Dolphins Intelligence facts - strangefacts

• Dolphins locate objects by using sound. They bounce high pitched sounds off of objects to sense where they are. This is called "echolocation" and it is the way that bats 'see' as well

• Dolphins have sophisticated hearing and navigate and hunt by using sound

• Like whales a Dolphin has a blow hole at the top of its head and must come up to breathe. So a Dolphin normally stays about 10-15 feet from the surface so it can come up to breathe often. However, a Dolphin can dive to over 500 feet if they want to

• Dolphins have a complicated system of communication using clicks and sound. They coordinate their hunting and social group using sound

• A dolphin sleeps with half of its brain shut down and one eye closed

• They have been playing and communicating with people from ancient times and still do

• Dolphins use sonar, because their eyes are on the sides of their bodies. They can't see ahead

Facts About Hydrogen - strangefacts

• The Sun is made out of 92% hydrogen, 7% helium and the rest is other low number gasses

• The odor of farts comes from small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans in the mixture 

• Joseph Priestley not only discovered oxygen, but he also discovered ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide. He was also the first person to isolate chlorine

• Most people know what pH means, but few people know that it stands for pondus hydrogenii which means potential hydrogen and that each unit is a phidron

• Hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most commonly found chemical element in the Universe, making up around 75% of its elemental mass

The pink Glowish layer in space is composed of Hydrogen

• Hydrogen is found in large amounts in giant gas planets and stars, it plays a key role in powering stars through fusion reactions

• The chemical symbol of hydrogen is H. It is an element with atomic number 1, this means that 1 proton is found in the nucleus of hydroge

• Hydrogen is commonly used in the petroleum and the chemical industries and is also widely used for many physics and engineering applications such as welding or as coolant

• Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable. It is used as a fuel by the space shuttle main engine and was associated with the famous explosion of the Hindenburg airship
• Hydrogen compounds commonly are called hydrides
  

Facts About Volcanoes - strangefacts

• The biggest volcano in the world is the Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. It rises off of the seafloor to 13,000 feet above sea level or about 29,000 feet above the seafloor

• Most volcanoes are 10,000 to 100,000 years old

• There are at least 1,500 active volcanoes around the world

• Indonesia has the most volcanoes about more then 200 alive

• Common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulfide

• Volcanic eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30km (17 miles) above the Earth’s surface

• The lower 48 states in the U.S. have about 40 volcanoes

• Scientists has estimated the ocean contains 10,000 volcanoes

• The oldest volcano is the Etna at 350,000 years old

• About 500 million people live close to active volcanoes
  

Facts About Oxygen - strangefacts

• The adult human body requires about 88 pounds of oxygen daily

• The grass and trees along the U.S. interstate highway system release enough oxygen to support 22 million people

• The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air

• Oxygen-poor blood (shown in blue) flows from the body into the right atrium

• If you are locked in a sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before your brain starves from oxygen deprivation

• Joseph Priestley not only discovered oxygen, but he also discovered ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide. He was also the first person to isolate chlorine

• Your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen in your body

• It is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, therefore working to cool it down and wake it up

• The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage

• Ted A. Batchelor, a professional stuntman endured a full-body burn without oxygen supplies for 2 min 38 sec on an island at Ledges Quarry Park, Nelson, Ohio, USA, on July 17, 2004

• Oxygen is a very reactive element that easily forms compounds such as oxides
  

Facts About Tobacco - strangefacts

• 5% of the $40,700,000,000 received by states from the lawsuit against the tobacco companies has actually been spent on fighting smoking

• One out of every 11 workers in North Carolina depends on tobacco for their livelihood

• The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe

• A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers. Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses

• Mother Bernardina Matthews established a Carmelite convent near Port Tobacco, Maryland, the first community of Roman Catholic nuns in the Thirteen Colonies

