● The Hoba meteorite, discovered in Namibia in 1920, weighs 65 tons and is the largest found to date. The previous record-holder was the Cape York meteorite (Greenland, 1894) which weighed a mere 34 tons.
● The normal respiratory rate for a healthy adult at rest is about 16 breaths per minute. A rate of below 12 or above 20 per minute means you have a problem. 16 breaths per minute works out to 960 breaths per hour, 23,040 per day, and 8,409,600 per year.
● The red-billed quelea (kwell-ee-uh) is a small migratory bird of Sub-Saharan Africa. The total quelea population is about 1.5 billion, more than any other wild bird on the planet.
● Ladybugs, members of the coccinellidae (coke-sin-ell-eye-di) family of insects, are beetles, not bugs. In England a few centuries ago, they were called ladybirds, referring to “Our Lady” Mary, who often was depicted wearing a red cloak. In the US, the name evolved to ladybugs.
● Panthera is the genus of big cats that includes lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars. Technically, there is no panther species. There are leopards (Pantherus pardus of Africa and Asia), and there are jaguars (Panthera onca of South and Central America). The term black panther refers to black varieties of leopards and jaguars.
Also not a panther: Puma concolor, the big cat of the Americas variously called a cougar, puma, panther, or mountain lion. It is of the genus Puma, not Panthera.
● Saguaro cacti grow only about one inch in their first eight years. By age 30, they might be two feet tall. At age 35, they begin producing flowers. After 50-70 years, arms will appear. At age 125, they are considered adults. Saguaros grow to 40 feet or more tall and have a lifespan of 175-200 years.
● The first transcontinental flight in the US was made in 1911 by aviator Calbraith Rodgers, who flew a Wright Brothers biplane from New York to California over the course of 50 days (three days, 10 hours in the air). He was followed on the ground by a support crew that made repairs when Rogers landed or crashed, which he did 70 times.
● Bluetooth, the wireless technology introduced in 1998 that allows nearby devices to exchange data, is named for Danish King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson (c. 910 – c. 987). Harald got his nickname from a dead and discolored front tooth. Harald unified various regional tribes into the nation of Denmark, and the founders of Bluetooth liked the unity symbolism.
● Native Americans introduced early European settlers to cranberries, which the colonists called “craneberries” because cranes ate them. The name evolved to cranberries for… reasons.
● Ten percent of humans are left-handed.
● Poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892), who famously celebrated nature throughout his career, was born on Long Island and lived in Brooklyn most of his life.
● When French clothing designer Louis Réard created the bikini swimsuit in 1946, he named it after the US nuclear testing site Bikini Atoll because, he said, he wanted to make a fashion statement as explosive as an atomic bomb.
● The English word cake is derived from koek, the Dutch word for cake. The word cookie comes from the Dutch koekje — little cake.
● The carbon footprint of Amazon.com is twice that of the Republic of Ireland.
● Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are members of the Anacardia family of plants, as are cashews, pistachios, and mangos. All six contain the irritant urushiol, which will seriously mess you up — which is why cashews and pistachios are roasted before sale, and why you are well-advised to wash a mango before peeling it.
● The human heart beats about 100,000 times a day. That’s about 35 million times per year and roughly 2.5 billion times over an average lifetime.
● For the record: a cyborg is a human enhanced with robotic parts; an android is a task-performing machine built to look human; a robot is a task-performing machine that can take any form, humanoid or otherwise.
● Dogs sweat through their paws.
● In the 1870s, Longacre Square in New York City was known as “the thieves lair” due to its seedy reputation. But the city was growing, and the location was terrific, and in 1904, the New York Times moved its operation there. Whereupon, Longacre Square was renamed Times Square.
● The king cobra is the only snake that builds a nest.
● If you think yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing, you are misinformed. Both are tubers, but yams are a type of grass, and sweet potatoes are in the morning glory family. Oh, and yams are not sweet.
● The Spanish word for donkey is burro. The Italian word for donkey, asino, is the origin of the synonym ass.
● Depending on their size, raindrops fall at between 15 and 25 MPH. Snowflakes fall at about 1.5 MPH and, if they collect water and become sleet, up to 9 MPH.
● The most common holiday on Earth — celebrated in 65 different countries, on different days in each country, and observed somewhere every six days on average — is independence from Britain.
● Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
● The full name of Spanish painter Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech. By Spanish tradition, this includes the surnames of both his father (Dalí) and his mother (Domènech).
● Clocks did not have minute hands until 1577.
● Shirley Temple, the toast of Hollywood in the 1930s, began her acting career in 1931 at age three. Her trademark curls were styled by her mother and manager, Gertrude Temple, who always ensured that Shirley’s locks consisted of 56 curls.
● In St. Louis, Missouri, the law prohibits firefighters from rescuing undressed women or women wearing a nightgown.
● A funambulist is a tightrope walker. The word comes from funambule, which is French for, you guessed it, tightrope walker. Funambule comes from the Latin words funis (rope) and ambulare (to walk or stroll).
● The International Space Station orbits at an average of 240 miles above the Earth.
● The state fish of Hawaii is the Reef Triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus) or, in the Hawaiian language, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa (pronounced humu-humu-nuku-nuku-wa-pu-we-uh). The English translation is “triggerfish with a snout like a pig.”
● The crowd noise from the 1960 movie Spartacus was recorded at a 1959 football game between Notre Dame and Michigan State. Prior to the game, the sound crew asked the 76,000 fans to scream as loud as they could.
● Every c in Pacific Ocean is pronounced a different way.
● Actor John Cazale appeared in only five films — The Deer Hunter, The Godfather, The Godfather Part 2, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Conversation — and all five were nominated for Best Picture. Cazale died of lung cancer in 1978, age 43.
● Lyndon Johnson, president from 1963 to 1969, had a number of beagles at the White House, the first two being Him and Her. Him’s son was Freckles, who sired Little Chap and Dumpling. Johnson also had a beagle named Edgar, a gift from J. Edgar Hoover.
The Johnsons also had a white collie, Blanco, and a small mutt, Yuki (below with LBJ), found wandering loose at a gas station by the Johnsons’ daughter. Yuki is Japanese for snow.
● In 1977, Elvis Presley died at age 42 of cardiac arrest, likely brought on by his famously unhealthy diet and years of prescription drug abuse. In the eight months prior to his death, Elvis was prescribed over 10,000 doses of amphetamines, barbiturates, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills by his personal physician — who ultimately lost his license.
● About 40 percent of mammal species are rodents.
● In the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s, the leader of the Nez Perce tribe was known widely as Chief Joseph. His real name was Heinmot Tooyalakekt, which in his native Sahaptian language means thunder rising to loftier mountain heights.
● Prior to settling on its name, the rock band R.E.M. considered Negro Eyes, Cans of Piss, and The Twisted Kites.
Henry VIII was King of England for 36 years, from 1509 until his death in 1547 at age 55. He probably is best known for breaking with the Catholic Church and forming the Church of England.
Also famously, Henry had six wives during his reign. Their fates are summarized in the epigram, divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.
Divorced
Henry became king at age 17 and immediately married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his older brother Arthur. Catherine and Henry were married from 1509 to 1533, during which time she bore six children, only one of whom, Mary, survived.
Anxious for a male heir, and having become enamored of Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting, Henry sought to annul the marriage. When the Pope refused, Henry severed the country’s ties with the Catholic Church.
Ultimately, clerics loyal to Henry granted the annulment. Catherine was sent into de facto house arrest until her death a few years later. She and Henry were married for 24 years.
Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536)
Beheaded
Anne Boleyn, the daughter of an earl, resisted Henry’s advances are refused to become his mistress, but she happily married him just days after the marriage to Catherine was annulled.
Anne’s first child was Elizabeth, but three miscarriages followed. Henry, still obsessed with having a male heir, turned his attention to Jane Seymour, another of the ladies-in-waiting.
On May 2, 1536, Henry had Anne arrested for high treason, adultery, incest, and plotting to murder the king. On May 15, she was convicted of all charges, and on May 19, beheaded. Her marriage to Henry had lasted three years.
Anne Boleyn (1501-1536)
Died
On May 20, one day after Anne’s beheading, Henry and Jane Seymour were betrothed. They were married on May 30, and Jane soon became pregnant. In September 1536, Henry’s long-desired male heir, the future King Edward VI, was born.
But the labor had lasted for three nights, and the delivery was difficult. Jane’s health declined. She died in late October 1537. She was given a queen’s funeral and buried at Windsor Castle. When Henry died, he was buried beside her, at his request.
Jane and Henry were married one year.
