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Cool Fun FactsWelcome to CoolFunFacts.com. Find cool amazing facts, interesting facts, bizarre, useless trivia quickly. Database of over 2000 facts.
The world's horse population is estimated at 75,000,000, the oldest horse recorded being Old Billy who was foaled in 1760 and died in 1822 at the age of 62.
The longest animal ever recorded is the ribbon worm (also known as Lineus longissimus), this creature has been measured at 180 feet when it was washed ashore in Scotland in the late 1800's (a smorgesbord for the birds!). In England, the hedgehog is greatly respected, often kept as pets even though they are hard to hug!. The English are very concerned about the wild hedgehog, to the point where tunnels have been dug under motorways to enable the prickly beasties to get across the road without being killed. Guinea Pigs, another family favourite, absolutely NEED vitamin C. To make sure they receive a good supply, they should be fed a diet including kale, cabbage, spinach and chicory. One of the worlds oldest breeds of dog is the Saluki. It is thought to have been developed in ancient Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C. Rag Doll cats were so named because of the unusual way they, quite literally, go totally limp in your arms when you hold and fuss them. Still about cats, the ancient Celts believed that cats tails were very precious and had a mystical power, in fact, they believed that if you stepped on a cats tail, you would be bitten by a snake. Pork is the world's most widely-eaten meat. As much beloved as fresh pork is in America, it is not the United States, but China, which is the number one producer and consumer of fresh pork in the world. What's the origin of the word 'barbecue?' It's derived from French-speaking pirates, who called this Caribbean pork feast 'de barbe et queue,' which translates 'from beard to tail.' In other words, the pig roast reflected the fact that the hog was an eminently versatile animal that could be consumed from head to toe. A single sausage measuring 5,917 feet in length was cooked in Barcelona, Spain on September 22, 1986. Free-roaming hogs were notorious for rampaging through the precious grain fields of colonial New York City farmers. The Manhattan Island residents chose to limit the forays of these riotous hogs by erecting a long, permanent wall on the northern edge of what is now Lower Manhattan. A street came to board this wall - aptly enough named, Wall Street. The open lands of the West encouraged large-scale hog raising operations which, in turn, created a need for expanded commercial pork processing facilities. Packing plants grew throughout the Midwest, with centrally located Cincinnati soon becoming so strongly associated with pork production that it became known, informally at least, as 'Porkopolis.' During the War of 1812, a New York pork packer named Uncle Sam Wilson shipped a boatload of several hundred barrels of pork to U.S. troops. Each barrel was stamped 'U.S.' On the docks, it quickly became bantered about that the 'U.S.' stood for 'Uncle Sam,' whose large pork shipment looked to be enough to feed the entire army. Thus 'Uncle Sam' came to represent the U.S. Government itself. Did you know that the most decorated unit in US military history was formed primarily by enlistees from the U.S. concentration camps for Japanese Americans? Despite being forced into the camps during World War II, many of the Japanese Americans wanted to prove their patriotism. Their unit was nicknamed the Go For Broke Brigade and the Purple Heart Battalion. Members also came from other parts of the US. Among them: Daniel Inouye, the respected Senator from Hawaii. p. 424 Did you know that on the U.S. heard about the planned attack on Pearl Harbor almost a year before it happened? On January 7, 1941 Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew cabled Washington that 'The Japanese . . . are planning to go all out in a surprise mass attack on Pearl Harbor.' He added, 'I rather guess that the boys in Hawaii are not entirely asleep.' p. 398 Did you know that patriot John Adams, later President, defended the soldiers accused of starting the Boston Massacre, and won their acquittal? Adams made the successful argument that the true culprits were the officers, not the soldiers. p. 56 Did you know that prominent scientists once gathered to test the claim that a baseball player could pitch a curve ball? It occurred in Cincinnati, in 1877. According to eyewitness Albert Spalding, a baseball player and later founder of the Spalding sporting goods company, one important official 'saw the test successfully performed, but would