The earliest recorded case of a person giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679 when Johan Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary "I quit smoking tobacco today." He died one month later due to heart failure
The earth is .02 degrees hotter during a full moon
The annual death rate per 100,000 Americans declined from 2,296 in 1900 to 731 in the year 2000... if this decline had not occurred, half of Americans alive today would never have been born
On average, more people fear spiders than they do death, while statistically you are far more likely to die from a champagne cork being popped open and flying across the room at speeds of nearly 60 mph than from the bite of a poisonous spider
An iceberg contains more heat than a lit match
Humans share slightly more than a third of their DNA with lettuce
A Roman "leap year" had the same number of days as a standard year, with the exception that January 23rd lasted 48 hours
Roughly half of the world's telephones are in the United States
Democrats are more likely to own a cat than Republicans
Worldwide the number of automobiles is increasing three times faster than population
Real estate agents often use a simple formula to estimate the property value of a seller's home: they ask the homeowner what they feel their home is worth, then subtract 10%
England's Princes William and Harry are uncircumcised
The word "taxi" is spelled the same and has the same meaning in English, French, German, Swedish, and Portuguese
In the U.S. each year, more than 6,000 people arrive at hospital emergency rooms from pillow-related injuries
In a 1631 edition of the King James Bible, in Exodus 20:14 the word "not" was left out, changing the 7th Commandment to read "Thou shalt commit adultery." This is known as the "Wicked Bible"
In 1975, Louis Abalofia wanted to run for President of the U.S. His campaign posters showed him completely nude with the slogan "I have nothing to hide"
1961 was the most recent year that could be read upside down... the next will be 6009
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"Friends applaud, the comedy is finished" -- Ludwig van Beethoven, March 26, 1827
"I should never have switched from scotch to martinis" -- Humphrey Bogart, January 14, 1957
"I'm bored with it all" -- Winston Churchill, January 24, 1965
"I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring" -- Richard Feynman (Physicist), 1988
"Why not? Yeah." -- Timothy Leary, May 31, 1996
"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do!" -- Oscar Wilde, November 30, 1900
"And now with keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you're about to see another first - an attempted suicide" -- Chris Chubbuck, Anchorwoman for Channel 40 who shot herself in the head, July 15, 1974
"Hurray for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life!" -- George Engel, anarchist activist hung at the gallows after the Haymarket riots in Chicago, 1886