• Tobacco kills one person every ten seconds

• Approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute

• About 15 billion cigarettes are sold each day

• About 5 trillion cigarettes are produced and used on an annual basis

Facts About Halley's Comet - strangefacts

• Mark Twain was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen

• A comet is a relatively small solar system body that orbits the Sun. When close enough to the Sun they display a visible coma (a fuzzy outline or atmosphere due to solar radiation) and sometimes a tail

• The coma is created as the comet gets closer to the Sun, causing water, carbon dioxide and other compounds to sublime (quickly changing from solid to gas) from its surface

• Comets are made of ice, dust and small rocky particles

• The name comet comes from the Greek word meaning ‘hair of the head’, it came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle who observed comets as ‘stars with hair

• Short term comets (also known as periodic comets) have orbital periods of less than 200 years while long term comets have orbital periods of over 200 years

• In July 1994, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter. This event gave astronomers a unique opportunity to observe what happens when such a collision occurs

• The largest fragments were 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter and struck Jupiter at a speed of around 60 km/s (37 mi/s). The impact scars were clearly visible for months after the impact

• Shoemaker-Levy 9 was originally located by astronomers Eugene M. and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy in March 1993

• Halley’s Comet (or Comet Halley as it is also known) is the most well known comet

Facts About Dogs - strangefacts

• About 30% of Americans admit to talking to their dogs or leaving messages on their answering machines for their dogs while they are away

• Babies that are exposed to cats and dogs in their first year of life have a lower chance of developing allergies when they grow older

• During World War II, Russians used dogs strapped with explosives to blow up German tanks. They trained the dogs to associate the tanks with food and ended up destroying about 25 German tanks using this method

• Reports from owners of cats and dogs indicate that 21% of dogs and 7% of cats snore

• In total there is said to be around 400 million dogs in the world

• The domestic dog has been one of the most popular working and companion animals throughout human history

• Dogs perform many useful tasks for humans including hunting, farm work and security as well as assisting those with disabilities such as the blind

• Although experts often disagree, there is scientific evidence which shows that the domestication of dogs could have occurred more than 15,000 years ago

• There are hundreds of different breeds of dogs

• Among dogs officially registered with kennel clubs in the U.S., Labrador Retrievers are the most popular breed followed by Rottweilers and German Shepherds

Facts About Wolves - strangefacts

• The average litter of Mexican wolves is between four and seven pups

• Due to hunting, Tasmanian devils neared extinction at the beginning of the 20th century. Tasmanian wolves (also called tigers) became extinct in 1936. Today Tasmanian devils are endangered by a cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease

• All dogs, from the German Shepherd to the tiny Poodle, are direct descendants of wolves. They can all breed together and produce fertile offspring

• Coyotes can breed with domestic dogs and wolves and the Ethiopian wolf lives above 10,000 feet elevation

• Donkeys have a natural and aggressive dislike of coyotes, wolves and other canines (including domestic dogs)

• Biologists have found that wolves will respond to humans imitating their howls. The International Wolf Center in Minnesota even sponsors “howl nights” on which people can howl in the wilderness and hope for an answering howlWolves may use the same dens to raise their cubs year after year and wolves, bears, apes use urinate to claim territory

• Wolves do not make good guard dogs because they are naturally afraid of the unfamiliar and will hide from visitors rather than bark at them

• Wolves run on their toes, which helps them to stop and turn quickly and to prevent their paw pads from wearing down

• Wolves have about 200 million scent cells. Humans have only about 5 million. Wolves can smell other animals more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) away

Facts About Sharks - strangefacts

• The number of Americans that are killed by sharks averages about one per year

• More people die from eating sharks then from being eaten by them

• In July 1978 Walter Poenisch swam from Cuba - an island in the Caribbean Sea to Florida in the United States. The waters are so dangerous he swam inside a shark cage and took just over 34 hours to complete the 207km (129mile) journey

• Bruce was the nickname of the mechanical shark used in the "Jaws" movies

• As many as 100 million sharks are killed each year for their meat and fins, which are used for shark fin soup

• The megalodon shark became extinct about 1.6 million years ago and was double the size and weight of today's great white shark

