interesting facts

Donald Duck appeared in more Disney cartoons than Mickey Mouse.

Josef Stalin did not speak a word of Russian until he was nine years old.

Four U.S. Presidents were best known by their middle name: (Stephen) Grover Cleveland, (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, (John) Calvin Coolidge, and Ulysses Grant, whose birth name was (Hiram) Ulysses Grant.

Harry S Truman's middle initial does not stand for anything- it is just the letter "S".

The Titanic was the first ship to use the newly adopted radio distress signal "S.O.S.", instead of the previous "C.Q."

General George Armstrong Custer was actually a Lieutenant Colonel when he died at the Little Big Horn.

One of the last statements by Jesus on the cross, "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" is the opening line of Psalm 22.

Japanese sake, called 'rice wine' is actually brewed more like beer than wine.

The Hundred Years' War was 114 years long.

The original US Bill of Rights contained 12 proposed amendments to the US Constitution. Only 10 of them were adopted in 1790. An eleventh amendment proposed in the document was reintroduced and adopted almost 200 years later as the 27th amendment, prohibiting Congress from raising its own pay until an election has intervened. The twelfth proposed amendment had to do with the number of constituents per congressman and was never adopted.

A one pound squirrel can eat a pound of birdseed every week.

"The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history.

All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and boys. In England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on stage.

All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book "Peter Pan" were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London.

Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.

Bilbo Baggins was born on September 22 1290.

Brabara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.

Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.

Dr. Seuss wrote "Green Eggs and Ham" after his editor dared him to write a book using fewer than 50 different words.

Edgar Allan Poe introduced mystery fiction's first fictional detective, Auguste C. Dupin, in his 1841 story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

Frank Baum named "Oz" after a file cabinet in his office. One cabinet was labeled "A to N," and the second was labeled "O to Z."

Ghosts appear in 4 Shakespearian plays; Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet and Macbeth.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published March 20, 1852. It was the first American novel to sell one million copies.

John Milton used 8,000 different words in his poem, "Paradise Lost."

Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."

Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," only 164 are women.

Professor Moriarity was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy.

Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'

Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on the mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887).

The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.

The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, 'Aladdin was a little Chinese boy.'

The Three Musketeers names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan joins them later.)

NOW you tell me. I had to get rid of my feeder when I found that the squirrels were hogging everything, and making a mess to boot. I even greased the pole where the feeder hung, but that did not do a bit of good!

none of the plastic easter eggs used are laid by plastic chickens.....

Writer Ben Jonson was buried in Westminster Abbey standing up.

Phoenix--

Squirrel proof feeders are not bear proof, but if you don't have bears they will pay for themselves in saved seed as well as providing delightful hours watching frustrated squirrels.

William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died less than 24 hours apart, on April 13th and 14th, 1614. It was Shakespeare's birthday.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The Russian October Revolution took place in November.

Naval hero Lord Admiral Nelson was fatally wounded during his victory at the battle of Trafalgar. His body was returned to England pickled in a barrel of cognac.

No word in the English language rhymes with "month".

Our eyes are the same size from birth but our noses and ears never stop growing.

All polar bears are left-handed. (How can they tell?)

In Ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including eyebrows and eyelashes. (Ouch!)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Americans, on average, eat 18 acres of pizza every day. (Is that all?)

The Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place on nearby Breed's Hill. The colonists set out to fortify Bunker Hill overnight, but fortified Breed's Hill instead. No one really knows why, but my favorite theory is that in the dark they simply went to the wrong hill and weren't aware of their mistake until morning.

Actress Hedy Lamarr invented a communication system still in use by cellphones and military satellites today.

Ventrilloquist Paul Winchell invented a practical artificial heart.

Industrialist Henry Ford captured the dying breath of Thomas Edison in a glass tube. It is still on display at the Ford museum in Dearborn Mich.

Abraham Lincoln had Confederate paper money in his pocket at the time of his death, but no US currency.

Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, had six fingers on one hand.

Equus, I'll take your word for it, but those are really wild!

My wife's grandfather was an electrician. There was a pesky squirrel who would hang from the metal gutters by his back feet, grab the bird feeder with his front feet and continue to eat all of the seed.

Grandpa, not wanting to spend all of his money feeding a squirrel, wired the bird feeder and gutter so that when the squirrel hung down and grabbed the bird feeder he completed the cuircuit... which resulted in a shock to the squirrel. It didn't kill him but was enough to make him remember. After a few tries he ran off to find a different bird house to rob.

jpinMilwaukee- I think that Grandpa has a wonderful idea. I might want to try it, if none of you report me to P.E.T.A. :wink:

Canada lays claim to more water than any other nation.

Nearly a quarter of people in Monaco are over 65.

Australians have a huge 380,000 sq m of land per person - and yet 91% live in urban areas.

Ducks have corkscrew-shaped penises. Don't ask me how I know that.

The United States spends more money on its military than the next 12 nations combined

The USA has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.

Mexico has the most Jehovah's Witnesses per capita

The top 5 energy consumers are all cold countries. The next 6 are mostly oil producers.

The United States consumes more energy than India, the Middle East, South America, Africa, South East Asia and Oceania combined - which means more than 3.1 billion people.

Single guys should check out The Virgin Islands. Apart from sounding good, it has five women to every four men!

It's back in medical practice again. Leeches help set certain kinds of tissue repair by bringing blood up through the skin. And, maggots are also now being used for burn victims and such. They lay a plastic mesh over the wound, slather with maggots, cover with more plastic mesh. The maggots eat the dead tissue, but forgo munching on the good tissue.

littlek~
I'm glad I had breakfast BEFORE reading that.