Fast Facts
November 14, 2007
Richard Burton’s first purchase for his then-wife Elizabeth Taylor was a 33.19-carat diamond ring, which Liz still wears today.
Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
“”Queuetopia”” was a word Winston Churchill invented to describe Communist countries where people had to line up to buy anything.
The inhabitants of Darwin, Australia, each drink a yearly average of 62 gallons of beer.
Eric Clapton, Jack Nicholson and Bobby Darin each grew up thinking his mother was really his sister.
The technology that led to the refrigerator was first developed by a Florida doctor in 1834 to lower the temperatures of patients afflicted with yellow fever.
The late Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis on the 1970s sitcom “”The Jeffersons,”” is the mother of rocker Lenny Kravitz.
Despite hosting the Winter Olympics twice (in 1932 and 1980), the tiny town of Lake Placid, N.Y., is home to only about 2,300 residents.
The first food intentionally cooked by microwave power was popcorn.
“”Relax”” hitmaker Frankie Goes to Hollywood got its name from a headline of an old issue of Variety magazine.
The Pony Express went under after a little more than a year of operation. The invention of the telegraph made the speedy mail service obsolete.
According to a 2005 study done by the University of Cardiff, the most depressing day of the year is Jan. 24.
The sweaters that Fred Rogers wore on “”Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”” were all knitted by his mother.
The English gold coin, the guinea, is named after the country in West Africa where the gold used to make it was first made.
The odds of getting four of a kind in a five-card poker deal are 4,164-to-1.
The most common name in the Bible is Zechariah, mentioned 33 times.
