- On an average women tend to live longer than men.
- The body`s fastest messages pass along the nerves at 400km per hour.
- Very few women are colorblind, but on an average 1-12 men cannot see some colours.
- One brain cell in your head maybe connected to as many as 25000 other brain cells.
- The Mbuti pygmies of the African rain forests tie a piece of jungle vine around a new baby`s waist to which a small piece of wood is attached. They believe that this will pass on the strength of the forest to the baby.
- The abacus, a counting frame with boards which was used about 5000 years ago is still used today in some places in Asia.
- Potatoes and tobacco were unknown in Europe until sailors brought them back from the Americans in the 16th century.
- Among the oldest art excavated were decorated bones dug up in Germany. Some were found to be 35000years old.
- Leonardo Da Vinci`s Mona Lisa is too expensive to be priced today; but in 1517, Francis I, King of France bought it to hang in his bathroom.
- The famous Globe theatre in London had no roof. If it rained, performances were cancelled.
- The palace built for the Sultan has 1788 rooms.
- Lavatories were not installed in most houses until the mid 1800`s.
- The most complicated written character in Chinese is made up of 64 brush strokes and means `talkative`.
- The islands of New Guinea together have about 500 languages. That is aboutten percent of the worlds total.
- In the Sahara Desert nomadic people live in circular tents made from cloth of woven goat hair.
- In Siberia some nomadic people live in tents made of walrus skin.
- O is the oldest letter in the English alphabet. It has not changed since 1300BC.
- The custom of giving wedding rings dates back to Ancient Roman times.
- The longest jail sentence passed was in the United States- 10,000years for a triple murder.
- The shortest war on record lasted for just 38minutes on 27August 1896. It was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar (now Tanzania).
- The longest war was fought between England and France. It lasted 115 years, from 1338 to 1453.
- A baby`s head is about a quarter of its total body length. An adult`s head is only about one eighth of its total height.
- The human brain is five times smaller than an adult elephant`s brain.
- One of the earliest known Olympic records was a long jump of 7.05 meters. In was achieved around 656B.C.
- New Zealand was the first to allow women to vote in 1893.
- The largest shoes ever sold were size 42. The usual limit is size 14.
- The oldest fabric that archeologists have discovered was found in Turkey. It was made in about 5900B.C.
- The first needles used for sewing were made from bone. They were in use about 40,000 years ago.
- The first sewing thread was made from narrow strips of leather.
- Kebabs were introduced by Turkish soldiers who spiked meat onto their swords to roast into a fire.
- The first plates were simply large pieces of bread that people ate along wit their meals.
- Acupuncture was first used as a medical treatment in 2700 BC by Chinese emperor Shen-Nung.
- At the height of its power, in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves.
- A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.
- All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.
- Canada is an Indian word meaning `Big Village`
- Europe has no deserts - it is the only continent without any.
- Aircrafts are forbidden to fly over the Taj Mahal.
- The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
- The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 square miles.
- The estimated weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is 6,648,000 tons.
- The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.
- X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one.
- Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
- The `huddle` in football was formed due to a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his t eam didn`t want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.
- The Ouija board is named for the French and German words for yes - oui and ja.
- The world`s first roller coaster opened in 1884 at Coney Island, New York. It was designed by Lemarcus Thompson, a former Sunday school teacher.
- A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).
- A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.
- Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
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