• A mother shark can give birth to as many as 70 baby per litter

• The first sharks lived more than 400 million years ago—200 million years before the first dinosaurs. They have changed very little over the eons

• Sharks belong to a group of fish known as the elasmobranchs, or cartilaginous fishes. Rays and skates, which may have evolved from sharks, also belong to this group

• Because sharks very rarely get cancer, scientists study their cartilage in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease

• Hammerhead sharks’ heads are soft at birth so they won’t jam the mothers' birth canals
  

Facts About Girls - strangefacts

• Girls break their arms 56% more often than they did 40 years ago and there are 106 boys born for every 100 girls

• The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006

• Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem

• Close to 73% of girls in Bangladesh are married by age 18

• Eighty percent of 10 year old girls in the USA go on a diet

• Girls have more tastebud than boys

• More boys than girls are born during the day; more girls are born at night

• One of the Bond girls in the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only," used to be a man

• There are 106 boys born for every 100 girls

• Girls are slightly more likely than boys to use home computers for e-mail, word processing and completing school assignments than playing games

• Jacob & Emily were the most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2004

• During the 1600's, boys and girls in England wore dresses until they were about seven years old

• In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to 12

• 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%

• Until about the age of 12, boys cry about as often as girls

• A study reported in the New York Times suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship

• At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are "missing" from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect

• Globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime

• 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually

Facts About China - strangefacts

• The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley

• 500 people suffer from sickening or deadly food poisoning each day in China

• One in five of world’s people live in China

• The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ

• In China, people eat a bar of chocolate for every 1,000 chocolate bars eaten by the British

• Many people in parts of China eat insects

• People in parts of Western China put salt in their tea instead of sugar

• People of Ancient China believed that swinging your arms could cure a headache

• Slaves under the last emperors of China wore pigtails so they could be picked out quickly

• The tallest woman that ever lived was Zeng Jinlian who was 8 feet 2 inches tall of China. Shed died at the age of 17

• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910

• China's labor force stands at 706 million people, almost three times that of Europe and twice that of North and South America combined

• The deadliest earthquake of the 20th century occurred in Tangshan, China where an estimated 200,000 people were killed

• Since 1979, China has had a “one-child policy.” Most families are allowed to have only one child, or risk paying steep fines to the government

• The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1557 in central China, more than 830,000 people were killed

• China has more English speakers than the United States

• In Northern parts of China it was once a common practice to shave pigs. When the evenings got cold the Chinese would take a pig to bed with them for warmth and found it more comfortable if the pig was clean-shaven

• In the 15th century, scholars in China compiled a set of encyclopedia that contained 11,095 volumes
• The largest numbers of immigrants arriving in Canada currently come from China, India and the Philippines

• In 2006, 155,105 people from China who had arrived since 2001 were in Canada. The corresponding figures for India and the Philippines were 129,140 and 77,88

Facts About Pyramids of Egypt - strangefacts

• The great pyramids of Egypt now stand a full 3 miles south of the spot where they were originally built

• Egypt has more than 100 pyramids that are spread all over the country 

• The three pyramids of Giza do in fact match the belt of Orion, but they did not when the pyramids were built. It seems that the Egyptians built the pyramids to resemble today's belt of Orion 

• This pyramid figure is one of the seven wonders of the worlds 

• All of the signifigant major pyramids were built over a time period of about 200 years. A new one was well underway before the previous one was completed. It amounted to keeping a more or less constant work force busy the year around for the 200 years

• Three big one’s are called the great pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) , the pyramid of Khafre (Khafra) and the pyramid of Menkaure 

• The Egyptian Pyramids were not made from cut stone. The blocks were poured in place using crushed, local limestone and a 'geopolymer' - a cement that is better than most known today. The largest was built in 20 years using an estimated 14,000 workers

• Out of all the three pyramids at Giza, only the pyramid of Khafre retains some parts of the originally polished limestone casing near its pinnacle

