I found these on a nother forum. Feel free to add to the list.
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.
The Declaration of Independence (the very official copy in the Rotunda of the National Archives) is written on parchment, not paper.
The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
A raisin dropped in a fresh glass of soda will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
A 2x4 is actually 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" .
40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
Every person has a unique tongue print. (Say "aaah")
The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.
315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. Irony.
Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
Chocolate kills dogs! Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog. (Debated)
Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, the cards could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
Most lipstick contains fish scales. Yum.
Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.
Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the high costs in California during these years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".
The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's. (This is debated. Link.)
When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts".
The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)
Wellfleet, Massachusetts has the only town clock in the world that strikes ship's time. (Rings every half hour, to a maximum of 8 rings at the end of each four hour period.)
There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with the words orange, purple, or silver, or month. (Debated, as I don't think that sliver is a rhyme for silver, or pimple a good rhyme with purple, etc.)
The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. (New or old? Not sure. Probably the old one.)
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.
Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in about 100 AD (or CE, if you want to be politically correct).
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and look like it is stinging itself to death. It spasms a lot.
Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. (?!)
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springstein's 'Born in the USA.'
The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
The first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
Roses MAY be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.
By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. One should carry a stout pole while travelling in quicksand country...when placed under one's back, it helps one to float out of the quicksand.
Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.
Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. (Mmm, diet food.)
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." For that matter, Sherlock Holmes never existed in the first place. But the address where he supposedly lived, 221B Baker Street, still gets a lot of fan mail. I am told that there is a desk there that has the sign "Secretary to Mr. Holmes".
An old law in Bellingham, Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. (?!)
Birds have the right of way on all Utah highways.
Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokesmodel.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit will damage it.
The number one selling CD in history is the third Beatles anthology. It recently beat out the Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits."
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
If you drop a penny off of the Empire State Building, it will be going 106 miles per hour (terminal velocity) when it reaches the ground. Something moving this fast may actually cause head injuries if it lands on you. (OUCH)
The original Winnie the Pooh was a real live bear found outside of Winnipeg, Canada, hence the name Winnie.
Francis Bacon died in his attempt to find a better way to serve food. He caught a case of pneumonia while attempting to stuff a chicken
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