The hippopotamus is, next to the elephants, the heaviest of all land mammals. It may weigh as much as 8,000 pounds. It is also a close relative of the pig.

A bee has five eyes, two large compound eyes on either side of its head, and three ocelli (primitive eyes) on top of its head to detect light intensity.

A bumble bee flaps its wings 160 beats per second.

A cockroach's heart is nothing but a simple tube with valves. The tube can pump blood backwards and forwards in the insect. The heart can even stop moving, apparently without harming the roach.

A common housefly is faster--in one sense--than a jet airplane. The fly moves 300 times its body length in one second, while the jet, at the speed of sound, travels 100 times its body length in one second.

A cricket an inch long has a chirp that is audible for nearly a mile.

The Asian grasshopper can jump up to 15 feet, a distance the length of 18 of their 10-inch bodies.

The average airspeed of the common housefly is 4.5 miles per hour. A housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.

Wine will spoil if exposed to light; hence, tinted bottles.

The saxophone, invented by the Belgian musical instrument maker Adolf Sax five years earlier, was officially introduced into the military bands of the French Army on July 30, 1845.

Poland was the dominant power in eastern Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century.

Dinosaurs lived on Earth for around 165 million years before they became extinct.

It is the female lion who does more than 90 percent of the hunting, while the male is afraid to risk his life, or simply prefers to rest.

Despite man's fear and hatred of the wolf, it has not ever been proved that a non-rabid wolf ever attacked a human.

Sugar was first added to chewing gum in 1869 by a dentist (William Semple).

Best Picture Oscar winner Dances with Wolves, a three-hour Western, had a full-third of its dialogue spoken in Lakota
Sioux. Subtitles were used, unusual for a major Academy Award-winning film.

In 1951, Jack in the Box opened its first restaurant in San Diego, California, pioneering the drive-thru concept and featuring 18-cent hamburgers.

In the Swahili culture, the day starts at sunrise which, in East Africa, being exactly at the equator, happens every day at approximately 6:00 a.m. For that reason, 6:00 a.m. is 0:00 a.m. Swahili time.

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than the 6,000 degrees centigrade found at the surface of the sun.

There is about one quarter-pound of salt in every gallon of seawater.

Socrates, one of the most famous Greek philosophers, never wrote down a single word of his teachings. The only
knowledge we have of his thinking today comes from the notes taken by his great student, Plato.

The Untouchables, which debuted in 1959 and starred Robert Stack, was the most violent television show of its time. It became the target of more protests from viewers than any other regular TV series. To this day, it is the only TV program ever boycotted by mobsters over unfair treatment.

The average brain comprises 2 percent of a person's total body weight. Yet it requires 25 percent of all oxygen used by the body, as opposed to 12 percent used by the kidneys and 7 percent by the heart.

At the court of Louis XIV, prestige was measured by the height of the chair one was allowed to sit in. Only the King and Queen could sit in chairs with arms.

The Japanese cremate 93 percent of their dead, as compared to Great Britain at 67 percent and the United States at just over 12 percent.

No one truly has double joints. Contortionists are actually able to stretch the fibrous tissues known as ligaments. Ligaments hold organs in place and fasten bones together. Ligaments normally restrict the movements of certain joints, but some folks find that their ligaments are more flexible than others.

The first envelopes with gummed flaps were produced in 1844. In Britain, they were not immediately popular because it was thought to be a serious insult to send a person's saliva to someone else.

Men have more blood than women. Men have 1.5 gallons as compared to 0.875 gallons for women.

The present-day Vatican is the smallest sovereign state in the world - Liechtenstein is 360 times as large - and has a permanent resident population of about 300. Still, it retains all the trappings of nationhood - its own flag, its own postage stamps, its own diplomatic corps, its own "army," the familiar Swiss Guard, and the right to have its own navy under international compact.

The bleakest places on Earth are the two poles: the South Pole has no sunshine for 182 days each year; the North Pole does slightly better--it has no sunlight for 176 days.

When it comes to what really matters to travelers, the United States has the rest of the world beat when it comes to its toilets. Per a survey of 100 international travel writers, the United States has, by far, the best in the world. Western Europe may have the best castles and museums, but johns finished a distant second. Scandinavia, rated separately from Western Europe, placed third. China is where bathrooms are considered the absolute worst according to the surveyed travel writers. Almost as bad are those toilets in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was also voted the worst when it comes to toilet paper.

