that followed it, and never played Test cricket again?
• ...that after the non-profit Internet service provider Public Netbase began supporting websites that opposed his political party, Austrian politician Jörg Haider accused the organisation of sponsoring child pornography?
• ...that Ming Dynasty general Gang Bing castrated himself and placed his severed organs under Emperor Yongle's saddle to avoid being accused of sexual improprieties?
• ...that in the Frederica Naval Action of the American Revolutionary War, three galleys led by Georgian colonel Samuel Elbert (pictured) defeated a much stronger British force?
• ...that Frank McEwen fostered the development of stone sculpture among untrained Shona artists in Rhodesia?
• ...that despite the destruction of his fleet by Greek fire, Igor I of Kiev managed to end the Rus'-Byzantine War (941) by signing a favourable trade treaty?
• ...that the Cessna 165 aircraft was instrumental in the recovery of the Cessna Aircraft Company in the years following the Great Depression?
• ...that "De Vogels Van Holland" was the first song ever performed at the Eurovision Song Contest?
• ...that the burrows of Meriones gerbils (pictured) can have a combined length of over 30 meters and over 18 entrances?
• ...that despite holding the graves of Rudolf Nureyev, Andrei Tarkovsky and Ivan Bunin, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery is not officially recognized as a landmark?
• ... that Mansfield Cut Underwater Archeological District off the southern coast of Texas contains three Spanish shipwrecks caused by a 1554 storm?
• ...that Winning Colors is one of only three fillies to this day to win the Kentucky Derby?
• ...that English Test cricketer Graham Roope was batting at the non-striker's end when Geoff Boycott reached his 100th first-class century, but not when John Edrich achieved the same record one month earlier, despite many claims to the contrary?
• ...that Brahmo social reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly served a girls' boarding school in Kolkata, India as headmaster, teacher, dietician, guard, and janitor?
• ...that after being captured by the Germans during World War II, Soviet soldier Baymirza Hayit joined the pro-Nazi Turkestan Legion and became a leading Turkestani nationalist?
• ...that the southern side of Mount Elden (pictured) in the state of Arizona was left almost entirely devoid of vegetation after a 4600-acre wildfire ran through the area in June 1977?
• ...that the Yulupa Creek watershed has been designated as critical habitat for two California endangered species?
• ...that due to a lack of bilingual inscriptions, most knowledge of the Etruscan language has been derived using the combinatorial method?
• ...that Alexander Kazhdan, the editor of the three-volume Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, started his career as a provincial teacher in Ivanovo and Tula?
• ...that, in the early 1890s, the Berlin wine tavern Zum schwarzen Ferkel was the meeting place for a circle of mostly Scandinavian writers and artists that included August Strindberg and Edvard Munch?
• ...that the first military decoration to use a medal bar was the British Sutlej Medal?
• ...that Bulgarian physicist Stefan Marinov claimed to have created a perpetual motion machine using only two ballraces and a car battery?
• ...that the Upper South of the United States comprises the states which didn't secede from the Union until after the Battle of Fort Sumter?
• ...that the Buddhist scholar Jizang spent eleven years transcribing 2,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra by hand?
• ...the Riley started as a bicycle manufacturer in Coventry in 1890, and produced its last motorcar in 1969?
• ...that in his only armed clash with the police, bushranger James Alpin McPherson was unable to effectively return fire as his gun was loaded with blanks?
• ...that the endangered wildflower Lasthenia conjugens has successfully colonized new vernal pools with human assistance?
• ...that Randall Thompson's The Testament of Freedom was performed at a 1945 Carnegie Hall concert given in memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
• ...that Abu Isa founded the first Jewish sect since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem?
• ...that Megazostrodon (pictured) is widely accepted as being one of the first mammals to have appeared on Earth?
• ...that the crash of Crossair Flight LX498 was initially attributed to cell phone use, and led to bans of cell phones in airplanes in several countries?
• ...that Nathaniel Butler introduced the first potato grown by Europeans in North America to Jamestown, Virginia?
• ...that American attorney Nicole Seligman represented both Lt. Colonel Oliver North during the Iran-Contra hearings and President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial?
• ...that Singapore's Museum Planning Area contains ten national monuments?
