It's vast. It's populous. It's almost entirely east of the United States. And it was named after a tree. It's Brazil. When Portugal laid claim to Brazil 401 years ago, the sailors found trees the color of a glowing ember - in Portuguese "brasa" - and called them brazilwoods.
I Bet Ya Didn't Know
I bet ya' didn't know…. 978 items · page 6 of 25
Patrick Henry left his entire estate to his wife with one major stipulation - that she never remarry. Mrs. Henry remarried, fought the will in court, and won.
In West Virginia there is a valley considered to be the oldest geological formation on the N. A. continent with a river running through it...therefore, the oldest river. What makes this interesting is its name...the NEW River.
One in five humans lives in China...21 percent of the total world population.
Polar ice cap evidence suggests the largest volcanic eruption of the millenium occured in the year 1259.
Babe Ruth, arrested for speeding, was sentenced to a day in jail, but he was released in time to play the last three innings of a game and was given a police escort to the ball park.
A Harvard student, in a debate on the annexation of Hawaii in 1902, stressed that Pearl Harbor could play an important role in the U.S. Navy. 39 years later Pearl Harbor's Navy role was forcibly called to the attention of that student, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) found the plot for DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE in a nightmare.
General Thomas Jefferson Chambers (1802-1865), after whom Chambers County, Texas, was named, was given 66,420 acres of land for serving as judge for the Superior Court of Texas, yet he never once convened the court. The land deeded to him included the present site of Austin.
Paul Deschanel (1856-1922) was the only French president who was not born in France. He was born in Belgium and served as president in 1920.
Who advised Benjamin Franklin in 1744 to unite the colonies in a confederacy? Chief Cannassatatego
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.
Andrew Jackson bought his wife a parrot. She died. He left the parrot in Tennessee when he became president. He died. The parrot was brought to his funeral. It intermittently punctuated the ceremony with cuss words heard by all.
When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all of the trimmings.
The Oasis of Todrha in Morocco has soil so rich that it bears 3 different crops each year.
The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 lbs, about the size of a large German Shepherd. It was grown in England.
Adam Moltke (1710-1792), a friend of King Frederick V, was the father of 22 sons. Five became cabinet ministers, four were ambassadors, two became generals, and the other 11 were mayors, provincial governors, or privy councilors of state.
Lake Atter, the largest Alpine lake in Austria, with an area of 18 square miles, was pawned by the Austrian government in 1592 for a loan of $50. Hans Khevehuller, who put up the money, received temporary ownership of the lake, its fish, and all the fishermen dwelling on its shores.
A golden stand studded with pearls, emeralds, and rubies was created by the Duke of Ferrara in 1501 to hold his engagement present from his future bride, ---a lock of her golden hair.
Ben Franklin wanted the turkey, not the eagle, to be the U.S. national symbol. He considered the eagle a "bird of bad moral character" because it lives by being a shrewd thief.
Cut and planed lumber was hard to come by in the New World, and since the Pilgrims didn't intend to go back to Europe, they dismantled the Mayflower and used it's lumber to build a barn.
Of all the people admitted to Emergency Rooms on Friday/Saturday nights, 73% were there due to fights with someone they know.
The knight's warhorse of the Middle Ages had to be capable of carrying up to 900lbs in weight. That included the rider, the rider's armor, his saddle and bridle and the horses own armor.
Vincent van Gogh didn't cut off his ear--not all of it anyway. He only cut a portion of the lobe.
Emerson Moser, who was Crayola's senior crayon maker revealed upon his retirement that he was he was blue-green colorblind and couldn't see all the colors! He molded over 1.4 billion crayons in his 37 year career.
A female ostrich can lay from 35 to 100 eggs a year. Goes on for about 45 years. About 3,000 ranchers in the United States are now raising ostriches. (For meat, not eggs.)
Fifty seven percent of women say they have asked a guy to go out.
Might keep this in mind when you dress for that backyard barbecue: Researchers say that mosquitoes avoid yellows, oranges, and whites.
Reuben Eliyahu Israel was the 12th descendant of the same family to serve as rabbi of the island of Rhodes, Greece, a continuous succession for 232 years.
Most women try on 6 or more bathing suits before buying.
The 'Kilroy' of 'Kilroy was here' fame refers to one James J. Kilroy, a shipyard inspector from Massachusetts who marked his work thusly.
Charles Boyington, hanged in Mobile, AL, in 1835 for the murder of his friend, predicted that as proof of his innocence, an oak tree would grow from his grave. Indeed, an oak tree did grow out of the grave.
The first station of the Sierra Leone Railroad in Africa was merely a huge cotton tree, the branches of which sheltered the waiting passengers (1908).
The practice of breaking a bottle over a ship's bow was introduced by the British navy in the late 1600s.
The lion's mouth, an African plant, produces a fruit that climbs the plant's stem.
A medal, depicting the capture by the Dutch of a Spanish fleet carrying $54,000,000 in silver, was issued by the Spanish government to dramatize the need for new taxes to replace the loss.
Ibrahim Pasha (1798-1848), an Egyptian commander, impressed by the courage of Abdallah Ibn Saud, commander of the Saudi Arabian army he had just defeated in battle, offered to supply the Saudi army with food, arms, and ammunition so they could continue to fight. Abdallah decided to surrender instead.
Antonio Persio (1550-1608), an Italian college professor, taught theology for 3 years, physics for 4 years, mathematics for 5 years, medicine for 6 years, jurisprudence for 7 years, and was retired for just 8 years before his death.
The Nile is longer than the Amazon River, but the 4,000-mile-long Amazon carries more water.