Continental snow cover would advance to the equator, and the oceans would eventually freeze, if there was a
permanent drop in just 1.6 to 2.0 percent in energy reaching the Earth.

Dirty snow melts faster than clean.

A drop of water may travel thousands of miles between the time it evaporates into the atmosphere and the time
it falls to the Earth again as rain, sleet, or snow.

There are mice that nest in trees. These creatures may spend their whole life without ever touching the ground.

The fastest bird in the world is the Asian spine-tailed swift. In a level flight, it can reach a speed of 102 miles per hour (170 kilometers per hour).

Frog bones form a new ring every year when the frog is hibernating, just like trees do. Scientists count these rings to determine the age of the frog.

A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Popcorn was banned at most movie theaters in the 1920s because it was considered too noisy.

A Hobson's choice is a situation that forces a person to accept whatever is offered or go without. The phrase was inspired by sixteenth-century entrepreneur Thomas Hobson, who hired out horses in strict rotation at Cambridge University. There was no choosing by the customer - it was strictly Hobson's choice. WHAT IS THE RANK OF HANDS IN POKER?
Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, One Pair, and High Card (no pair).

Damocles was a courtier in ancient Syracuse who thought he was buttering up King Dionysius by describing the monarch's life as an easy one. But the King's reality was really one burden and worry after another. And he resented Damocles' false and superficial picture of kingly existence. So Dionysius decided to teach Damocles a dramatic lesson. He invited him to a banquet. But at the table the courtier found over his head a sword hanging by a thin thread, symbolic of what it was like to be king. From this story we get the above expression, which means to have a dire threat hanging over your head. (Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD & PHRASE ORIGINS by W. Morris)

E is the most frequently used letter in the alphabet. Q is the least. (Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

A pig is a hog, but a hog is not a pig. "Hog" is a generic name for all swine. Per hog-raising terminology, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old.

The U.S. Mint was authorized to produce one-cent copper coins on April 2, 1792. Originally, there were four designs struck: the "chain" cent, the "wreathed" cent, the "flowing hair" cent, and the "liberty" cent.

Beethoven poured ice water over his head when he sat down to create music, believing it stimulated his brain.

In early America, simple wooden beds and straw mattresses were the rule in all but the wealthiest of homes. American inns during the Revolutionary War era were not lush or comfortable, and an innkeeper would think nothing of requesting that a guest share his bed with a stranger when accommodations became scarce.

In a desert, a mirage is caused when air near the ground is hotter than air higher up. As light from the sun passes from cooler to warmer air, it speeds up and is refracted upward, creating the image of water.

Piercing nipples with rings and the like is not a new punk fad. It was popular among ladies in the late 1800s.

When Auguste Rodin exhibited his first important work, The Bronze Period, in 1878 it was so realistic that people thought he had sacrificed a live model inside the cast. Rodin died of frostbite in 1917 when the French government refused him financial aid for a flat, yet they kept his statues warmly housed in museums.

Ohio, commonly know as the seventeenth state, technically did not become a state until August 7, 1953. Due to an oversight, Congress never voted on the resolution to admit Ohio to the Union until that date.

Because the eyes work harder when viewing objects up close, particularly on a computer monitor, it is the proximity of the VDT screen to the eyes that causes eyestrain, not "radiation" emitted from the screen. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, using a computer or video display terminal will not harm your eyes.

There are six state capitals west of Los Angeles. In order from west to east, they are: Honolulu, Hawaii; Juneau, Alaska; Salem, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; Sacramento, California; and Carson City, Nevada.

The Italian inventor Salvino D'Armate is believed to have been the first to develop eyeglasses, sometime around 1284, but he wasn't the first to experiment with lenses to improve vision. As far back as 1000 AD, an unknown inventor developed a "reading stone," which was a glass sphere that was laid on top of material to be read to magnify the letters. Even earlier, the Roman tragedian Seneca (born in 4 BC), was said to have read all the books in Rome by reading them through a glass globe of water to magnify the letters.

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War I. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulphur and pitch to overcome the enemy. During ancient and medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of plague victims over the walls of besieged cities, or into water wells. During the French and Indian wars in North America (1689-1763), blankets used by smallpox victims were given to American Indians in the hope they would carry the disease.

