- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson - seventh President of the United States - got a yellow-napped Amazon parrot, named it Pol, and taught it to swear. The bird was banished from President Jackson's funeral when it insisted on showing off its offensive vocabulary. Jackson, incidentally, was buried with a bullet lodged near his heart, a souvenir from a duel fought 39 years earlier.
- Archeologists have found fossil evidence of a ten-foot, 1000-lb ape that lived in Asia 200,000 years ago. This beast - who no doubt slept where he wanted to - isn't too far removed from the descriptions given of the yeti, Asia's "Abominable Snowman".
- When the Titanic first struck the iceberg that killed her, passengers on the "unsinkable" luxury liner were reluctant to leave the ship, causing the crew to launch the first five lifeboats with only 159 passengers and crew aboard instead of the 300 they could have carried.
- Aristotle, too, was puzzled over why some whales beach themselves to die.
- In 17th Century Paris, if you attended an upper-class dinner, you brought your own waiter.
- If an English town name ends in "by", the Vikings probably named it; "by" was the common Scandinavian word for "village".
- The Adriatic Sea is named for the Roman port of Adria. But Adria is now 14 miles inland due to shifting topography.
- Nik'ure, the son of an Egyptian pharaoh, left the first known "last will and testament". He died in 2601 B.C., and in his will, he claimed to be of sound mind.
- Camels (and committees) often get little respect - "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." - but actually, a camel is a remarkable beast. If thirsty enough, he will drink 20 gallons of water, enough to kill most other mammals. If hungry enough, he will eat thorns or bones … or your tent.
- Honey doesn't spoil, and it's a good preservative and antibiotic. That's because it draws moisture out of anything it touches, including bacteria.
- If she's a statue, a naked Greek female is a goddess. If she's on a vase, she's a prostitute.
- England's King Charles II acknowledged 14 illegitimate children. Historians have identified by name thirteen of his mistresses.
- In the Roman republic of 500 B.C., the Senate could appoint a supreme national commander for a limited time in case of emergency. While in charge, his dictates were law. Hence the word "dictator."
- Geologists say that the sharp mountains and volcanoes that occupied the area that is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri are still there. They've just been covered by two miles of sediment and soil.
- One of the oldest prepared foods in the world is the pancake. It hasn't changed much from the wheat cakes made by Egyptian women in 2500 B.C.
- Egypt's King Menes is probably the only monarch in history to be killed by a hippopotamus.
- There were tattoo artists before there were farmers.
- The Romans invented the folding knife, but they didn't call it a pocketknife. Neither their tunics nor their togas had pockets.
- Actually, only 15% of the Sahara Desert is sand. The other 85% is gravel and rock.
- In 1292 - two hundred years before Columbus made his famous voyage - someone carved the message "No Loitering" into a stone at an ancient cemetery near what is now Mill River, Mass. The message is written in Iberian Punic, a Phoenician language.
- At least three highly significant individuals in history are known only by their nicknames: Plato, Buddha, and Homer. "The Buddha" was Siddhartha Gautama. Plato's real name was Aristocles. No one knows what Homer's real name was.
- The oldest house in Northern Europe was built in 3800 B.C. and has been unoccupied for the last 5000 years. It consists of two interconnected stone rooms called the "Knap of Howar", on the Orkney Isles.
- Bronx, New York, had an unusual deputy sheriff during Prohibition. He was Arthur Simon "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, one of the foremost bootleggers and organized crime figures of the era.
- When Pennsylvania's Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829, it had running water and central heat, niceties that even the White House didn't have.
- One drowning victim in five is a child who dies in a public pool with a certified lifeguard on duty.
- Famous gambler Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos and poker legend Johnny Moss played a poker game in 1949 that lasted five months, interrupted for sleep only once or twice a week. Nick finally quit after losing at least $2 million.
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