85% of working actors in Hollywood and Los Angeles earn less than $8,000 a year from acting jobs
Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1938
Southern sea otters have flaps of skin under their forelegs that act as pockets - When diving, they use these pouches to store rocks and prey
The Hudson’s Bay Company (now known as “The Bay” or “HBC”) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, having been incorporated on May 2, 1670 by British royal charter by King Charles II
The US imports most of its oil from Canada, followed by Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Iraq
The human body is between 59% and 78% water, depending on its height and weight
World record for "Greatest Distance Thrown in a Car Accident": Matthew McKnight, thrown 118 feet by an automobile that struck him while he was trying to assist accident victims along an interstate - he spent two weeks in the hospital and 80 days in a rehabilitation center before making a full recovery (The crash occurred in 2001, but was not included in the Guinness Book of World Records until 2008)
A space shuttle enters orbit upside-down relative to earth
OLDEST COUNTRIES:
- San Marino (301 AD)
- France (486 AD)
- Bulgaria (632 AD)
- Denmark (950 AD)
- Portugal (1143 AD)
- Andorra (1278 AD)
- Switzerland (1291 AD)
Consumption of bottled water increases about 12% each year globally - the consumption rate has increased steadily over the past three decades making it the most dynamic sector of the food and beverage industry with a market worth over $30 billion (USD) annually - Western Europeans are the major consumers (46% of world market) followed by North Americans (35% of world market)
Largest country by area in North America: Canada (Largest city by population in North America: Mexico City)
World tourist destination: France (11% of all tourist travelers head to France) - Increase in international travel averaged a rate of 6.5% each year of the 20th century, ranging from 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to 806 million arrivals in 2005
The youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence was Edward Rutledge, 26, of South Carolina, while the oldest was Benjamin Franklin who was 70 - Rutledge had not only opposed Jefferson's condemnation of slavery in the original document but also opposed independence from England, deciding to sign the Declaration for the sake of unanimity
According to Crayola, the world's largest manufacturer of crayons, black crayons are the first to be used up out of any box
The pure distillation of vodka first appeared in Russia around 1460
100 billion solar neutrinos pass through every square inch of your body every second
The birth of the DJ occurred in 1953, when 24-year-old Regine Zylberberg, manager of Paris’ famous Whisky a Go-Go, undertook an experiment to replace the club’s jukebox with two turntables and a microphone - In no time, DJs were pumping up the jam at parties the world over and by the 1970s, Zylberberg was running 25 clubs across Europe and the Americas - Today, DJs are seen and heard in most clubs across the US, the UK, Australia, and many Asian countries
Light from the sun takes approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth
Julia Child was 6 feet, 2 inches tall
The indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle is called a punt
René Lacoste, a professional tennis player, invented the world’s first tennis shirt considered a breakthrough for players in its light weight and airiness. Known as “Le Crocodile” for his on-court tenacity, Lacoste added the crocodile to his clothes in the 1930s – the first time a logo is know to have appeared on the outside of a shirt
Ringworm is not caused by a worm but by a parasitic fungi
Green colored light is the least used color of light in the process of photosynthesis. The color is reflected back into our eyes and is why plants are, for the most part, green
While females are the ones who carry the gene for Hemophilia, except in the rarest of cases, only males can actually have the disease which makes their blood unable to clot
No matter how flexible a person is, there is no such thing as being “double jointed” - Most extreme contortionists suffer from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder - Pictured below are symptoms of the disorder, which allow for greater range of movement in nearly all joints- the disorder ranges from mild to life-threatening:
Chocolate chip cookies were made by mistake when the chocolate in the cookie did not melt properly
All plastics ever made, except for a tiny fraction that has been incinerated, exists today because plastics do not biodegrade, photodegrade, or be digested by any animal
Before aspirin was produced, ailing patients chewed the bark of the white willow tree (from which aspirin is derived) to help alleviate fever and pain
In Argentina, you can get your caffeine fix with yerba maté. Made from dried holly leaves, the beverage stimulant is so popular that the average Argentine drinks 11 pounds a year. Wealthy families once kept servants on hand whose sole job was making and serving maté
From peaches to cherries, many fruit seeds contain cyanogenetic glycosides, which turn into cyanide gas during digestion. In the last 50 years, at least nine people in Turkey have died of cyanide poisoning from gorging on apricots
The @ sign was very close to being eliminated from the standard keyboard until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson wrote it into the code used to send the first email
Tennessee was originally known as Franklin; West Virginia was nearly named Kanawha, and Utah almost became the state of Deseret
Phi Beta Kappa, one of America’s most respectable college honor societies, actually began as an underground order founded in 1776 - the group provided an outlet for freedom of speech when governments and universities weren’t keen on respecting that right
Harvard research from 2003 revealed that mothers pregnant with male babies tend to eat more than those carrying females
Only one breed of dog is mentioned by name in the Bible: the Greyhound. (Proverbs 30:29-31, King James
Despite the name, catgut was originally made out of sheep intestine
Elmo is the most recognizable children’s character in the U.S.
In car design circles, a hood ornament is properly called a “mascot.” The first American automobile to sport a mascot was the 1912 Cadillac