The Ketchua Indians of the Andes Mountains in South America have 2 to 3 more quarts of blood in their bodies than people who live at lower elevations.

What is called a "French kiss" in England and America is known as an "English kiss" in France.

The Internet itself evolved out of ARPANET - invented in 1969, also not by Al Gore -- a network established by the military to link universities to each other. It was used only to exchange research papers. But people with terminals on the same university system had been leaving messages for each other for some time. Finally, in 1971, Ray Tomlinson, who worked for ARPANET, broke the ice. He sent a message over the new network to himself:” Testing 1-2-3.” He also established the convention for email addresses, as in aeinstein@mailbits.com. Yes, I guess it's safe to say we’ve come a long way from “Testing 1-2-3.” Source: www.let.leidenuniv.nl

Over the many centuries of living in the Arctic, Eskimos' bodies have adapted to the cold. Eskimos tend to be short and squat, which brings their arms and legs closer to the heart, so there is less danger of freezing. Extra fat around the torso protects their internal organs from the cold. The metabolism of Eskimos is also set a little higher than other people's. As a result, they burn their food faster to stay warm. Their veins and arteries are also arranged to carry more warming blood to their hands.

A perfectly clean fire produces almost no smoke. Smoke simply means that a fire is not burning properly and that bits of unburned material are escaping.

On June 10, 1943, Hungarian Laszlo Biro invented the ball-point pen.

More redheads are born in Scotland than in any other country: 11 percent of its population has red hair.

The log cabin is not an American innovation. The Finns and Swedes imported their technology and began building then in Delaware in 1638.

Pearls melt in vinegar

35% of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down, hence the expression: "getting fired."

Hersey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks as if it is kissing the conveyor belt.

The HIGHEST point in Pennsylvania is LOWER than the lowest point in Colorado.

Only one person in two BILLION will be live to be 116 or older.

The mask used by in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

The fingerprints of koala bears and humans are virtually indistinguishable; so much that they can be confused at a crime scene.

Months that begin on Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th"

Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

What's the world's biggest desert?

It's the continent of Antarctica. Never mind sand and the Sahara. The dictionary defines a desert as a vast, wild, barren, uncultivated area, incapable of supporting a considerable population Source: WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY

The last dictionary that Noah Webster wrote contained 70,000 words and their meanings. He wrote it with no help and by hand. (Source: Useless Trivia)

The planet Venus does not tilt as it goes around the Sun, so consequently, it has no seasons. On Mars, however, the seasons are more exaggerated and last much longer than on Earth.

A car traveling at a constant speed of 60 miles per hour would take longer than 48 million years to reach the nearest star (other than our Sun), Proxima Centauri. This is about 685,000 average human lifetimes

In web site addresses on the Internet, "http" stands for "hypertext transfer protocol." Also, "WWW" stands for "World Wide Web."

During pregnancy, the uterus expands to 500 times its normal size.

Spinach is native to the area of Iran, but didn't spread to other parts of the world until the beginning of the Christian era.

A marine catfish can taste with any part of its body. Thefemale marine catfish hatches her eggs in her mouth.

If one places a minute amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

The female anglerfish is six times larger than her mate. The male anchors himself to the top of her head and stays there for the rest of his life. They literally become one. Their digestive and circulatory systems are merged. Except for two very large generative organs and a few fins, nothing remains of the male.

People lose more than hair as they grow old. By the age of 70, half of your taste buds will be gone.

Very unusual for carnivores, hyena clans are dominated by females.

Ducks will lay eggs only in the early morning.

The gastric juices of a snake can digest bones and teeth--but not fur or hair.

Many whale species are staggeringly enormous. The blue whale, for example, can grow to 100 feet (30 m) long, about the height of a 10-story building, and can weigh as much as 150 tons (300,000 lb or 136077.7 kg). Its heart alone is the size of a small car, and there's enough room on its tongue for 50 people. It is the largest known animal in Earth's history.

Fax machines have been around in one form or another for more than a century. Alexander Bain patented the first fax design in 1843.

