Fast Facts
June 27, 2007
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.
The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable.
John Tyler, the 10th president, had 15 children.
Tuna will suffocate if they ever stop swimming. They need a continual flow of water across their gills to breathe, even while they rest.
A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first passengers in a hot air balloon.
The great horned owl can turn its head 270 degrees.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
The Queen of England has two birthdays – one real and one official.
Silent-film actress Clara Bow was the first so-called “”It Girl,”” or celebrity of the moment.
The city of Denver was chosen to host, but then refused, the 1976 Winter Olympics.
Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cannot find food.
The prehistoric woolly mammoth had tusks almost 16 feet long.
Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10th of a calorie.
Shrimp swim backward.
“”The Katzenjammer Kids,”” which debuted in 1897, is the world’s oldest-running comic strip.
An estimated 80 percent of all life on Earth lives in the oceans.
The giant flying foxes of Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six feet.
Every day, more money is printed for the board game Monopoly than for the U.S. Treasury.
The people killed most often during bank robberies are the robbers.
The word “”sneaker”” was coined by Henry McKinney, an advertising agent for N.W. Ayer & Son.
