Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington, may have been the first in the Americas to have a swinging cat door. She ordered one of the door panels at Mt. Vernon to be redesigned with a come-and-go hinge.
I Bet Ya Didn't Know
I bet ya' didn't know…. 978 items · page 11 of 25
The average American, in a lifetime, spends six months waiting for red lights to change. (Is that all??)
What comedy team used the song "Love Nest" as their theme? George Burns and Gracie Allen
Iran was once known as Persia. What was it called before that? Iran
Name the classic TV comedy that began with the theme song "You're My Greatest Love." It was THE HONEYMOONERS. Jackie Gleason wrote the song.
Jelly Belly created their blueberry flavor jellybean for US president Ronald Reagan.
An area of 49,000 square miles in the northwest section of the providence of Ontario, Canada, is served by a single telephone directory of 60 pages.
The Duke of Montmorency-Laval (1747-1817), after hearing a military march played when he was only ten, became a compulsive hummer of that tune every hour of the day for 60 years.
A leopon is the offspring of a lioness and a leopard.
Francesco Colonna (1449-1527), the Italian author, too timid to propose in person to a girl named Polia, wrote a book entitled A DREAM OF LOVE containing 165,000 words. The initial letters of its 37 chapters spell out in Latin "Francesco loves Polia."
The coronet, a barnacle which attaches itself to the skin of whales, looks exactly like a ducal crown.
Prized violins in the 17th and 18th centuries were made of glazed and enameled pottery.
Captain Percival Drayton (1812-1865), commanding the U.S. navy frigate POCAHONTAS in the Civil War, attacked and captured the island of Hilton Head, S.C., overcoming a valiant defense by Confederate General Thomas F.Drayton, his own brother.
The Great Cross at Villargaudin, France, displays the tools of a carpenter.
The gravestones of those who died unmarried in ancient Greece were always replicas of an honor denied them in life: the vase out of which water was poured on the hands of the bride and groom at every wedding.
Writing was invented about 3500 B.C. in Babylonia. Experts believe first written communication was in the form of picture characters, later developing into cuneiform.
A sword, thrust into a rock crevice by San Galgano when the Italian knight became a holy hermit, was driven home with such force that it is still there as a point of pilgrimage over 800 years later (Siena, Italy)
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months two rats could have over a million descendants.
A man-made fountain opposite the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the world's highest geyser, at 600 feet. The geyser's is powered by three 800 hp pumps and discharges water at up to 200 feet per second. The geyser can keep 1,100 gallons of water, weighing 9,200 pounds, in the air when in operation.
The nurse pipeline is drying up. Nationally, 126,000 hospital positions remain unfilled.
In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Merrie.
Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into view and he died exactly 75 years later in 1910 when Haley's Comet came back.
What is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist? --Southern Florida
Only 8% of homes hand out full-size candy to trick-or-treaters.
Our three favorite spare-time activities, changed since 1998: >time with family/friends - up 31.3% >reading - down 34.0% >watching TV - up 22.6%
Some people think that the stage musical Les Miserables runs a bit long, but it's a mere flash in time compared with one of the sentences in the novel on which it is based. Supposedly to make it easy to read, that 3-page, 823-word sentence is divided by 93 commas, 51 semicolons and 4 dashes.
The largest incense stick ever made was almost fifteen-feet long and six-inches thick.
James Macandrew, chief executive of the province of Otago, N.Z., ordered committed to debtors' prison in 1871, issued a decree declaring his official residence was henceforth a jailhouse.
The Carthaginian Ruin in the park of Schoenbrunn, Vienna, Austria, actually constructed in 1778, was ordered built by German emperor Joseph II after he had seen the edifice in a dream.
In the Cottonian Library of the British Museum, London, is a circular chessboard.
Emperor Ojin-Tenno (201-310) ruled Japan for 109 years. He became emperor at birth and occupied the throne until his death.
A statue of President Andrew Jackson, figurehead of the S.S. CONSTITUTION, was decapitated by Samuel Dewey, a Cape Cod skipper, but although the commandant of the Boston Navy yard offered a $1,000 reward for the capture of the culprit, President Jackson, who never liked the statue, rewarded Dewey with a postmastership (July 3, 1834).
The first Emmy Award, presented in 1949, went to a puppet. Shirley Dinsdale, a 15 year-old ventriloquist on the Eddie Cantor radio show in the 40s, received the award for her puppet Judy Splinters
Benjamin Butler (1818-1893), a staunch supporter of Jefferson Davis in the Democratic National Convention in 1860, was offered the vice-presidency by Abraham Lincoln in 1864, but he declined. Had he accepted, he would have become president only a few months later.
Vladimir de Pachmann (1848-1933), celebrated Russian pianist, was convinced that the ghost of Chopin was always beside him, and he consulted with the ghost while playing concerts. He also asked the ghost's advice before signing any contract.
The last U.S TV ad for cigarettes was seen December 31, 1970.
A waterfall in Assam, India, was created by an earthquake and is still running over 70 years later.
Fish and reptiles continue to grow as long as they live.
H.M.S. BOUNTY, constructed for a movie as an exact duplicate of the ship on which the historic mutiny was staged, cost $750,000. 174 years earlier the original BOUNTY cost $9,750.
The great tower of the Castle of Chateaubriant, France, which has walls 13 feet thick, has no foundation and merely rests on smooth rock; yet it has endured for over 953 years.