In 1533, Henry VIII secretly wed Anne Boleyn. The Vatican Library preserves twelve love letters he wrote to her.

Cotton Mather, famous American clergyman, has an odd first name. His father had an even odder one: Increase.

The largest order of mammals, with about 1,700 species, is rodents. Bats are second with about 950 species.

In 1822, in his book Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas DeQuincy invented the word "tranquilizer" to describe the effect of opium.

Usually Bushmen hunt with poison arrows. The poison is extracted from the pupae of beetles found in the soil beneath infested marula trees. A few drops of the poison squeezed onto an arrow are enough to kill an antelope; one drop of it can kill a human if it enters the bloodstream. For safety, arrowhead tips are not treated – the poisonous ...Read more

The color combination with the strongest visual impact is black on yellow. Next to follow black on white, yellow on black, white on black, dark blue on white, and white on dark blue.

In an industry where award ceremonies are second to oxygen, an award was dreamed up in 1951 to honor animals in the entertainment field. Called Patsy, "P.A.T.S.Y." is an acronym for both "Picture Animal Top Star of the Year" and "Performing Animal Television Star of the Year." Emceeing the first award event was Ronald Reagan. Patsy winners ...Read more

Americans ingest 1.7 million tons -- or 10.8 pounds per person -- of sugar each year from Coca-Cola alone. Americans drink an average of 399 servings of Coke products per year. 50% of these are Coke brands, and 63% of those are Coca-Cola Classic. That comes out to 125.7 Classic Coke servings per person. With 39 grams of sugar per serving, that ...Read more

Most people can't. Ivory from one animal species is difficult to distinguish from that of another. Even experts can have difficulty.

After some small film roles, actress Sissy Spacek soared to fame as the title character in Stephen King's 1976 movie shocker Carrie, where she portrayed a homely, unpopular high school student with deadly telekinetic powers. She did such a convincing job in the role that few people are aware that Spacek was selected as the homecoming queen at ...Read more

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the best time to spray household insects is 4:00 p.m. Insects are most vulnerable at this time.

Florence, Italy was the first city to mint its own gold coins in 1252. The fiorino became known as the florence, then the florin.

Expressing recognition rather than love, Utah prairie dogs exchange "kisses." By the touching of incisor teeth, they quickly confirm the identity of group members.

Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by James McNeill Whistler. Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son. Several unverifiable stories surround the making of the painting itself; one is that Anna Whistler ...Read more

The largest iceberg ever seen in the Antarctic region had a length of about 200 miles (320 km) at its longest point and a width of about 60 miles (97 km) at its widest point. It covered about 5,000 square miles (13,000 sq km). Icebergs that are 10 miles (16 km) long are common in the Antarctic. In contrast, the largest iceberg measured in the ...Read more

In 1995, each American used an annual average of 731 pounds of paper, more than double the amount used in the 1980s. Contrary to predictions that computers would displace paper, consumption is growing.

Not in Australia -- When Burger King decided to expand its operations into Australia, it found that its business name was already trademarked by a man running a small takeaway food shop. Consequently, the first Australian franchise of the Burger King Corporation, established in Perth in 1971, was branded Hungry Jack's, echoing the name and ...Read more

Seating on the first scheduled intercity commuter airplane flight consisted of moveable wicker chairs. There were 11 of them on the first Ford Tri-Motors. After several years, Ford replaced them with aluminum-framed leather chairs.

In 1811, Louisiana was the first state in the U.S. to declare, by statute, English as its official language. It would be 109 years before a second state in the U.S. -- Nebraska -- would issue a constitutional amendment to make English the official state idiom there.

The Tour is a "stage race", divided into a number of stages, each being a race held over one day. The time it takes each rider to complete each stage is noted, recorded, and accumulated. Riders who finish in the same group are awarded the same time, with possible subtractions due to time bonuses. Two riders are said to have finished in the same ...Read more