There are about 500 different kinds of cone snails around the world. All have a sharp, modified tooth that stabs
prey with venom like a harpoon. Most cone snails hunt worms and other snails, but some eat fish. These are the ones
most dangerous to people. The nerve toxin that stops a fish is powerful enough to also kill a human.

Quicksand is not quite the fearsome force of nature that you sometimes see on the big screen. In fact, quicksand is rarely deeper than a few feet. It can occur almost anywhere if the right conditions are present. Quicksand is basically just ordinary sand that has been so saturated with water that the friction between sand particles is reduced. The resulting sand is a mushy mixture of sand and water that can no longer support any weight.

In the National Football League, the home team is required to provide 24 footballs for each game, although only 8-12
are normally used.

Placing lush green plants in every room produces enough oxygen to purify the air we breathe on a daily basis.
This is according to studies at NASA...

Certain chemicals in sweat seem to attract mosquitoes. People who don't sweat as much don't get nearly as many mosquito bites.

Abraham Lincoln signed the first federal income tax law. The tax was 3 percent on incomes over $600.

Because it is continually losing body heat, the shrew must keep moving to stay warm. If inactive for more than a few
hours, the animal will lose enough body heat to freeze to death.

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Source: Bizzarro)

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter.

The sun burns 9 million tons of gas a second. At this rate, it has been estimated it will burn out in another 10
billion years.

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(Source: Bizzarro)

The weight of the Sun is two billion billion billion tons, about 333,420 times that of the Earth.

The first modern brassiere, made from two silk handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon, was patented in 1913 by the New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob. (Source: Quizland)

If a person 'passes wind' consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Source: Bizzarro)

Jupiter is the largest planet, and it has the shortest day. Although Jupiter has a circumference of 280,000 miles, compared with Earth's 25,000, Jupiter manages to make one turn in 9 hours and 55 minutes.

The most commonly used language in the world is Chinese. It is spoken by over 1 billion people.

The US record for the greatest number of patented inventions is 1,093. The record is held by Thomas Alva
Edison.

Termite queens are fertilized regularly by the same mate for life, unlike bee and ant queens, whose male partners
die after the first and only mating.

In 1899, the first police car was used in Akron, Ohio. Police cars became the basis of police transportation in the 20th century.

President James A. Garfield was the second president shot in office. Doctors tried to find the bullet with a metal detector invented by Alexander Graham Bell. But the device failed because Garfield was placed on a bed with metal springs, and no one thought to move him. He died on September 19, 1881.

Sylvan N. Goldman of Humpty Dumpty Stores and Standard Food Markets developed the shopping cart so that people
could buy more in a single visit to the grocery store. He unveiled his creation in Oklahoma City on June 4, 1937.

There's enough energy in ten minutes of one hurricane to match the nuclear stockpiles of the world.

Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, had six fingers on one hand. She wore special gloves all her life to hide her
deformity. She also had three breasts.

The fact that blood circulates was discovered by the British physician William Harvey?
(Source: Encarta.com)

Because of their extreme elasticity, the lungs are 100 times easier to blow up than a child’s toy balloon.

There are earthworms as short as one-twenty-fifth of an inch and earthworms as long as 11 feet. The earthworm has no lungs; it breathes through its skin. Some earthworms have as many as ten hearts (presumably these are the really long ones).

Vernors ginger ale was created in Detroit and became the first soda pop made in the United States. In 1862, pharmacist James Vernor was trying to create a new beverage when he was called away to serve our country in the Civil War. When he returned four years later, the drink he had stored in an oak case had acquired a delicious gingery flavor.

According to the Gregorian calendar, which is the civil calendar in use today, years evenly divisible by 4 are leap
years, with the exception of centurial years that are not evenly divisible by 400. Therefore, the years 1700, 1800,
1900 and 2100 are not leap years, but 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years.

The speed of light is estimated to be186,000 miles per second

A light-year is how far light travels in one year, which is about 5.9 trillion miles.

The first paper notes printed in the United States were in denominations of 1 cent, 5 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents. The U.S. Department of the Treasury first issued paper U.S. currency in 1862 to make up for the shortage of coins and to finance the Civil War.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.

Sara Lee was a real person. In 1935 Charles Lubin and his brother-in-law purchased a chain of small neighborhood bakeries named Community Bake Shops. The business was a success, but Charles parted ways with his brother-in-law in 1949. He named his first product (a cream cheese cake) after his eight year old daughter, and also changed the name of the company, to Kitchens of Sara Lee.

