More Facts '06

12/30/06 - Assuming Rudolph was in front, there are 40,320 ways to arrange the other eight reindeer.

12/27/06 - In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes.

12/20/06 - Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.

12/19/06 - The world's first singing commercial aired on the radio on Christmas Eve, 1926 for Wheaties cereal. The four male singers, eventually known as the Wheaties Quartet, sang the jingle. The Wheaties Quartet, comprised of an undertaker, a bailiff, a printer, and a businessman, performed the song for the next six years, at $6 per singer per week. The commercials were a resounding success.

12/18/06 - Tinsel on the Christmas Tree is attributed to a woman whose husband died. She was left to bring up a large family of children herself. She was left to do everything working so hard and she was determined to make a happy time for them at Christmas. She prepared a Christmas Tree to surprise them on Christmas Day. Unfortunately spiders visited the tree, and crawled from branch to branch, making webs all over it. The Christ Child saw the tree and knew she would be devestated to find this on Christmas morning. He changed the spiders' webs to shining silver.

12/16/06 - In Victorian England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners. Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London. To get them to London, the turkeys were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather. The turkeys were walked to market. The boots protected their feet from the frozen mud of the road. Boots were not used for geese: instead, their feet were protected with a covering of tar.

12/14/06 - St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early fourth century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus.

12/09/06 - The best selling Christmas trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine.

12/07/06 - Today poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant and are the number one flowering potted plant in the United States.

12/06/06 - The abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas is not irreligious. The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi, which is identical to our X. Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation that was used in tables and charts.

12/04/06 - 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 Christmas mail.

12/03/06 - Christmas is not widely celebrated in Scotland. Some historians believe that Christmas is downplayed in Scotland because of the influence of the Presbyterian Church (or Kirk), which considered Christmas a "Papist," or Catholic event. As a result, Christmas in Scotland tends to be somber.

12/02/06 - At Christmas, Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal. A family's youngest child watches through the window for the evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.

12/01/06 - The average American/Canadian will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year.

11/30/06 - As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a person could send. Even though commercial cards were not available at that time, people were already sending so many home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired in the city.

11/27/06 - Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.

11/26/06 - Christmas caroling began as an old English custom called Wassailing - toasting neighbors to a long and healthy life.

11/19/06 - Although many believe the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, it is not. It is the fifth to tenth busiest day. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days of the year.

11/18/06 - Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

11/17/06 - The average adult squirrel needs to eat about a pound of food a week to maintain an active life.

11/16/06 - The first submarine in America's military was built by John Philip Holland, who emigrated to America from County Clare, Ireland. Holland built his prototype, called the Holland VI, in Elizabeth, NJ and tested it in New Suffolk, on eastern Long Island, in 1899. The US Navy purchased it from him on April 11, 1900.

11/14/06 - A baby squirrel weighs approximately one ounce at birth, and is about one inch long. They don't have hair or teeth, and are virtually blind for the first six to eight weeks.

11/13/06 - Squirrels are usually born in the early spring. The average litter consists of four. This varies with climate and location. A second litter can occur in mid summer, if there is an adequate food supply.

11/11/06 - During winter storms, or severe cold, the squirrel may not leave the nest for days, but the tree squirrel does not hibernate. An adult squirrel normally lives alone. But will, in severe cold, share its nest with other squirrels to conserve body heat. Once the temperature rises, the guests will be on their way.

11/10/06 - Squirrel's belong to the order "Rodentia", with 1650 species, it is the largest group of living mammals. It also comprises forty percent of all present day mammal species.

11/09/06 - The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, in County Galway.

11/07/06 - 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

11/06/06 - WD-40 removes tomato stains from clothing.

11/05/06 - Over one-third of all the houses now standing in Ireland have been built in the last nine years.

11/02/06 - According to a recent Bank of Ireland report, Ireland is now the second wealthiest nation in the world, with over 30,000 millionaires.

11/01/06 - Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.

