Page 50 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Socrates never wrote down a single word of his teachings. o Sir Francis Drake first landed in California on June 17, 1579. o Despite their good-guy image, Canada’s RCMP were caught illegally spying on people. o The winged hat worn by Greek god Hermes is called a “pelasos.” o The shortest war in American history was the Spanish-American war. It lasted 5 months. o St. Peter was the first Pope. o Howdy Doody had 48 freckles. o The leaders in per capita consumption of chocolate: #1. Switzerland; #2. Norway; #3. Britain. o In 1900 only 41% of all Americans lived to be 65. In 1989, 79% did. o 41% of all Americans say they want their child to be President of the United States. o You have more sweat glands in your hands and feet than anywhere else on your body. o Chinese script has more than 40,000 characters. o Laid end-to-end around the equator, it would take 257,588,120 dollar bills to circle the earth. o Although they had many million-sellers, Creedence Clearwater Revival never had a #1 song. th o In the 4 century, the Romans had a stadium that held 380,000 spectators. o You have 45 miles of nerves in your body. o If you’re average, you’ve got a vocabulary of about 10,000 words. o Christopher Columbus was a blonde. o In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan. o You can spin a hardboiled egg - you can’t spin an uncooked one. o The most extras ever used in a movie was 300,000, for the film Gandhi in 1981. o The average 150-lb. man should consume 2.9 quarts of water (in any form) each day. o Every person has a unique tongue-print. o In A.D. 700, the largest city in America was Teotihuacan, home to 100,00 people. o In ancient Rome it was considered a sin to eat the flesh of a woodpecker. o Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize, not for peace, but for literature. o Cree Indians used smoking pipes are currency. o It took 13 years for Alexander the Great to conquer his empire. o The U.S. first issued paper money in 1862. o The first English Parliament was called into session on January 20, 1265. o Queen Liliuokalani of the Hawaiian Islands was America’s first and only queen. o There is no record of Patrick Henry actually saying, “Give me liberty or give me death.” o Violet Jessup survived three major ship disasters: the Olympic, Britannic, and Titanic. o Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock never won an Academy Award. o Joan of Arc’s actual name was Jehanne Darc. The apostrophe was added later by an English historian. o Poet Dante Rossetti put an original manuscript in his wife’s coffin; 7 years later, he retrieved it. o According to Hormel, Hawaiians eat the most Spam per capita annually. o After tasting vanilla in France, Thomas Jefferson was the first person to import it into the U.S. o Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe all died on July Fourth. o Elizabethan women used toxic white paint to imitate Queen Elizabeth’s elegant pallor. o Hannibal is the first in a two-book deal in which Thomas Harris stipulated there will be no editing. o Englishman Humphry Davy created the technology for the light bulb in 1800, before Edison. o The bagpipe was introduced to Scotland by the Celts and Romans. o American Joseph Gayetty invented toilet paper in 1857. o In 1610, the population of the American colonies was 350 people.