• The biggest Pyramid in the world is not in Egypt. It's actually about sixty miles southeast of Mexico City, Mexico. It covers more than forty acres and the largest Egyptian Pyramid, The Great Pyramid at Giza, covers about 13 acres

• To the naked eyes and laymen, the pyramid of Khafre would always look tall, but the fact is that the pyramid of Khufu is the tallest of all

• The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, constructed around 2500 B.C., was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889

• The pyramid of Menkaure further has 3 smaller pyramids that are subsidiary to this main pyramid and are called the queens’ pyramids

• More than 14 million sandstone blocks make up the pyramids which were originally covered in limestone. Funilly enough this limestone wasn't stolen but used by the native egyptians as building material

• Some believe that his pyramid at Giza was built by slaves but this is not true. One hundred thousand people worked on it for three months of each year. This was the time of the Nile's annual flood which made it impossible to farm the land and most of the population was unemployed. He provided good food and clothing for his workers and was kindly remembered in folk tales for many centuries

Facts About Water - strangefacts

• The odds are 1 out of 230,000,000 (.000000435%) that you're allergic to water

• Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head

• An average human drinks about 16,000 gallons of water in a lifetime

• The average human body contains enough enough water to fill a ten-gallon tank

• The human body is comprised of 80% water

• The daily heat output of the human body is enough to boil eight gallons of freezing water

• A British woman gave birth to her daughter less than two minutes after her water broke

• The amount of heat generated by an average adult each day could boil eight gallons of water

• The average person can live 11 days without water

• About 30% of Canadians rely on getting their water from the ground for their domestic use

• In 1978, the World Water Speed record was made by Ken Warby from Australia. His average speed was 317.6 mph, on a jet-powered hydroplane

• In Australia, the average person uses 876 gallons of water daily

• In Switzerland the average person uses only 77 gallons of water per person daily

• Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water

• People drank gold powder mixed in with water in medieval Europe to relieve pain from sore limbs

• Carbonated beverages became popular in 1832 after John Mathews invented an apparatus for charging water with carbon dioxide gas

• In 1832 the Scottish surgeon Neil Arnott devised water beds as a way of improving patients' comfort

• Craven Walker invented the lava lamp, and its contents are colored wax and water

• Every year, the average Briton uses 10,000 gallons of water, 500 percent more than the average Indian

• Approximately two-thirds of a person’s body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water

Facts About Valentine's Day - strangefacts

• Japanese celebrate Christmas, but it is more like Valentine's day in the western world

• In the United States, the average couple spends 120$ on Valentine’s Day gifts

• In the US, nine million people buy Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets

• Some years ago, George Clooney spent $30,000 on a hotel room for Valentine’s Day

• Nearly 1 billion greeting cards are sent on Valentine’s Day, a number that is only exceeded at Christmas

• Only about 26% of the population celebrate Valentine's Day

• Most people spend at least $100 per person on their romantic Valentine’s dinner

• Most people who are choosing to share a romantic dinner with someone on Valentine's Day are choosing the same kind of cuisine. In fact, the most popular choice on this holiday is French cuisine

• Youtube domain was registered on Valentines Day

• Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare's play lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters every year sent to Juliet on Valentine's Day

• More people drink wine with their Valentine’s Day dinner than drink champagne

• 85% of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased by women

• The first commercial Valentine cards, trimmed with imported lace, were made by Esther Howland in Worcester, Massachusetts

• Every year around 1 billion Valentine cards are sent across. After Christmas it's a single largest seasonal card-sending occasion

• Amongst the earliest Valentine's Day gifts were candies. The most common were chocolates in heart shaped boxes

• On February 14th wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on Valentine's Day in Wales. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favorite Valentine decorations on the wooden spoons. This Valentine decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

Facts About Coffee - strangefacts

• The odds are 8 out of 10 (80%) that you are dependent on coffee or soda for that caffeine every day

• A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee

• President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to announce to the world that Maxwell House coffee is "Good to the last drop."