10/31/06 - The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

10/30/06 - The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided the basic framework for alternating between daylight saving time and standard time, which we now observe in the United States. But Congress can't seem to resist tinkering with it. For example, in 1973 daylight saving time was observed all year, instead of just the spring and summer. The current system of beginning DST at 2 AM on the first Sunday in April and ending it at 2 AM on the last Sunday in October was not standardized until 1986.

10/29/06 - Daylight saving time began in the United States during World War I, primarily to save fuel by reducing the need to use artificial lighting. Although some states and communities observed daylight saving time between the wars, it was not observed nationally again until World War II.

10/28/06 - The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad.

10/26/06 - The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth.

10/23/06 - The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

10/17/08 - The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders.

10/16/06 - It is estimated that 4 million "junk" telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States.

10/15/06 - Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

10/14/06 - A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile.

10/11/06 - Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500.

10/10/06 - The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.

10/05/06 - You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206.

10/04/06 - Porcupines float in water.

10/03/06 - A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood.

09/28/06 - It's against the law to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas.

09/27/06 - Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.

09/25/06 - It's illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you're sitting on a curb in St. Louis.

09/23/06 - It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times.

09/21/06 - Venezuala is 352,144 square miles about the size of California and Texas combined.

09/20/06 - The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

09/19/06 - One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.

09/18/06 - Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.

09/17/06 - A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average.

09/07/06 - The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.

09/06/06 - When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second.

09/05/06 - The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye.

09/04/06 - The state of Florida is larger than England.

09/03/06 - A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

08/31/06 - The Philadelphia mint produces 26 million pennies per day.

08/30/06 - There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo.

08/29/06 - Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969.

08/28/06 - Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.

08/23/06 - The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.

08/22/06 - A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.

08/18/06 - A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface.

08/17/06 - A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth.

08/16/06 - A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel.

08/15/06 - Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it's known as Tennessee.

08/14/06 - Ann Franklin was the 1st woman to hold the title of newspaper editor, "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, RI. The year was 1762.

08/13/06 - The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 allowing oceangoing ships to reach Duluth, Minnesota.

08/12/06 - Pine wood ignites at 800 degrees F. Charcoal ignites at 580 degrees F.

08/11/06 - It takes about 3 months for a fingernail to replace itself. Nails grow about 0.1 millimeter (.004 inch) per day.

08/10/06 - Alexander Anderson of Red Wing, Minnesota discovered the processes to puff wheat and rice giving us the indispensable rice cakes.

08/09/06 - On August 9, 1678, American Indians sold what is now known as the Bronx to Jonas Bronck for 400 beads.

08/08/06 - There are more chickens in the world than any other domesticated bird. More than one chicken for every human on the face of the earth.

08/06/06 - André-Jacques Garnerin was the 1st person to parachute jump. He was dropped from about 6,500 ft. over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-ft.-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached (Oct. 22, 1797).

08/03/06 - Los Angeles' full name is: "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de orciuncula"

08/01/06 - 1,111,111 x 1,111,111 = 1234567654321

07/29/06 - Fireflies don't bite, they have no pincers, they don't attack, they don't carry disease, they are not poisonous, they don't even fly very fast.

07/27/06 - Total number of frequent flier miles U.S. Airlines owes its passengers : 870,000,000,000

07/24/06 - In 1903 the five leading causes of death in the US were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

07/17/06 - Percentage of Americans who regularly attend religious services: 43% Percentage of Americans that say God has spoken to them: 36%

07/09/06 - When a firefly is under stress such as being caught in a spider's web, its taillight glows brightly. Even the shock of a firecracker or thunder may cause a field of fireflies to flash in unison. Ordinarily, the flashing signal is used to find a mate. The pattern of flashing between sexes is fixed. On a relatively cool night, some species wait 5.5 seconds then emit a single short flash. The warmer the weather, the faster the exchange. Other species may wait one second and then hold the flash for a full second. Some tropical species congregate in large numbers and flash in unison.

07/05/06 - Special electronic detectors, using firefly chemicals, have been placed in spacecrafts to look for earth-life forms in outer space. When as little as one quadrillionth of a gram of ATP enters the rocket's detector, a flash of cold light is given off and the signal is recorded by scientists on earth. Other detectors warn that milk, food or water may be bacteria contaminated.

07/01/06 - Usually at dusk, male and female fireflies emerge from the grass. Males fly about 1-1/2 feet above the ground, emitting a single short flash at regular intervals. The flashes are usually male fireflies seeking mates. Males outnumber the females fifty to one. Females climb a blade of grass, flashing when males flash within 10 to 12 feet of the females. Exchanges of signals are repeated to 5 to 10 times until mating occurs. Sometimes females will devour males.

06/30/06 - Female fireflies deposit eggs in the earth (damp soil), and in about three weeks young sowbug-like larvae appear. The larva is a voracious predator that eats snails, slugs, cutworms, mites and pollen. They inject strong paralytic and digestive juices into their prey and then suck the dissolved body contents, leaving an empty skin or shell. Larvae live one to two years underground and in late spring build a marble-sized mud house around themselves. They then change to a pupa. In about 10 days, new adult beetles emerge with a lifespan of only a few days to a week. They emerge in early summer and remain active throughout August.

06/28/06 - Firefly larvae are multi-legged, turtle-like creatures with tiny spots on their underside, softly glowing like view holes in the furnace door. Wingless females and luminescent larvae are often called "glowworms."

06/26/06 - Fireflies or "lightning bugs" are needed in medical research laboratories throughout the world. The firefly contains luciferin and luciferase, two rare chemicals used in research on cancer, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis and heart disease. The ability of these insects to produce cold light (bioluminescence) has led to new flashlights and flares on the market today. Scientists have been unable to produce these chemicals synthetically in spite of the great need

06/25/06 - Minnesotan baseball commentator Halsey Hal was the first to say 'Holy Cow' during a baseball broadcast.

06/18/06 - In 1903, Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

06/17/06 - In 1773, James Cook was the 1st person to cross Antarctic Circle.

06/15/06 - Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kills insect stings too.

06/12/06 - A snail can sleep for three years.

06/07/06 - Captain Kirk never said 'Beam me up, Scotty,' but he did say, 'Beam me up, Mr. Scott'.

06/06/06 - In 1903 only 8 percent of the homes in the United States had a telephone.

06/04/06 - The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

06/03/06 - Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

06/02/06 - Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls.

05/29/06 - Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.

05/25/06 - Each year Tootsie Roll Industries produces enough candy to stretch from the earth to the moon and back.

05/24/06 - Minneapolis is home to the oldest continuously running theater (Old Log Theater) and the largest dinner theater (Chanhassan Dinner Theater) in the country.

05/23/06 - In 1903 eighteen percent of households in the US had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

05/22/06 - The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.

05/20/06 - The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

05/19/06 - If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19 You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

05/17/06 - Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

05/11/06 - Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

05/10/06 - The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

05/08/06 - Marquis d'Arlandes and Pilatre de Rozier were the first humans to fly. They were airborne in a hot-air balloon for 20 minutes, in Paris, on Nov. 21, 1783.

05/07/06 - The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle".

05/02/06 - A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

05/01/06 - Count de Grisley was the first magician to perform the trick of sawing a woman in half. The year was 1799.

04/26/06 - Butterflies taste with their feet.

04/24/06 - Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

04/23/06 - It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick. ~ Senator John Glenn

04/21/06 - A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

04/20/06 - Polar bears are left-handed.

04/18/06 - There are approximately 2,000 milligrams of sodium in a teaspoon of salt.

04/17/06 - Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.

04/16/06 - At the confluence of the Big Fork and Rainy Rivers on the Canadian border near International Falls, Minnesota stands the largest Indian burial mound in the upper midwest. It is known as the Grand Mound historic site.

04/14/06 - The distance between bases on a Little League baseball field is 60 feet. In the major leagues, the distance is 90 feet.

04/13/06 - The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

04/12/06 - ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.)

