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More “Useless Facts for Inquiring Minds.”

● 94 percent of the organisms on Earth live underwater.

● Lincoln was the tallest president at 6’4”. Lyndon Johnson was 6’3”. Jefferson was 6’2½”, as is Clinton.

● The first televised athletic event in the US was a baseball game between Columbia and Princeton on May 17, 1939.

● The Basset Hound was bred in France in the 1500s as a hunting dog that could be followed on foot. This was a boon to the common folk, inasmuch as hunting from horseback was a pastime of the rich. Typically, Bassets hunted small game such as rabbits, foxes, and badgers. In French, the word basset means low or short.

● The concept of infinity has been understood since ancient times, but not until the 17th century did someone — English mathematician John Wallis — come up with the infinity symbol, ∞.

● Botanically, all varieties of the pepper plant — bell, pimiento, jalapeño, habanero, chipotle, cayenne, etc. — are fruits.

● Among the animals that mate for life are gibbons, wolves, coyotes, beavers, swans, bald eagles, ospreys, black vultures, barn owls, and pigeons.

● The invoice price of a Model T Ford when it was introduced in 1909 was $825.00.