The first commercial passenger airplane began flying in 1914. The first commercial passenger airplane with a bathroom began flying in 1919.

The smallest visible sunspots have an area of 500 million square miles, about fifty times the size of Africa. The
largest sunspots have an area of about 7,000 million square miles.

A female mouse may spawn as many as ten litters of eight to ten young during her lifetime - which is generally less than a year. The gestation period is three weeks, and the young mice reach maturity in only ten weeks.

Of the thirteen original colonies, New Hampshire was the first to actually declare its independence from Mother England -- a full six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed. So, it could be thought of as the "first" state.

Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.

Alaska is the United State's largest state and is over twice the size of Texas. Measuring from north to south the state is approximately 1,400 miles long and measuring from east to west it is 2,700 miles wide.

Columbus had three ships on his first American exploration. On his second expedition, seventeen ships were under his command

In the French court of Louis XI, the fine ladies lived mainly on soup because they believed that excessive chewing would cause them to develop premature facial wrinkles.

Other than sleeping, men and women differ on what is their favorite thing to do in bed. Of the men polled, the top response was to have sex at 50 percent; for women, only 20 percent responded the same. Women would prefer to read (23 percent), whereas men put books at just 11 percent.

The first chocolate chip cookie was developed in the kitchen of a Whitman, Massachusetts, country inn in 1937. Simple experiments led to a recipe combining bits of chocolate candy with a shortbread type cookie dough.

Andrew Johnson held every elective office at the local, state, and federal level, including President of the United States. He was elected alderman, mayor, state representative, and state senator from Greeneville. He served as governor and military governor of Tennessee and United States congressman, senator, and vice president, becoming President of the United States following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Hens do not have to be impregnated to lay eggs. The rooster is necessary only to fertilize the egg.

In the adult human body, there are 46 miles of nerves.

Hibbing, Minnesota, lays claim to being the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson - who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. The bus line grew to become Greyhound Lines, Inc.

A nanosecond is one billionth of a second.

After more than a century as a dessert for royalty alone, ice cream was made available to the general public for the
first time at Cafe’rocope, the first cafe in Paris, in 1670.

It was reported in 1990 that former President Ronald Reagan's autobiography, A Life, was a financial catastrophe. Publisher Simon and Schuster had paid the former actor-U.S. leader $7 million in advance for his autobiography and a collection of his speeches. Of the 500,000 copies produced, nearly 300,000 were returned to the publisher, forcing them to revise their advance-payment policy.

Early hand-held lights used carbozinc batteries that did not last very long. To keep the light burning required that
the user turn it on for a short time and then turn it off to allow the battery to recover. That's how they became known
as a "flashlight."

The word "Nazi" is actually an abbreviation. The party's full name was the "Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartel."

A male kangaroo is called a boomer, and a female is called a flyer.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the best time to spray household insects is 4:00 p.m. Insects are most vulnerable at this time.

Cattle branding in the United States did not originate in the West. It began in Connecticut in the mid-19th century,
when farmers were required by law to mark all their pigs.

Karl Marx, whose writings are the basis for most socialist movements and are the foundation on which the theory of communism was built, once worked as a London-based reporter for the New York Tribune. Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS

Playtex International made U.S. history in May 1987 when TV networks began airing its commercials showing women wearing bras. Prior to this, torso mannequins were usually used, or female models could don brassiers provided the undergarments were worn on top of the models' clothing.

French toast isn't French. It comes from a Roman cookbook, dating back to 1000 or 2000 B.C., and titled "Apicius on
Cooking."

King Alfonso of Spain (1886-1931), was so tone-deaf that he had one man in his employ known as the Anthem Man. This man's duty was to tell the king to stand up whenever the Spanish national anthem was played, because the monarch couldn't recognize it.

When commercial telephone service was introduced between New York and London in 1927, the first three minutes of a call cost $75.00.

A pawnbroker may give you an argument when you say that the item you want to hock is worth more than the broker is willing to pay. But you are not likely to hear that old sarcastic retort, "Who do you think I am, Santa Claus?"
That's because the patron saint of pawnbrokers is St. Nicholas. Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS