- There actually was an outlaw in the British Isles some seven hundred years ago who lived in the forest for a number of years and launched periodic surprise attacks on English soldiers and garrisons. One early fight with English troops started when they objected to the color of green that he wore. His impoverished fellow countrymen loved him; he had a ladylove from a well-to-do family named Marion; and he had a band of outlaws following him, including a Benedictine monk. But his name wasn't Robin Hood; it was William Wallace, the famous Scottish patriot.
- Almost everyone says "Grand Central Station", but there is no such place. It's Grand Central Terminal.
- The knights of medieval Europe were all noblemen. One reason might have been economic: a suit of plate armor was quite costly, and a commoner couldn't afford one. Richer knights often had their armor custom-made, to flaunt their wealth. Less affluent nobles bought "off the shelf".
- There really is an opposite of paranoia - pronoia. It's the unfounded belief that everyone is out to help you.
- Alaska's Mt. McKinley is almost a mile higher than the highest Alp.
- Undoubtedly, the most famous of the Custer brothers is George Armstrong Custer of Little Bighorn fame, but during the Civil War, younger brother Thomas Ward Custer won the Medal of Honor twice, one of only four individuals ever to do so.
- Texas (267,338 square miles) has exactly one natural lake.
- Although they still exist, you will never get to see the first three versions of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. He painted over each one in turn, and all three are hidden under the fourth and final version.
- Scientists - especially physicists - use D or d to signify density. Someone dropped the spaces when making this entry in the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, and for five years, Webster's version of the English language included the non-existent word, Dord.
- No proper name in the King James Bible begins with a W. Incidentally, while some come close, no verse in the KJB contains all 26 letters of the alphabet.
- A heated home in the northern US during winter has an interior relative humidity of around 13%. The Sahara Desert's relative humidity averages approximately 25%.
- The hyrax, sometimes called the rock rabbit, is an unusual little beast. This furry seven-pound mammal looks a lot like a large rabbit or oversized guinea pig. Its closest living relative in the animal world? The elephant.
- Geronimo, the famous Apache, didn't mind beating the avaricious whites at their own game. He traveled with sewing materials and a supply of buttons. At train stops, he would sell the buttons off his coat as souvenirs. While en route to the next stop, he would sew on another set of buttons.
- Many medical authorities hold that, until late in the 19th century, surgery on the kitchen table was safer than in a hospital. Back then, a medical attendant with clean hands was a rarity.
- Our word for one of the sounds a cat makes is "meow". The Siamese/Thai word for the cat itself is "maew".
- In the 1974 movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Clint Eastwood plays John "Thunderbolt" Doherty, a famous thief who finds himself teamed up with a young con man and drifter who goes by the name of Lightfoot. Interestingly, an Irish highwayman of the early 1800s named John Doherty gained the nickname "Captain Thunderbolt" for his lightning raids. Before he gave up crime in 1818 and moved to the United States, Captain Thunderbolt teamed up with a young Irish sneak thief named Michael Martin. Doherty nicknamed his new partner "Captain Lightfoot".
- Patrick Gass was a feisty fellow. He crossed most of North America in the early 1800s as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He fought in the War of 1812, losing an eye during a battle in Canada in 1814. In 1830, the 59-year-old Gass married a 16-year-old girl and fathered six children. He was 75 when his wife died; she was 32. In 1861, when the Civil War began, the ninety-year-old adventurer tried to sign up in the Union Army.
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