Jane Seymour (1508-1537)
Divorced
In January 1540, for political reasons, Henry married Anne of Cleves from Düsseldorf. Meanwhile, Henry took an interest in 18-year-old Catherine Howard, a first cousin of Anne Boleyn. Henry informed his wife Anne that he wanted to annul their marriage, and she was sensible enough to agree.
The marriage was ended in July 1540, having lasted six months. Anne was given several homes, a generous allowance, and the title “The King’s Sister.”
Anne of Cleves (1515-1557)
Beheaded
Within days of the annulment, Henry married Catherine Howard. Incredibly, Catherine soon began an affair with Thomas Culpepper, a close friend of Henry. She also hired Francis Dereham, a former paramour, as her personal secretary.
Word quickly got out, and, although Henry was reluctant to believe the allegations, the evidence was clear. Accordingly, in February 1542, Dereham was hanged, and Catherine and Culpepper were beheaded. Henry and Catherine were married for 16 months.
Catherine Howard (1523-1542)
Survived
The last of Henry’s wives was Catherine Parr, a wealthy, well-educated widow who became highly influential in the royal court. She was especially close to Henry’s three children, Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward.
At the time, Henry’s daughters were not included in the line of succession to the throne. But Catherine convinced Henry to allow it, and the next three English monarchs were Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
Henry died in January 1547. Catherine remarried, but within a year died due to complications of childbirth. Her marriage to Henry had lasted four years.
Catherine Parr (1512-1648)
———
Henry was as accomplished as he was arrogant and ruthless. He was a musician, composer, and singer. He enjoyed sports, especially jousting and wrestling, and he was a genuine intellectual, interested in science, history, and architecture and fluent in French and Latin.
In his youth, Henry was athletic and fit. But later in life, he suffered from numerous medical problems, many resulting from a 1536 jousting accident that left him with a chronic ulcerated leg wound.
The accident occurred at a tournament when Henry, in full armor, was thrown from his horse, which fell on top of him. Henry was unconscious for two hours.
In addition to becoming obese (a size 54 waist) Henry never recovered physically. Moreover, his behavior thereafter was erratic — mood swings, anger, paranoia, depression.
Some historians attribute these changes to a brain injury from the accident. Soon after the accident, they note, Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and the parade of wives was underway.
An arrogant and ruthless king with a brain injury. Yikes.
● Americans open the refrigerator an average of 22 times a day.
● Allspice is a seasoning made from the dried berries of the Pimenta dioica tree, a smallish evergreen found in warm regions of the world. The British dubbed it Allspice in the 1600s because they said it combined the flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.
● 90 percent of the earth’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere.
● John Adams, Washington’s vice president and the second US president, was considered by his colleagues to be ill-tempered and vain. He also was overweight. Members of the Senate called him “His Rotundity” behind his back.
● One ostrich egg is equal in volume to two dozen chicken eggs.
● In 1782, an English inventor patented the first washing machine, which featured a hand-cranked drum. Several variations appeared over the next century, but not until 1901 did someone invent a washing machine powered by an electric motor.
● Saturn has 83 moons.
● A cheetah can accelerate to 70 mph in three seconds.
Richard Kirkland, the youngest son in a rural South Carolina family, enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861, soon after the Civil War began.
Kirkland became a sergeant in the 2nd South Carolina Voluntary Infantry, and in 1861 and 1862, saw action in several major battles, including First Bull Run and Antietam.
On December 13, 1862, his unit was in Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the base of a ridge known as Marye’s Heights. The men were assembled behind a stone wall that bordered a farm road.
Over the course of the day, waves of Union troops advanced across an open field toward the stone wall, trying to overrun the Confederate position. The stone wall protected the Confederates, and the Union soldiers were cut down by devastating rifle and artillery fire.
“A chicken could not live on that field,” a Confederate officer said. The Union army suffered over 8,000 casualties in the assault.
Wounded Union soldiers cried out for aid and water, but both sides were afraid to venture into the open field.
Then Sgt. Kirkland chose to act. He asked his commanding general for permission to render aid to the wounded. The general at first refused because of the risk, but gave his consent when Kirkland persisted.
For the next hour and a half, Kirkland crisscrossed the battlefield, carrying water, blankets, and warm clothing to wounded Union troops. Men from both armies watched. No shots were fired.
