Trivia

 

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress would tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, goodnight, sleep tight" came from.

The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead (a honey beer) he could drink. And because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

No matter where you are in Australia you are never more than 1000 kilometers from the ocean.

It takes a week to make a jelly bean.

NASA scientists are still receiving data from Voyager even though the signal it is emitting has less energy than that emitted by a blowdrier.

The names of the two stone lions in front of the New York Public Library are Patience and Fortitude. They were named by then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Anise is the scent on the artificial rabbit that is used in greyhound races.

Orson Welles is buried in an olive orchard on a ranch owned by his friend, matador Antonio Ordonez in Sevilla, Spain.

The abbreviation A.D. (Anno Domini, "Year of Our Lord") should be properly placed in front of the year -- thus, you get 417 BC but AD 2000

Ronald Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Glendale, California.

At Andrew Jackson's funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing.

When George Washington was elected President, there was a king in France, a czarina in Russia, an emperor in China, and a shogun in Japan. Only the office of President remains. George Washington had to borrow money to go to his own inauguration.

By the time FDR's mother died, in 1941, FDR had presided over at least eight annual budgets of the largest fiscal entity on earth. Yet during her lifetime, Sara Delano Roosevelt did not entrust her son with managing the family's money because she did not think her son up to the task.

John Tyler, President from 1841 to 1845, joined the Confederacy twenty

Only two U.S. Presidents and their wives are buried at the Arlington National Cemetery: John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and William Taft and his wife Helen Heron Taft.

Theodore Roosevelt's wife and mother died on the same day.

Joseph Swan invented a light bulb in 1879, one year before Thomas Edison. But Swan didn't patent his idea and was accused of copying by Edison ( who did patent the idea and is therefore recognised as the inventor ) until it was shown both bulbs were produced in different processes. They then formed a joint company using the best of both technologies.

The original Lassie starred in his first film only months after being abandoned by his owners for chasing motorcycles.

Fidel Castro once worked as a Hollywood extra.