Fast Facts
April 28, 2006
- A queen bee uses her stinger only to sting another queen bee. She never uses it on workers, drones or people. The queen’s stinger, moreover, is smooth and saber-shaped, not barbed, as other bees’ stingers are. Thus she, unlike all other bees, can sting repeatedly without hurting herself.
Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, lived long enough to help lay the cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828. Carroll, the longest-lived of all the signers, died in 1832 at the age of 95.
The color black absorbs heat. White reflects it.
Four future presidents were in attendance at the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1860: Benjamin Harrison, Chester Alan Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield.
Hugnes was archibishop of Reims in the 10th century when he was 5 years old. In the 11th century, Benedict IX was pope at 11 years old.
An average dinner eaten by King Louis XIV of France consisted of four plates of soup, a whole pheasant, a whole partridge, two slices of ham, a salad, mutton with garlic, pastry, fruit and hardboiled eggs. At his death it was discovered that the King’s stomach was twice the size of a normal stomach.
Nearly 5,000 Americans under the age of 24 committed suicide in 1977. An additional 100,000 tried to. Ninety percent of all suicides are female.
Neuritis and neuralgia are not diseases. They are nerve pains related to disease. In fact, when a pain is identified as neuralgia, it is often because the exact cause is not known. Neuralgia differs from neuritis in that neuralgia pains come in paroxysms, while neuritis is more constant and even. Thus sciatica is a kind of neuralgia and a toothache is a kind of neuritis.
Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.
Before 1863, postal service in the United States was free.
Legally, two automobiles do not have to come into direct contact for the drivers to be involved in a traffic accident. According to the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, if a driver contributes in any way to a crash, he or she is legally involved.
Private automobiles were forbidden on the island of Bermuda until 1948. This is one reason that there are still so many bicycles there.