• A person would have to drink more than 12 cups of hot cocoa to equal the amount of caffeine found in one cup of coffee

• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee

• The world's most expensive coffee is called Kopi Luwak. It costs $130 a pound

• Seniors who drink a cup of coffee before a memory test score higher than those who drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee

• Women who drink more than two cups of coffee a day have a higher chance of developing osteoporosis

• Americans drink over a billion pounds of coffee every year and around five million bottles of soda

• Chinese President Hu Jintao loves Starbucks coffee

• Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea

• Over 5 million people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade. Most of those are involved with the cultivation and harvesting of more than 3 billion coffee plants

• The coffee filter was invented in 1908 by a German homemaker, Melitta Benz, when she lined a tin cup with blotter paper to filter the coffee grinds

• Caesars Palace serves over 427 pounds of coffee each day and pours more than 3,000 ounces of orange juice every 24 hours

• Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee and voltaire drank between 50 and 65 cups of coffee every day

• Centuries ago, men were told that effects of coffee wold make them sterile

Facts About Dreams - strangefacts

• The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year 

• Most dreams last only 5 to 20 minutes

• Japanese researchers have successfully developed a technology that can put thoughts on a screen and may soon be able to screen people's dreams

• What you smell when asleep has power to influence dreams,says research presented at the '08 American Academy of Otolaryngology

• People who have been blind from birth have dreams that are formed from their other senses (e.g., touch, smell, sound)

• The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year

• Everyone dreams. Just because you don’t remember your dreams doesn’t mean you don’t dream. Everyone dreams
• Most people dream about 1-2 hours a night and have an average of 4-7 dreams each night

• Five minutes after a dream, half of the dream is forgotten. Ten minutes after a dream, over 90% is forgotten. Write down your dreams immediately if you want to remember them  

• While you sleep, your body produces a hormone that may prevent you from acting out your dreams, leaving you virtually paralyzed

• Dreams almost never represent what they actually are. The unconscious mind strives to make connections with concepts you will understand, so dreams are largely symbolic representations

Facts About Pollution - strangefacts

• Indoor pollution is 10 times more toxic than outdoor pollution

• Corn is used to produce fuel alcohol. Fuel alcohol makes gasoline burn cleaner, reducing air pollution, and it doesn't pollute the water

• 80 percent of all pollution in seas and oceans comes from land-based activities

• Each average-sized tree provides an estimated $7 savings in annual environmental benefits, including energy conservation and reduced pollution

• For every mile driven a motorcycle produces 10 to 20 times more pollution than a new car

• During winter months, 49 percent of soot and other particle pollution in Sacramento is caused by burning wood in fireplaces and wood stoves

• The World Bank reported in 2002 that pollution causes 2.42 billion dollars worth of damage to the Egyptian environment annually - equaling about 5 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product

• The risk of cancer from breathing diesel exhaust is about ten times more than ingesting all other toxic air pollutants combined, with diesel emissions contributing to over 70% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the USA

• During the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions increased approximately 1.3% each year. But since 2000, the rate has increased to 3.3% per year, with an estimated annual global CO2 emissions increase of 35% from 1990 to 2006

• A recent study from Toronto Public Health estimates over 440 deaths a year in the Canadian city can be directly attributed to traffic emissions

• According to the US-EPA, emissions from power plants contribute to over 2,800 lung cancer deaths and 38,200 heart attacks annually in the US

Facts About Adolf Hitler - strangefacts

• Adolf Hitler was claustrophobic and installed a mirror in his elevator just to keep him from being scared 

• King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie

• Adolf Hitler loved chocolate cake

• Adolf Hitler wanted to be an architect, but he failed the entrance exam at the architectural school in Vienna

• Adolf Hitler was one of the people that was responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle

• Hitler and Napolean both had only one testical

• Adolf Hitler was Time's Man of the Year for 1938

• Richard Marowitz who lives in New Jersey once took one of Adolf Hitler's hats and now keeps it in safety deposit box. The hat is said to be worth $35,000

