Read Uncle John’s Did You Know? Online
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Uncle John’s Did You Know? (24 page)
•
Q:
How long was the Pony Express in operation?
A:
Based on Hollywood movies, most people believe it was around for years. Wrong. The Pony Express was in operation only from April 1860 to November 1861. (It was put out of business by the telegraph and the transcontinental railroad.)
•
Q:
Who was the first president of the United States?
A:
George Washington? A few historians actually consider
John Hanson
to be the first U.S. president. As the presiding officer of Congress under the Articles of Confederation (a precursor to the Constitution), Hanson’s official title was “President of the United States in Congress Assembled.” And everyone—including George Washington—called him “Mr. President.”
•
Q:
Was Albert Einstein ever considered a candidate for the presidency of Israel?
A:
On November 18, 1952, Israeli officials asked the world’s most famous scientist to become president of Israel. Einstein declined, saying he was too old (he was 73) and that he lacked the “natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people.”
•
Q:
Who founded the Boy Scouts?
A:
In 1908, a secret agent for the British Military, Robert Baden-Powell, started the Boy Scout movement.
• In England, an eighth-note is called a
quaver
. A 64th-note is called a
hemidemisemiquaver
. Now, hang onto your hat: A 128th-note is called a
semi-hemidemisemiquaver
or
quasihemidemisemiquaver
.
• On a 1907 visit to Brandenburg, Germany, it took England’s chubby King Edward VII so long to squeeze into his ceremonial uniform that the band had to play his national anthem 17 times—a world record.
• Qatar has the shortest national anthem of any country; it can be sung in 32 seconds.
• It would take 120 hours to listen to all the music composed by Beethoven, 175 to listen to Bach’s, and 240 hours—that’s 10 full days—to listen to Mozart’s.
• The average American listens to recorded music for about 45 minutes a day.
• At a recent soccer match between teams from China and Greece, each team stood respectfully, thinking a song on the loudspeaker was the other team’s national anthem. What were they really listening to? A toothpaste commercial.
• Most people know that a piano has 88 keys, but most do not know that a harp has 47 strings.
• Greece’s national anthem has 158 verses.
• The tallest iceberg measured 550 feet above the water level.
• Earth is 4.55 billion years old (give or take 10 million).
• Air temperature goes down about 3.5°F for every 1,000 feet you go up in altitude.
• Fifty of the 221 volcanoes in the Philippines are active.
• About half the Sun’s radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s surface. (The rest bounces back into the atmosphere.)
• In November 1992, a thunderstorm was reported on St. Paul Island, Alaska—the first one there in 40 years.
• Earth’s northernmost point—the geographic North Pole—is in the Arctic Ocean. The northernmost point on land is Kaffeklubben Island, east of Greenland.
• How many colors in a rainbow? As many colors as you can see; all the colors of the rainbow are there.
• The pull of gravity on Earth is six times stronger than it is on the Moon.
• At any given moment there are 2,000 thunderstorms happening in the world. Lightning strikes somewhere 100 times every second.
• Lightning causes an average of 93 deaths and 300 injuries in the United States each year.
• The Empire State Building was designed to be a lightning rod…and it sure is: It’s struck by lightning about 100 times each year.
• Your chances of being struck by lightning are only one in 600,000, but those chances go up if you live in Florida, the lightning capital of America.
• The safest place to be during a thunderstorm is in a building with a lightning rod. Next safest: a car with the windows rolled up,
as long as you don’t touch any metal parts
.
• If lightning strikes a car, the metal body will conduct the charge into the ground. The car’s rubber wheels offer
no
protection, and rubber soles on your shoes won’t protect you either.
• Scared of lightning? Avoid open spaces, including fields, ballparks (location of 28% of lightning deaths and 29% of injuries), and shelter under trees (18% of deaths, 13% of injuries).
• Lightning’s not all bad: It puts nitrogen into the soil, which plants need to survive.
• There are lizards with very small legs or no legs that look like snakes. You can tell the difference because most lizards have movable eyelids.
