Fast Facts
January 25, 2007
- In Michigan, it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.
Victorian society rejected the notion that pets were capable of having feelings or expressing emotion.
The porcupine’s love for salt often leads the animal to roadways or walkways where salt has been sprinkled to melt the ice. The animal will lick and gnaw on anything containing salt, including saddles, canoe paddles and axe handles.
The deepest penguin dive on record is 1,261 feet under water.
The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond.
The first American submarine was built in 1776.
The leaves of the Victorian water lily are sometimes more than 6 feet in diameter.
Carolyn Shoemaker discovered 32 comets and approximately 300 asteroids.
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, was afraid of the dark.
Pole vault poles used to be stiff. Now they bend, which allows the vaulter to go much higher.
The game of squash originated in the United Kingdom.
The Tom Thumb golf course was the first miniature golf course in the United States. It was built in 1929 in Chatanooga, Tenn., by John Garnet Carter.
It is possible to drown and not die. Technically, the term drowning refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not the death caused by that process.
The French term “”bourrage de crane”” for wartime propaganda means “”brain stuffing.””
Charlie Chaplin started in show business at age 5. He was so popular during the 1920s and 1930s he received more than 73,000 letters in just two days during a visit to London.
During the years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire, called the shire reeve. When the term was taken to America, the title was shortened to sheriff.
