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- In ancient times, any Japanese who tried to leave his homeland was summarily put to death. In the 1630's, a decree in Japan forbade the building of any large ocean-worthy ships to deter defection.
- The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
- England's first great industry was wool. Its export had become the nation's largest source of income by the late Middle Ages.
- The British once went to war over a sailor’s ear. It happened in 1739, when Britain launched hostilities against Spain because a Spanish officer had supposedly sliced off the ear of a ship’s captain named Robert Jenkins.
- Alexander Hamilton and his son, Philip, both died on the same spot, and both during duels. Philip went first, 3 years before his father would be killed in that same field by Aaron Burr.
- Florence Nightingale served only two years of her life as a nurse. She contracted fever during her service in the Crimean War, and spent the last 50 years of her life as an invalid.
- Emir Beysari (1233-1293), an Egyptian of great wealth, drank wine from gold and silver cups, yet he never in all his life used the same cup twice.
- The first European to visit the Mississippi River was DeSoto.
- Human skulls had been used as drinking cups for hundreds of years. The muscles and flesh were scraped away, the bottom was hacked off and then they were suitable to hold any beverage.
- The first Bowie knife was forged at Washington, Arkansas.
- All the dirt from the foundation to build the World Trade Center in NYC was dumped into the Hudson River to form the community now known as Battery City Park.
- Louis XV was the first person to use an elevator: in 1743 his "flying chair" carried him between the floors of the Versailles palace.
- The last words spoken from the moon were from Eugene Cernan, Commander of the Apollo 17 Mission on 11 December 1972. "As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
- Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts - Charlemagne; and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
- The best working light-bulb a LONG time ago was a thread of sheep's wool coated with carbon.
- Salim (1569-1627, heir to the throne of India, had 4 wives when he was only 8 years of age.
- Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties of climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles, except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil.
- Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts."
- Alexander the Great was an epileptic.
- Shakespeare spelled his OWN name several different ways.
- Historians report that the Roman Emperor Gaius (Caligula) (AD 37-41) was so proud of his horse that he gave him a place as a senate consul before he died.
- Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox.
- Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
- The Tower of London, for which construction was begun in 1078 by William the Conqueror, once housed a zoo. It also has served as an observatory, a mint, a prison, a royal palace, and (at present) the home of the Crown Jewels.
- In the original architectural design, the French Cathedral of Chartes had six spires (It was built with two spires).
- Vincent Van Gogh painted a picture a day in the last 70 days of his life.
- It took 20,000 men 22 years to build the Taj Mahal.
- It took 214 crates to transport the Statue of Liberty from France to New York in 1885.
- Fourteen years before the Titanic sank, novelist Morgan Robertson published a novel called "Futility". The story was about an ocean liner that struck an iceberg on an April night. The name of the ship in his novel - The Titan.
- George Washington, who was nearly toothless himself, was meticulous with the teeth of the six white horses that pulled his presidential coach. He had their teeth picked and cleaned daily to improve their appearance.
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