How Small you Were!

Did you know that you spent approximately half an hour of your life being a single cell? These were the first 30 minutes after the moment of your conception. Your body today consists of approx. 40-75 trillion cells. (Different sources give numbers as low as 10 trillion and as high as 100 trillion.)

Hiccups

It has certainly happened to you too, but do you know why we hiccup? Hiccups are sudden contractions of the powerful muscle in your chest responsible for inhaling and exhaling air (the diaphragm), caused by an internal irritation. These contractions cause air to enter abruptly but at this time the air passage to your lungs is closed by a little flap called the epiglottis. So, air hits this closed passage and produces the 'bump' feeling of the hiccup. Hiccups can usually be cured by breathing deeply or holding your breath but there are known cases when people continued to hiccup for entire decades!

The Loudest Animal

The loudest animal on Earth is naturally the biggest one too -- the blue whale. This impressive marine mammal can produce sounds as loud as 188 decibels, the loudest sound produced by a living animal. Blue whales calls have been detected as far away as 530 miles (850 km.)

Hershey's Kisses

Do you know where the name of these delicious pieces of chocolate with a distinctive shape comes from? The Hershey's Kisses are called so because the machine that produces them

looks like it is kissing the conveyor belt in the process. The kisses were introduced back in 1907 and come in a variety of flavours - Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Dulce de Leche, Peanut butter, Caramel, etc.

What did Napoleon Fear?

The great French military and political leader feared... cats! Napoleon suffered from ailurophobia - fear of cats. Other historic Frenchmen that had similar problems were King Henry III of France and Louis XVI of France.

The King Is Dead!

Do you know what the well-known victorious phrase Checkmate actually means? It is Persian for the king is dead" or "the king is defeated." Chess is often referred to as the game of kings, because for centuries it was played primarily by the upper class and nobility. This is also reflected in the names of the pieces - king, queen, knight, etc.

Why did the Solar System Lose a Planet?

Did you hear that now we have an eight-planet Solar System? Because of the discovery of many objects similar to Pluto in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union defined the term "planet" for the first time. Pluto failed to meet the requirements and was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Pluto was counted as the Solar System's ninth planet for 76 years - from the time of its discovery in 1930 to 2006.

MTV

MTV is one of the most popular music TV channels nowadays, but do you know how it all started? MTV aired for the first time at 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981 with the phrase "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll."? These words were followed by the original MTV theme song played over an image of the Apollo 11 moon landing with the US flag replaced with an "MTV"? flag. The first video to air on the channel was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Bugles.

Eyes

Our eyes contribute to 85% of our total knowledge, and utilize 65% of all pathways in the brain. It is estimated that the average eye blinks about 4,200,000 times a year. The eyes are the most complex organs you possess, except for your brain, and provide one of the most crucial senses.

The Most Popular Car in the World

Which is the most popular and widely used car in the world today? It would be very hard to give a precise and objective answer, right? But back in 1916 things were much simpler 55% of the cars in the world were Model T Fords. This record was has never been beaten.

Footprints on the Moon

Ever dreamed of being able to leave a trace that will surely outlive you for many generations? The Moon is the perfect place to do so! As it has almost no atmosphere, there is no wind or water erosion, and its surface is about the same now as it was 3 billion years ago. A footprint left on the Moon should last at least 10 million years. This would most probably happen to the footprints of the astronauts from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.

A City on Two Continents

Do you know which the only city in the world is, that resides on two continents? It's Turkey's most populous city, Istanbul. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus.

Ancient Egyptians

About 3000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians died by the age of 30. No wonder, having in mind they slept on pillows made of stone and had a week of 10 days. Imagine having to wait 8 days for the weekend!

Blastoff

The custom of counting down to a rocket launch or other important event probably originated from the 1929 German silent film "The Girl in the Moon," directed by Fritz Lang. Technical adviser Dr. Hermann Oberth (who later worked on "Destination Moon"), in order to dramatize a realistic rocket launch, used a reverse countdown from 10 to 1, with the numbers being flashed on the screen. Many of the early rocket scientists, who were mostly German, were impressed with the movie and began to use the countdown for real launches.

Sneezing

Did you know that when you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart? Sneezing is the body's way of removing irritants; it is most often caused by dust, strong smells, temperature changes or infections. The muscles of the abdomen, chest, diaphragm, neck, face and eyelids are engaged in this complex process. A strong sneeze can cause the material spread to travel 2-3 metres (6-9ft) forward at a speed of 150 km/hour (93 mph).

Someone Maliciously shouted "Fire!"

Someone maliciously shouted "Fire!" at a copper miners' Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan in 1913. Panic ensued and 72 lives ? mostly children's ? were lost.

7 UP!

Do you know where this popular soft dinks name comes from? 7 was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces and up stands for the direction of the bubbles. The citrus soda 7 UP was created in 1929 by Charles Leiper Grigg.

The Largest Eye in the World

The animal with the largest eyes of any living creature is the giant squid. Its eye is over 30 cm (1 ft) in diameter. Large eyes help the squid better detect light, which is scarce in deep waters. The overall length of these creatures is 10 m (33 ft) for males and 13 m (43 ft) for females.

Languages of the World

According to some studies, in 2003 there were 6,809 spoken languages in the world. However, 90% of these were spoken by less than 100,000 people and 357 languages had less than 50 speakers! For example, the Cambap language which is spoken in Central Cameroon, had only 30 speakers and the Leco language, spoken in the Bolivian Andes, had about 20 speakers. In fact, a total of 46 languages had just a single speaker remaining. Between 150 and 200 of the languages were spoken by more than one million people.

Barbie!