Some accounts say Kirkland’s heroism was exaggerated or the story embellished, but historians say the incident almost certainly is based on fact. For his actions, Kirkland became known as The Angel of Marye’s Heights.
After Fredericksburg, Kirkland distinguished himself in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and was promoted to lieutenant.
On September 20, 1863, at the Battle of Chickamauga in northwest Georgia, Kirkland became separated from his men and was badly wounded. He was found by his comrades, but died before medical help arrived.
His final words were, “Please tell my pa I died right.”
In 1965, a sculpture honoring Kirkland was erected near the stone wall in Fredericksburg. The sculptor was Felix de Weldon, best known for the memorial in Arlington National Cemetery depicting marines raising the US flag on Iwo Jima.
Just to be clear, Richard Kirkland enlisted at age 18 and died at age 20.
● The boss of the Library of Congress is the Librarian of Congress, selected by the president to serve a 10-year term. The current Librarian is Carla Hayden, appointed by Obama in 2016. She is the first woman and the first African American to hold the job, ending a streak of 200 years of white male librarians. FYI, Hayden has a doctorate in library science. Thanks, Obama.
● The scientific name of the cocoa tree, the source of chocolate in all its forms, is Theobroma cacao, which is Greek for “food of the gods.”
● Upon his death, Thomas Jefferson owned 6,487 books.
● The eight human blood types are A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, 0+, and O-. The first seven are compatible only with certain others, and the wrong combinations can trigger the immune system to attack the transfused blood.
However, the eighth type, O-, is universally compatible and safe to transfuse freely to anyone. Unfortunately, only seven percent of the population has O- blood.
● In 1947, Ray Bradbury wrote Bright Phoenix, a short story about a government censor assigned to burn offensive books. In 1951, Bradbury broadened the concept in The Fireman, a novella in which all books are banned, sought out, and burned. In 1953, he expanded the novella into the famous dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451.
● Today in the US, an average of one person per hour is killed by a drunk driver.
● Actress Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times. Chronologically, her husbands were Conrad Hilton (rich guy), Michael Wilding (actor), Mike Todd (producer), Eddie Fisher (actor), Richard Burton (actor), Richard Burton again, John Warner (politician), and Larry Fortensky (construction worker she met in rehab).
● Niagara Falls actually is a series of three waterfalls. The largest and furthest upstream is Horseshoe Falls, which sits on the border between the US and Canada. Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls are downstream inside the US, separated from Horseshoe by Goat Island.
● Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were identified as planets by Babylonian astronomers almost 4,000 years ago, strictly by eyeball. Finally, in 1608, the telescope was invented, leading to the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in 1781, 1846, and 1930, respectively.
● Female reindeer grow antlers. In all other species of deer, only males do.
● Scholars believe, but lack definitive proof, that Aristocles was the real name of the Greek philosopher Plato (circa 426-347 BC). Plato was a pen name derived from Platon, a nickname given to him by his wrestling coach. Platon is Greek for “broad-shouldered.”
● When Jim Henson’s team was developing Cookie Monster for Sesame Street, they found that the grease from real cookies leached into the cloth of the puppet. The solution: rice cakes painted to look like chocolate chip cookies.
● In 1837, the British national postal system instituted reforms that vastly improved efficiency and profitability. The reforms were suggested by educator and inventor Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879). The changes included, first, a new requirement that senders, not receivers, pay the postage, and second, the use of special adhesive-backed stamps as proof of payment. The reforms quickly were adopted by countries around the world.
● The names of many of the characters in the Disney movie The Lion King are words in Swahili, the main language of East Africa. In Swahili, Simba means lion, Mufasa means king, Nala means beloved, Sarafina means bright star, Rafiki means friend, and Pumba (the warthog) means dumb.
The villain Scar’s actual name is Taka, which in Swahili means garbage. The names of the hyenas Shenzi and Banzai mean savage and lurk. The one oddball name in the film is Timon (the Meerkat). Timon is a masculine name of Greek origin that means worthy or honorable.
● On average, fingernails grow about one-eight of an inch per month, which is about three times faster than the growth of toenails. Nails grow faster in the summer and during the day, and their growth slows as you get older.
● In 1969, the Italian confectionery company Ferrero introduced “Refreshing Mints,” a line of tiny mints in a transparent plastic box with a hinged lid. Within a year, Ferrero changed the name of the product to “tic tac” because of the clicking sound made when the box is opened and closed.
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