• ...that at 1,500,000 square feet, Willowbrook Mall is the second largest shopping mall in New Jersey?
• ...that the Brush Creek confluence with Santa Rosa Creek was the site of a Pomo village, the antecedent of modern Santa Rosa, California?
• ...that the three universal Hindu icons are the Aum, the swastika (pictured), and the Sri Chakra Yantra?
• ...that the science and technology magazine Food Technology was originally a scientific journal?
• ...that the New Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm simultaneously set new daily, weekly, and monthly snowfall records for Huntsville, Alabama?
• ...that "Bitaqat Khub" is the first and only Eurovision Song Contest to have been performed in Arabic, and also the first and only entry to have represented an African country?
• ...that Uli is a traditional type of design long practiced by the Igbo people of Nigeria?
• ...that Josquin des Prez's Miserere, a motet of Psalm 51, was hugely influential not only as a psalm setting, but as an example of how to approach the text of Infelix ego?
• ...that Soviet sniper Roza Shanina's declaration "I shall return after the battle" would be paraphrased in a book title?
• ...that according to legend, the masons who built Corcomroe Abbey (pictured) in Ireland were killed to stop them from building another masterpiece elsewhere?
• ...that Empress Zhang Yao'er refused to hand over control of China's Chen Dynasty until threatened with violence, as she hoped her captive son would be freed to take the throne?
• ...that "She Shoulda Said 'No'!" was partially inspired by the arrest of actress Lila Leeds, who later starred in the film?
• ...that many subatomic particles are constantly decaying into more stable lower-mass particles?
• ...that Henry Burrell was the first person to successfully keep the Platypus in captivity, in a habitat of his own design that he called a platypusary?
• ...that Marmoutier Abbey in France was destroyed four times between its construction in the 4th Century and the raising of a private school on its latest ruins?
• ...that furry convention attendees (pictured) often wear ears, tails, badges, or fursuits as identification?
• ...that "La Coco-Dance" was the first Eurovision entry to feature Tahitian lyrics, representing Monaco in 2006?
• ...that Kaundinya, the first arahant and bhikkhu of Gautama Buddha, was the only royal scholar to predict Siddhartha's Buddhahood?
• ...that Heinie Reitz was the first Major League baseballer to die in a car accident?
• ...that the city of Thasos held out an Athenian siege for over two years in the Thasian rebellion?
• ...that Canadian microbiologist John Dick was the first to isolate and identify a cancer stem cell?
• ...that Frances Slocum State Park in Pennsylvania is named for a woman captured by the Lenape at age 5, who permanently lived with Native Americans despite reuniting with her family 59 years later?
• ...that plant perception is a belief that plants feel emotion and can communicate with each other?
• ...that the 43,000 Sakhalin Koreans were abandoned by Japan after World War II and kept stateless by the Soviet Union for 30 years?
• ...that due to a "defect of birth", Thomas Livingston was forced to receive a papal dispensation to continue working in the church?
• ...that David Brody is credited with co-founding the field of "new labor history"?
• ...that Romanian actor Ion Caramitru figures prominently in theories that the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was not truly a popular uprising but a cover-up for a coup d'état?
• ...that Texas oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy gained the nickname "King of the wildcatters" after striking oil thirty-eight times in ten years?
• ...that after an accident in his teens, Bulgarian poet Pencho Slaveykov(pictured) had difficulty writing and speaking?
• ...that Canyon live oak acorns were a Native American staple food?
• ...that the Ristorante Cooperativo in Zürich may be the only restaurant to have been patronised by Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Lenin and Gerhard Schröder?
• ...that the British politician Alfred Lane Beit was made an honourary Irish citizen after he donated 17 masterpieces to the National Gallery of Ireland?
• ...that the Political Instability Task Force might have predicted over 85% of major state crises occurring in 1990–1997?
• ...that the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 led to wind gusts in excess of 100 mph across New York, New Jersey, and New England?
• ...that Annadel State Park (pictured) is considered by some biologists to have some of the best preserved northern oak woodlands in western North America?
• ...that social anthropologist Sir Raymond Firth's research career spanned 76 years after it began in Polynesia?
• ...that Pepe Marchena was a popular singer who created a new palo or flamenco musical form, called colombiana?