Do you know what the full name of the most popular doll in the modern world is? Barbie's name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and she has a pretty impressive biography for a doll: she is from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, born in the family of George and Margaret Roberts and has five siblings. Barbie has attended Willows High School and Manhattan International High School in New York City. Even her romantic life is realistic -- in 2004 it was announced that Barbie and her long-time boyfriend Ken had decided to split up, but in February 2006 they got back together again.

Earth Facts

The Earth weighs about 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons and travels through space at 66,700 miles per hour. Our planet has a total surface area of 197 million square miles and is the densest major body in the solar system.

Monopoly

Did you know that the colored properties on the Monopoly board are actually based on real places in a real city - Atlantic City? The game is so popular and well selling that every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury. The longest Monopoly game on record lasted 1,680 hours. That is 70 days straight!

The World's Tallest Hotel

The luxurious sail-shaped Burj Al Arab or Arabian Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, measures 1, 053ft. from ground level to the top of its mast. It is built on a man-made Island, has 202 suites and a total floor area of 1.2 million ft. Approximately 3, 500 designers, engineers and building workers were involved in its construction.

Tongue facts

The tongue is the strongest muscle in your body. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different. Nature has been a bit unfair in designing some animals' tongues: while a giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue, a crocodile can't stick out its tongue at all.

Winking owls

Owls are the only birds to drop their upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids. Unlike most birds, owls have forward-facing eyes, but they still have to turn their entire head to change views, as their eyes are fixed in the sockets.

Antarctica

Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica -- about seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world is frozen here. With all this water it sounds ridiculous that Antarctica is essentially a desert, but it is true. This ice land is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

The Sahara Desert

An unusual phenomenon occurred on February 18, 1979 in southern Algeria -- for the first

time in recorded weather history, snow fell in the Sahara desert. The storm lasted only about half an hour and the snow melted very quickly after that. Consider the fact that there is a town in the Sahara Desert named Tidikelt, where not a single drop of rain came down for ten years.

Word Fact: Abracadabra

This magical incantation comes from the Sapnish 'habre' meaning to open and 'cadavre', meaning cadaver. Ancient students of human anatomy, the first to delve into the mysteries of the human body in such an unprecedentedly ghoulish fashion, were imputed magical power.

Volcanoes

The word 'volcano' derives from the Roman God of fire- Vulcan. The deadliest volcanic eruption was the one of Tambora volcano in Indonesia. It happened in 1815 and killed roughly 90,000 people. Most of these people didn't die in the flaming lava, but from starvation and diseases caused by the eruption. Another volcano (Krakatoa) erupted in Indonesia in 1883 and the dust that it put in the Earth's atmosphere made sunsets appear green and the Moon look blue for almost 2 years. It is difficult to imagine, but consider the amount of dust that a volcano puts in the air. For example, Mount St. Helens dumped approximately 540 million tons of ash for 9 hours of vigorous activity when it erupted on 18 May 1980.

Hit By Lightning... Seven Times

US Park Ranger Roy C. Sullivan is the only person who has survived being hit by lightning seven times. He was never killed by a lightning but committed suicide in 1983, because of the loss of his wife

What's that dust?

Have you ever wondered where all the dust in your home comes from? The answer is you, and more specifically, your skin. Dust in human environments is mainly generated by the inhabitants, as their skin cells slough off. Home dust also contains solid inorganic particles, as well as microscopic fauna such as dust mites.

The Coldest Inhabited Village

The coldest inhabited village is Oymyakon, in Yakutia, eastern Siberia, Russia. Temperatures there can drop as low as -70C (-94F). The average in January, the coldest month, is -50C (-58F). The town is in a valley surrounded by two high mountains that trap cold winter air and prevent warmer air getting in. Snow covers the ground from autumn to spring.

The Only Non-Rectangular National Flag

Nepal is the only country with a nonrectangular flag. The flag of Nepal consists of a crimson/red base that is outlined in blue. The top triangle of Nepal's flag has a white emblem of the moon and the bottom triangle has a white emblem of the sun. The crimson/red color is a traditional Nepalese color and the blue outlined edge represents the country's peaceful nature. The two triangular portions of the Nepalese flag represent the Himalayan Mountains and the two main religions of the nation - which are Buddhism and Hinduism. The moon and sun originally represented the royal family and the prime minister's

family, the Rana family. They also represent the country's desire to live as long as the sun and moon.

Calculate the Square

Here is a trick to quickly calculate the square of a number ending in "5": First, remove the last digit (the 5), and multiply what is left by itself plus 1. Let's take 75: 7*(7+1) = 56. These are the initial digits of the square. The last step is to add "25" to the end of the number. In our case we get 5625. Another example: 435^2: 43*(43+1) = 1892; we place 25 at the end and we get 189225, the square of 435.

The Boston University Bridge, a Weird Place

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.

Things you can't do

You can't lick your elbow. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. And while it's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open, you could fracture a rib if you sneezed too hard.

Statues with horses

The pose of the horse in a statue is not simply an artist's conception. If you see a statue of a person on a horse with both front legs of the horse in the air, it means that the person died in battle. One front leg in the air signifies that the person died as a result of the wounds received in battle. If all 4 legs of the horse rest on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Where did the piggy bank's name come from?

Surprisingly, the piggy bank does not owe its name to its traditional shape; it was actually the other way around. In Middle English (between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the midto-late 15th century), "pygg" was the name of a type of clay used for making various household objects, such as jars, which people often used for saving money. Around the 18th Century, the spelling of "pygg" changed and the term "pygg jar" evolved to "pig bank." As the pig shape is a child-friendly and easy to model out of clay, the name soon caught on among children.

Source: www.123facts.com