04/11/06 - The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

04/09/06 - Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

04/07/06 - Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

04/06/06 - 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

04/05/06 - All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

04/04/06 - Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

04/02/06 - The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

04/01/06 - Budweiser beer conditions the hair.

03/30/06 - Number of minutes spent debating a proposal to renovate the capitol hairdressing salon : 40
Number of minutes the U.S. Congress spent in October 1990 debating the administration's request for new S&L bailout funds : 23

03/27/06 - Hoss Cartwright's real name on Bonanza was Eric.

03/26/06 - Percentage of women who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 85%
Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58%

03/25/06 - There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

03/22/06 - There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

03/21/06 - On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day.

03/20/06 - The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino.

03/19/06 - Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

03/02/06 - The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

02/28/06 - 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

02/27/06 - The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

02/26/06 - Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

02/24/06 - Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples.

02/21/06 - By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought these facts were completely useless.)

02/20/06 - Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

02/19/06 - The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before.

02/17/06 - A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

02/15/06 - Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

02/14/06 - Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

02/13/06 - Al Gore is an idiot.

02/12/06 - Leonardo DA Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time hence, multi-tasking was invented.

02/10/06 - Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

02/09/06 - There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

02/08/06 - Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

02/07/06 - A coal mine typically produces 13 tons of water for every ton of coal.

02/03/06 - A beehive produces between 100 and 200 pounds of honey a year. A single worker honeybee manufactures only one-half teaspoon in it's lifetime.

02/02/06 - Margaret Corbin was the 1st woman to be awarded a disability pension by US Congress.(1779) She fought in the Revolutionary War.

02/01/06 - Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

01/30/06 - Virginia Dare was the 1st child born in the American colonies, on August 18th, 1587 on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

01/29/06 - Crater Lake, at 1,932 feet, is the deepest lake in the U.S.

01/28/06 - Benjamin Franklin was appointed the 1st Postmaster General in America (10th August 1753).

01/27/06 - Samuel Hopkins is the holder of US Patent #1. Thousands of patents were issued before his, but his was the first when the numbering started in 1790. He patented a process for making potash and pearl ashes.

01/24/06 - The 1912 Olympics was the last Olympics that gave out gold medals that were made entirely out of gold.

01/23/06 - Thomas E. Selfridge was the first airplane fatality. Selfridge, a Lt.in the US Army Signal Corps, was in a group evaluating the Wright plane at Fort Myer, Va. He was up 75 ft. with Orville Wright when the propeller hit a bracing wire and was broken, throwing the plane out of control, killing Selfridge and seriously injuring Wright (Sept. 17,1908).

01/22/06 - Seattle is no longer on the list of teams who have never made it to the Super Bowl.

01/20/06 - Infrasonic is the term used for sounds too low for human hearing.

01/19/06 - In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)

01/18/06 - Wyoming led the country in coal production in 1994 with 3 million tons per week.

01/17/06 - Banana plants are the largest plants on earth without a woody stem. They are actually giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.

01/15/06 - Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

01/14/06 - The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".

01/13/06 - The fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia.

01/12/06 - In the 19th century, craftsmen who made hats were known to be excitable and irrational, as well as to tremble with palsy and mix up their words. Such behavior gave rise to the familiar expression "mad as a hatter". The disorder, called hatter's shakes, was caused by chronic mercury poisoning from the solution used to treat the felt. Attacking the central nervous system, the toxin led to behavioral symptoms.

01/11/06 - During World War II the U.S. government used 260 million pounds of instant coffee.

01/10/06 - A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.

01/09/06 - A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers.

01/08/06 - A person uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day.

01/06/06 - To remove wax, take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.

01/05/06 - Devils Tower in Wyoming was designated as the first National Monument in 1906.

01/04/06 - The cost of drilling a well can range from $5,000 for a shallow (1,400 - 2,500 ft.) to over $5,000,000 for a deep (15,000+ ft.) natural gas well.

01/02/06 - Production from oil wells is measured in barrels, with a barrel of oil being 42 gallons. The 42 gallons is based on the practice of early Pennsylvania companies, which employed used wine barrels to ship their oil to market.