• Germania was the name Adolf Hitler gave to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin, part of his vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II

• Adolf Hitler's typewriter survived from his mountain retreat and is exhibited at the Hall of History in Bessemer

• During the final days of the war in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide

• The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews during the Nazi genocide by Hitler and in 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Nazi Germany during World War 2

• By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed and estimates range as high as 1.5 million murdered children during the Holocaust

• A German businessman trained his dog to do the Hitler salute 

• The Dr Seuss book 'Yertle the Turtle' was based on Adolf Hitler

• The New York phone book has 22 'Hitler' names listed before World War II, and none after

Facts About India - strangefacts

• A 13-year-old boy in India produced winged beetles in his urine after hatching the eggs in his body

• Bill Gates donated close to $100 million to fight AIDS in India. As a percent of his total wealth, this would be comparable to him donating ten cents if he only had $60

• From 1526 to 1707, the first six Mogul emperors of India ruled in unbroken succession from father to son

• In America, 38% of doctors are Indians

• In India, a 9-year-old girl was "married" to a stray dog, which tribal custom requires in order to protect a child whose first tooth appears on the upper gum

• In the marriage ceremony of the Ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other

• Native Indians have been known to paint their doors blue, which they believe keeps the bad spirits out

• Shridhar Chillal from India is known to have the record for the longest fingernails in the world, which were each at least three feet long

• The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system in India, employing over 1.6 million people

• The Uape Indians, who live in the Amazon, mix the ashes of their recently cremated relatives with alcohol, then all members of the family drink the mix with fond memories of the deceased

• 41% world's poor people live in India

• In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog

• Indians go out to the movies 3 billion times a year - much more than any other nation

• In India, people do not wear shoes in the kitchen because some food is prepared on the floor

• The world’s largest recorded gathering of people was at a Hindu religious festival in India in 1989. It was attended by about 15 million people

• The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields

• The Aztec Indians in Central America used animal blood mixed with cement as a mortar for their buildings, many of which still remain standing today

• When the U.S. War Department was established in 1789, there were 840 soldiers in the regular army. Their job was to supervise public lands and guard the Indian frontier

• The Taj Mahal complex in India was built between 1631 and 1634 at a cost of about 40-million rupees

• Under the Travancore kingdom of Kerala, India, low caste women had to pay a tax for the right to cover their upper body

Facts About Cats - strangefacts

• Napoleon was terrified of cats

• One-third of all asthma cases in the United States is related to an allergy to cats

• King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats

• Babies that are exposed to cats and dogs in their first year of life have a lower chance of developing allergies when they grow older

• In 1888, an Egyptian peasant discovered an estimated three hundred thousand mummified cats in Beni Hassan, Egypt

• In Ancient Egypt, cats were often buried with their masters, or in a special cemetery for cats

• Reports from owners of cats and dogs indicate that 21% of dogs and 7% of cats snore

• Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the death of their cats

• Cats and people both have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion

• There are 75 million cats in the U.S., with 35.5% of the nation's households having at least one cat

• There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds

• The domestic cat is the only cat species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. All wild cats hold their tails horizontally or tucked between their legs while walking

• Cats have 290 bones in their bodies, and 517 muscles and cats knead with their paws when they're happy

• The most popular names for female cats in the U.S. are Missy, Misty, Muffin, Patches, Fluffy, Tabitha, Tigger, Pumpkin and Samantha

• The richest cat in the Guinness Book of World Records is a pair of cats who inherited $415,000 in the early '60s. The richest single cat is a white alley cat who inherited $250,000

Facts About Thomas Edison - strangefacts

• Thomas Edison had a collection of over 5,000 birds 

• Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

• Thomas Edison' s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph

• As a boy, Thomas Edison suffered a permanent hearing loss from head injury

• A person sneezing was the first action caught on video by Thomas Edison

• Thomas Edison once designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder that blew up his factory