• Snakes have 200 to 400 segments in their backbone; humans have 32 to 34.
• Crocodiles’ nostrils are on top of their heads, so they can breathe while the rest of their bodies are underwater. Some alligators can survive all winter with their heads frozen in ice and their noses out to breathe.
• Gila monsters can survive for months without food.
• Here’s how a snake “smells”: Its forked tongue collects chemicals from the air, which it then pulls in and holds against the “Jacobsen’s organ” in the roof of its mouth.
• There are more than 7,000 reptile species on Earth.
• Chameleons change color according to their mood, not to blend into their surroundings.
• Lizards, tortoises, and salamanders move like fish, by swishing their bodies from side to side. The movement compresses first one lung and then the other, so they can’t run fast and breathe deeply at the same time. That’s why lizards run in short bursts—they have to stop to catch their breath.
• Mexico’s Cinco de Mayo is not an independence day celebration. It commemorates an 1862 military victory over the French.
• In China, September 20th is “Love Your Teeth Day.”
• In Italy, Santa Claus is called
Babbo Natale
(Daddy Christmas). In Russia, he’s
Ded Moroz
(Grandfather Frost), and Norway has a Christmas gnome called
Julenissen
.
• In 1605, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament. Even though he was executed for the crime, the British gave Fawkes a holiday—he was “the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions.” Every November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks.
• At the beginning of every February, Japanese communities gather at temples to celebrate the Bean Throwing Festival. Evil spirits are driven away by hurling beans into the crowd.
• The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient event celebrating the poet Chu Yuan, who drowned in 277 B.C. Dragon-shaped boats race each other while fans throw rice and bamboo leaves into the water.
• The Romans used crushed mouse brains as toothpaste.
• Strange but true: Picking your nose is good for you—the inside of your nose stays cleaner. Bonus: Swallowing dry snot strengthens your immune system.
• When Eskimo babies have colds, their mothers suck the snot out of their noses.
• Which is cleaner, spit or pee? The urine: it’s sterile.
• The longest tapeworm ever found inside the human body was 35 meters long, or about 115 feet. Picture a worm 11 stories high…
• According to studies, every year, 14 bugs find their way into your mouth while you sleep. And, yes, you do swallow most of them.
• How much snot does the average person produce each day? About one quart. How much snot does the average person swallow each day? About one quart.
• How Frogs Throw Up:
Step 1)
The frog “tosses” its stomach, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth.
Step 2)
The frog uses its forearms to dig out all the stomach contents. After that it swallows the nice clean stomach back down again.
• The average American family is 3.14 people.
• Until 1993, the names of all French children had to be chosen from an official list.
• There are more children in India working to support their families than in any other country in the world.
• Why? Why? The average four-year-old child asks more than 400 questions a day.
• Almost one in three families in the United States and France has a dog.
• Assam tribespeople of Africa call their families
maharis
, meaning “motherhoods.”
• A penny saved: The typical American family has about $3,800 in the bank.
• Younger brothers and sisters in Nigerian families refer to their older siblings as “Senior Brother” or “Senior Sister.”
• The odds of having quadruplets are 1 in 729,000.
• On Tomb Sweeping Day, Chinese families visit the gravesites of family members to worship their ancestors and clean and repair the tombs.
• The average American family of four spends more than $13,000 on medical expenses in a year.
• Your first cousin’s daughter isn’t your second cousin—she’s is your first cousin, once removed.
Corn shows up in the most amazing places
.
• Without corn, frozen pizza would be a soggy mess. Cornstarch protects the crust from soaking up the sauce like a sponge.
• Corn keeps wallpaper from sticking to the wall too quickly. Cornstarch in the glue slows down the stickiness of the paper, giving wallpaper hangers time to arrange each strip in the right place.
• Corn syrup prevents lollipops from dripping.
• There’s corn in chalk and crayons: Cornstarch is used as a binder to keep them from falling apart in your hands.
• Every tiny ridge in a corrugated cardboard box is glued down with cornstarch. (No wonder cockroaches like to eat cardboard.)