Fast Facts
October 10, 2006
- For the 66 percent of Americans who admit to reading in the bathroom, the preferred reading material is Reader’s Digest.
Spain literally means “”the land of rabbits.””
The earliest document in Latin in a woman’s handwriting is an invitation to a birthday party from the first century A.D.
Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space. They went up with astronauts in the June 21, 1983, voyage of the space shuttle Challenger.
British politician John Montagu, the 46th earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the sandwich. He developed the habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue playing cards interrupted.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
A B-25 bomber airplane crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
At one point, the Panama Canal was going to be built in Nicaragua.
Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about 1,000 years. Although Buddhism was founded in India around 470 B.C. and developed there at an early date, it was uprooted from India between the seventh and 12th centuries A.D. and today exists almost exclusively outside the country, primarily in Sri Lanka, Japan and Indochina.
