People in Sweden, Japan, and Canada are more likely to know the population of the United States than are Americans.

Las Vegas means "the meadows" in Spanish. Ironically, the city in the desert was once abundant in water and vegetation.

Living creatures create tiny weather systems called microclimates in their nests and burrows. For instance, bees fan their wings at the hive entrance during hot weather. This makes a cooling draft blow through the hive.

Robert Mitchum was an actor's actor. He enjoyed his celebrity, but never took being a star very seriously. His movie career began during World War II, when the rugged, sleepy-eyed actor was fired from an aircraft plant because he threw a punch at his foreman. Acting in the movies, he figured, couldn't be any worse. Years later, he was arrested ...Read more

The largest painting measures 92,419 square feet and was completed by ID Cultur in Amsterdam, Netherlands on August 14, 1996.

The name of the game “cricket” is believed to have been derived in the late 1500s from the Middle French word criquet, meaning “goalpost.”

The Coast Guard Academy in July of 1976 was the first U.S. service academy to admit women.

Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called "robins." This was because their uniforms were red. The British Post Office grew out of the carrying of royal dispatches. Red was considered a royal color, so uniforms and letter-boxes were red. Christmas cards often showed a robin delivering

MGM film bathing beauty and box-office darling Esther Williams arrived on the Hawaiian island Kauai to film the musical, Pagan Love Song,(1950) co-starring Howard Keel, Rita Moreno, and Philip Costa. Overall, this film was fairly routine, but in it, Williams performed her first salt water swimming ballet. Williams was a great swimming athlete ...Read more

The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "And the rest of the day to yourself."

Life preservers and the lining of aviators' jackets used during World War II were made from fiber found in milkweed pods.

When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal - several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down.

Mary was the second daughter and fifth child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. A stillborn sister and three short-lived brothers, including the prince Henry, had preceded her. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, famous for driving the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula, ...Read more

Architect James Horan was awarded $500 and a parcel of land in Washington, D.C. for his 1792 winning design for the President's House, now known as the White House.

Wandering albatrosses spread their wings, clack bills, and shake heads in a ritual dance. Bonds between courting birds may last the whole of a 50-year lifetime.

Charlemagne, the Frankish Emperor, never learned to write; even though he practiced on tablets, he admitted he couldn't master the skill. He learned to read, however.

A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae.

A Harvard study of college drinking showed that more than 40 percent of students indulge in binge drinking, which is defined as consuming five drinks at one sitting by men or four drinks by women. Of college students who drink, one-third drink to get drunk.

Civil War General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson has two separate burial sites. His left arm, which was amputated after the battle of Chancellorsville, was buried on a nearby farm. A week later, Jackson died and was buried in Lexington, Virginia.

Coins are usually made of copper and another element, such as zinc or nickel. Currency paper is composed of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. Red and blue synthetic fibers of various lengths are distributed evenly throughout the paper. Before World War I these fibers were made of silk.