• Anthea Turner, Walt Disney, Tom Cruise, Susan Hampshire, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Edison, Henry Winkler, Cher, Brian Conley, and Leonardo DaVinci are, or were, dyslexic 

• 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb

• Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory

• Thomas Edison once saved a boy from the path of an oncoming locomotive who was a station official's child. For his bravery, the boy's father taught Edison how to use the telegraph

• During one four-year period, Thomas Edison obtained 300 patents, or one every five days

• Lazy Susans are named after Thomas Edison's daughter. He invented it to impress a gathering of industrialists and inventors

• When Thomas Edison was a youngster, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He was counseled to go into a field where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality

• The public saw an electric light for the first time in Louisville. Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition in 1883

• The light bulb, phonograph (record player), motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park laboratory

Facts About Stonehenge - strangefacts

• Stonehenge is surely Britain's greatest national icon, symbolizing mystery, power and endurance. Its original purpose is unclear to us, but some have speculated that it was a temple made for the worship of ancient earth deities  

• Of all the world’s famous monuments, none has gained as much of a reputation for pure, simple mystery as Stonehenge

• Stonehenge has been inspiring debate among scholars, scientists, and historians since the Middle Ages

• Stonehenge is located in the English countryside, the landmark is believed to date back to 2500 BC, and consists of several mammoth pieces of rock arranged and piled on top of one another in what appears at first to be a random design

• The site is surrounded by a small, circular ditch, and is flanked by burial mounds on all sides

• Although the rock formations that still remain are undoubtedly impressive, it is thought that the modern version of Stonehenge is only a small remnant of a much larger monument that was damaged with the passing of time

• It is believed that the ditch was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly, wood

• It is largely believed that the building process was so extensive that it could have lasted on and off for anywhere from 1500 to 7000 years

• About 2,000 BC, the first stone circle (which is now the inner circle), comprised of small bluestones, was set up, but abandoned before completion

• The stones used in that first circle are believed to be from the Prescelly Mountains, located roughly 240 miles away, at the southwestern tip of Wales

• The bluestones weigh up to 4 tons each and about 80 stones were used, in all. Given the distance they had to travel, this presented quite a transportation problem

• The Neolithic people who built the monument left behind no written records, so scientists can only base their theories on the meager evidence that exists at the site

• This has led to wild speculation that the monument was left by aliens, or that it was built by some eons-old society of technologically advanced super-humans

• All craziness aside, the most common explanation remains that Stonehenge served as some kind of graveyard monument that played a role in the builders’ version of the afterlife, a claim that is backed up by its proximity to several hundred burial mounds

• Another theory suggests that the site was a place for spiritual healing and the worship of long dead ancestors

Facts About Sphinx of Egypt - strangefacts

• Sphinxes are massive stone statues that depict the body of a reclining lion with the head and face of a human

• The Great Sphinx's paws and head are out of proportion, suggesting there may have been an even larger, earlier statue which was adapted

• Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid - around 4,500 years ago

• Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation

• The figures are found all over the world in different forms, but they are most commonly linked with Egypt, which features the most famous example in the form of the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Incredibly, the statue is carved out of one monolithic piece of rock, and at 240 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet tall, it is considered to be the biggest monument of its kind in the world

• Historians largely accept the function of the Sphinx to have been that of a symbolic guardian, since the statues were strategically placed around important structures like temples, tombs, and pyramids

• It stands adjacent to the pyramid of the pharaoh Khafra, and most archeologists believe that it is his face that is depicted on that of the statue

• Despite its reputation as one of the most famous monuments of antiquity, there is still very little known about the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Egyptologists might have a small understanding of why the statue was built, but when, how, and by who is still shrouded in mystery

• The pharaoh Khafra is the main suspect, which would date the structure back to around 2500 BC, but other scientists have argued that evidence of water erosion of the statue suggests that it is much older and perhaps even predated the dynastic era of the Egyptians

• This theory has few modern adherents, but if true it would mean the Great Sphinx of Giza is even more mysterious than previously believed