An atomic clock is accurate to within 1 second in 1,7 million years.
Ken, Barbie's boyfriend, debuted in 1961. Unfortunately, they split up on Valentine's Day 2004.
After the French Revolution of 1789 selling sour wine was considered against national interest and the merchant was promptly executed.
For 3000 years, until 1883, hemp was the world's largest agricultural crop, from which the majority of fabric, soap, paper, medicines, and oils were produced.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. The US Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
The word malaria comes from the words mal and aria, which means bad air. This derives from the old days when it was thought that all diseases are caused by bad, or dirty air.
The first city in the world to have a population of more than one million was Rome.
The most populated city in the world - when major urban areas are included - is Tokyo, with more than 37 million residents. See world's largest cities
The Vatican is the world's smallest country, at 0,16 square miles (0,44 square km).
To most Americans, the orient is China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam; to Europeans it is the area of India and Pakistan.
Some 160 billion emails are sent daily - more than 2 million per second - by 1,2 billion email senders. 97% of it is spam.
MasterCard was originally called MasterCharge. More at credit cards
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
Lightning strikes men about seven times more often than it does women.
About 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. This is called propinquity.
The pleasant feeling of eating chocolate is caused by a chemical called anadamide, a neurotransmitter which also is produced naturally in the brain.
The US nickname Uncle Sam was derived from Uncle Sam Wilson, a meat inspector in Troy, New York.
The living does not outnumber the dead: since the creation about 60 billion people have died.
The European Union has banned more than 1,100 chemicals from cosmetics. The United States has banned just 10.
Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 49 000 feet (15,000 metres).