not be convinced.' p. 251 Did you know that John Smith, who helped found and preserve the Jamestown colony, had been a slave? Smith was already a seasoned explorer by the time he sailed for America. He had traveled through Europe while still a teenager, had fought as a mercenary in Transylvania, been captured by the Turks and made a slave, had escaped and traveled into Russia, and finally had returned to England shortly before the London Company launched the Jamestown effort. p. 15. Did you know that the Empire State building couldn't find tenants when it opened? Built at the beginning of the Great Depression- -it opened in May, 1931- -it was nicknamed the 'Empty State Building.' p. 372 Did you know that Ben Franklin was once considered a traitor? Mobs almost burned down Ben Franklin's house during the Stamp Act crisis. When the hated taxes were first enacted, Franklin, in England on official business, assumed he would have to go along with them, so he bought tax stamps for his newspaper. When word word reached Philadelphia, the citizens were enraged. His wife fortified herself in an upstairs room of their house, which she filled with guns and ammunition. Fortunately, the incident passed peacefully. p. 52 Did you know that the Gettysburg Address was considered by its first audience to be a great disappointment? After Lincoln finished, one impertinent eyewitness even asked, 'Is that all?' p. 227 Many of our country's presidents have had a favorite pet, but there was one president who made sure his special companion received real 'presidential' treatment. Thomas Jefferson kept a mockingbird named Dick in the White House study, and let the bird ride on his shoulder whenever possible. President Jefferson even trained Dick to take bits of food that he held between his lips at meals! When Jefferson went upstairs, his faithful companion would hop up after him, step after step, never far from his side. In Alabama it is legal to beat your wife in front of the court house The oldest cat lived in Austin , TX. He recently died at the age of 34. The duck-billed platypus is a very strange creature. It has a hairy covering, has webbed-feet(4 of them) that has claws at the end, swims like a fish, and has large teeth. Finally, it is a mammal. The average human body is worth about 25 dollars. Only two crocodiles are considered true man-eaters: the Nile and Indo-Pacific Saltwater Crocodiles. There are only two words that end in 'gry', ANGRY, HUNGRY. I hasten to incl. a third which I have seen only once in a Dictionary the name of which I cannot recall. the third word which ends in gry also begins with gry, that word is 'GRY' I believe it is an archaic form of Scottish meaning 'small or wee'. The term 'GOOGOL' was coined by the child of a university math professor. It seems the prof. was using a blackboard in his home to do some calculations. On the board was the #1 followed by a hundred zeroes, upon seeing this, the child commented 'daddy, that looks like a googol'. The largest whole number I believe, unless you include a googolplex, which is a googol to the tenth power. It seems the child who coined the word, which is the # 1 followed by 100 zeroes, was Milton Sirrota the 9yr. old nephew (at the time,1938) of Amer. Mathematician, Edward Kasner, who died in 1955. Pyramids have been around for a very, very long time and millions of people each year venture to see the great pieces of work. According to estimations, pyramids will still be around for at least 2000 more years to come. The most common name for sheep in PA is BaaaBee, like Bobby only with a's and e's. Where is the only place in the world that doesn't have any arches outside it's McDonald's? Coral Springs, FL. It's against city regulation. In the movie 'Pretty Woman', Julia Roberts had a body double for her sexy scenes. Your chances of being hit by an asteroid are 1 in 20,000--better than dying in a flood, a tornado, or a volcanic eruption! John Adams and Thomas Jefferson DID die on the same day, but contrary to popular belief, they died at different times during that day. Legend has it that before Adams died, he cried out, 'Jefferson still lives!' Jefferson had died earlier that day. Also, they both died on July 4. 