• ...that after World War II, the Czech urban legend of Pérák changed from a shadowy surprise attacker to a heroic figure of resistance against the Nazi occupation of Prague?
• ...that Maratha Emperor Shivaji's mentor Dadoji Konddeo also built the "Lal Mahal" in Pune, the royal palace before the capital moved to Raigad?
• ...that Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, key members of the Kovalev Commission charged with investigating the Russian apartment bombings both died in apparent assassinations?
• ...that the commissioner of El Greco's Disrobing of Christ (pictured) tried to use the artist's inclusion of the three Marys to avoid paying the full fee?
• ... that Bill Orban developed the 5BX plan to help Royal Canadian Air Force pilots keep fit?
• ...that Malaysia's Sedition Act disregards criminal intent in passing judgement on sedition?
• ...that the Japanese Sōshi-kaimei policy forced Koreans previously banned from using Japanese surnames to do so?
• ...that while most of India become independent in 1947, parts of Karnataka didn't until the Karnatakan Unification the following year?
• ...that the village of Sharpham in Somerset, is the birthplace of Elizabethan poet Sir Edward Dyer, writer Henry Fielding and cleric William Gould?
• ...that during construction of the Fort Canning Tunnel, special care was taken to minimize environmental impact on the surrounding Fort Canning Park?
• ...that Russian actor Yevgeny Samoylov (pictured), known for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold and Alexander Dovzhenko in the 1930s, celebrated his 90th birthday in 2002 acting on the stage of the Maly Theatre?
• ...that the trees alongside the Falls of Bruar were planted in response to an entreaty from Robert Burns, the Scottish poet?
• ...that construction of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Adelaide did not finish until 1996, 130 years after it began?
• ...that American World War II Army Captain Bobbie E. Brown was awarded the Medal of Honor for running 100 yards up a hill through machine-gun fire to place a bomb in a German pillbox in the Battle of Crucifix Hill?
• ...that one of only two natural populations of the critically endangered Kanab Ambersnail (pictured) is threatened by discharges from the Glen Canyon Dam?
• ...that the church of Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli in Rome, along with the adjacent tower, is all that remains today of a Dominican convent dedicated to Catherine of Siena?
• ...that Australian Cricket Academy leg spin coach Terry Jenner was previously jailed for embezzlement?
• ...that the Samara flag, presented as a gift from Russia to the Bulgarian volunteers in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, is the only flag awarded a Bulgarian Medal for Bravery?
• ...that the Korpela movement was a short-lived cult during the 1930s in Northern Sweden and Finland whose controversial sexual rituals eventually led to the arrest of 60 followers?
• ... that American World War II soldier David M. Gonzales was awarded the Medal of Honor (pictured) for digging out three comrades buried alive whilst under enemy fire?
• ...that American Thoroughbred Kingston won eighty-nine races, the most by any horse?
• ... that Norse sagas record some Finnish campaigns against Sweden in the mid-8th century?
• ...that in 1819, Hussein Shah, the seventeenth Sultan of Johor, allowed a British settlement in Singapore in order to wrest the throne from his brother with the help of the British, leading to the Malay Peninsula's colonisation?
• ...that in 2005, Ghatam player Ghatam Udupa became the first Indian to perform at the Krakow International Percussion Festival?
• ... that the relics of Moscow's founder, Yuri Dolgoruki, were buried beneath the baptistery of the Church of the Saviour at Berestove (pictured)?
• ...that studies on whether nice guys finish last have been hindered by the social desirability bias?
• ...that Rajendrasinhji Jadeja was the first Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army?
• ... that economist Walter Adams served as expert witness before 36 United States Congressional committees?
• ...that Irving Crane pocketed 150 balls in a row in the final round of the 1966 World Crown straight pool championship; a feat that has never been equalled or eclipsed?
• ...that in 1850, the Harvard Musical Association, a charitable organization in Boston, raised over $100,000 for the construction of the Boston Music Hall (pictured) in under sixty days?
• ...that the appearance of a dog in a Hutch ad campaign doubled sales of pugs in India in 2003?
• ...that the prolific spawning of the Pacific herring can lead to egg densities of six million eggs per square meter on submerged vegetation?
• ...that American novelist Tracy Quan once served as spokeswoman to the sex worker advocacy group Prostitutes of New York?