1 in 8 people have been employed by McDonald's in the US In Texas, it's against the law to milk someone else's cow without their permission. (Correction) The Chow-chow AND the Shar-pei are the only dogs that have Black tongues! In ancient Rome, dinner was eaten reclining. A person would lean on his or her left hand and eat with the right. The reason that this was done is because the right hand was the 'clean' hand...and the left one was used after going to the bathroom! Absolute zero is impossible to reach. There is a fourth state of matter, known as plasma. It's a 'soup' of unstable elements and electricity. The Aurora Borealis is an example of plasma, and the ionosphere (the atmosphere that surrounds the outside of the planet and filters out gamma rays) is made up of plasma. Oscar Wilde's last words were, 'Either the wallpaper goes or I do.' When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red. Henry VIII had a 52 in. waist! The only two words that end in -gry in the English language are hungry and angry. Doctors around the World expect April 9th, 1999 to be a Record setting day for SEXUAL activity. Reason... Chances are the best that your child, if concieved that day, will be born on Jan. 01, 2000. Blue diamonds are blue because they contain trace amounts of the element boron. These diamonds are very expensive. The kangaroo family dates back 30,000,000 years I just wanted to mention that saying that George Washington was the 8th President of the United States is incorrect (to my knowledge). There were 7 preceeding presidents of the Continental Congress...but GW was the First President of the ACTUAL United States of America. I would encourage the further verification of this fact! [Editor's note: thanks Matt. I will remove the original entry if no one pulls this one apart :)] Andersonville prison commandant Henry Wirz, who was hanged for atrocities, may have been a scapegoat. Wirz, who was only a captain, didn't have the authority to get food from the populace (this populace often told Wirz what he could do with his request). Also at his trial, Union prisoners who wanted to testify on Wirz' behalf were denied the chance (one later wrote a book defending Wirz). (Civil War) My town is called GREENOCK. It is pronounced as it is spelled. That is GREEN-OCK, not GREN-OCK as in GREENWICH. So GET IT RIGHT if you were stupid enough to pronounce it wrong in the first place. If you ask me, the correct pronunciation is OBVIOUS. [Editor's note: Sorry you feel so strongly about this Richie... if I ever find myself in Greenock I will keep this in mind.] Avocado is the Aztec word for testicle. Aparently they believed that they resembled each other! A horse's heart weighs about 10 pounds! Andrew Grove is the pioneer of the modern-day microprocessor chip which is now called the 'brain' of all personal computers, cellphones, laptops, and more. Since first becoming established, the cyclic succession of the days of the week has not been altered, and no breaks in the sequence have occurred. The sub-title for 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was 'Life Among the Lowly'. The original title for Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' was 'The Undead' During the burning of Atlanta in 'Gone With The Wind', look closely and you'll see the sets from 1933's 'King Kong' burning instead. The producers decided to save money by destroying the Kong sets instead of making new ones to represent Atlanta. Did you know elephants can do the cha-cha? San Diego Wild Life Park has an Asian elephant named Cha-Cha, so named because of the dance she has mastered. The 8th chapter of the gospel of John, chapter 7 verse 53 to chapter 8 verse 12, do not show up in the earliest available copies of scripture until the 6th century A.D., some 500 years after the gospel was written...[Jesus lived in the 1st century; died in 33A.D.]...the gospel itself was writen in 98 A.D. by the apostle John] This account was regarding Jesus and the harlot..'Let the one sinless cast the first stone...I do not condem you...practice sin no more...' apparently did not happen. [ref manuscripts xBSy] When F. Fernandez de Cordoba landed in Yucatan in 1517, he asked the local indians for the name of that region, to which they answered 'Yucatan' which means 'I don't understand you' On the movie 'Ghost', the scene were Demi Moore is spinning the pottery and Patrick Swazee comes in and they start kissing, her hands are clean, and not muddy like they were when he first came up behind her. Did you know that Sam Adams was not allowed to participate in the formation of our government because he was considered too much a revolutionary, and would try to derail the effort? Did you also know that in the defense of the soldiers in the Boston Massacre, Adams used the fact that one colonist brought a Scottish Claymore, showing that a fight was intended by the colonists? The tallest and most active volcano in Europe is Mount Etna in Italy. The name 'Etna' comes from the Greek aitho, meaning 'I burn.' It takes 150 ermines to make an ermine coat. Cockroaches love eating the glue from the backs of stamps. The longest name officially used by a person is: Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorft Sr. The saying 'Mind your P's and Q's' comes from the time when alcoholic beverages were served/sold in Pints and Quarts. Thus, to mind your P's and Q's meant to be careful how much you drank. There was once a dog that was so loyal to his master that when his master died the dog never left the gravesite. He would only go to get food, and return it to the grave so that they could have lunch together like they had always done. The dog spent the rest of his days there, and when he died, he was buried next to his master. [Editor's note: :( ] Hollywood dogs get crystal bowls and have their own room, and even get to stay in dog hotels. At Hancock High School in Mississippi there is actually a McDonalds in the high school so students can have Big Mac's anytime they choose. At the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder, Colorado, there is one huge room in the warehouse for storing the mint for their teas. When the door is opened, visitors' eyes literally fill with tears because the mint smell is so powerful. 26% of all McDonald's employees in Ontario, Canada admit to putting some type of bodily fluid in McDonald's food. Mushrooms are only 1 amino acid away from foot fungus The only President buried in Washington D. C. proper, is Woodrow Wilson. Taft and Kennedy are buried in Virginia. Ever notice how the buttons of male and female shirts are on opposite sides? This came about during colonial times when females dressed males quite frequently. Male shirts were made opposite to female's so the female would have greater ease in fastening the buttons. Dragonflies can fly at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. Sir Walter Raliegh financed his trip to America to cultivate tobacco by betting Queen Elizabeth I that he could weigh the weight of smoke, which he did by placing two identical cigars on opposite sides of a scale, lighting one and making sure no ashes fell. The difference in the weight after the cigar was done was the weight of smoke and Raliegh was on his way to America. Canada Geese always fly in a V shape formation when migrating. The reason that one side of the V formation is always longer than the other is that it contains more geese. The only country that has a non-rectangular flag is Nepal. Also, it is asymmetrical. There is no way you can fold that flag and have it line up correctly. The only country to have a single-color flag is Libya. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines all fall under the Department of Defense. What department does the Coast Guard fall under? Answer: Department of Transportation Gene Roddenbury's ashes were sent into orbit Here are four TV shows that were spin-off's of 'All in the Family.': The Jeffersons, Archie's Place, Maude, and Gloria. Leonardo DiCaprio played the next door neighbor on the W'onder Years' Full House was not taped in San Fransisco. Cows swallow metal objects! It happens too often and believe it or not, we ranchers refer to the sickness that follows as 'hardware disease'. The little girl on 'Father Knows Best' (Kathy) (l950s) grew up to become a drug addict and prostitute. She is now recovered and is in her 50s. There's an ex-convict in Georgia who was released on parole. He went on to win 30 Million dollars in the state lottery. The problem is that his parole won't let him quit his job until 2001. President Madison was not the only president to face enemy gunfire while in office. George Washington also commanded troops during the Whiskey Rebellion (during his presidency). A rooster will attack anything that he thinks will harm the hens ( that includes humans ). Their spurs (located at the back of their leg ) can cause a very painful puncture wound. Deer chew a cud just like a cow. They also have their own territory that they mark by scent glands or urine. Deer can abort a pregnancy if there is not enough food to support the deer population. She absorbs the fetus back into her system, or she can hold off giving birth until there are the right conditions. The first Interracial kiss on TV was on Star Trek between Lt Uhura and Capt Kirk The word 'Dollar' comes from the Czech language. A 'Joachimsthaler' was acoin made in Joachimsthal The word 'cereal' derives from the name of the Roman goddess Ceres, protector of crops. Ringo and John were both born during German air raids. John's Aunt, Mimi ran through the streets of Liverpool during the raid to tell her husband, George Smith. Owls are the only bird with stereoscopic vision (the ability to focus both eyes simultaneously on a subject).
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