Miscellaneous Trivia

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The official time ball for the U.S. is on top of the U.S. naval Observatory in Washington, DC As early as 1845, the U.S. Navy dropped a time ball every noon from atop a building on a hill overlooking Washington, DC. People from many miles could set their watches at noon. Ships anchored in the Potomac River could check their chronometers.

Left-handed people are statistically more likely to be geniuses, and to be insane. Left-handedness is more common among writers and some kinds of artists. But lefties tend to be more accident-prone and on average don't live as long.

Did you know that Beetle from the comic strip 'Beetle Bailey' and Lois from the comic strip 'Hi and Lois' are brother and sister?

The newspaper serving Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, the home of Rocky and Bullwinkle, is the Picayune Intellegence.

The earliest recorded case of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679, when Johan Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary "I quit smoking tobacco." He died one month later.

A lead pencil is good for about 50,000 words.

1960 was the last model year for Edsel and Desoto.

Woodbury Soap was the first product to show a nude woman in its advertisements. The year - 1936. The photo, by Edward Steichen, showed a rear full-length view of a woman sunbathing - wearing only sandals.

London's Millennium Dome, the largest of its kind in the world, is over one kilometer in circumference and covers over 80,000 square meters.

The Dome is supported by 43 miles of high-strength cable which holds up 100,000 square meters of fabric.

The translucent roof is 50 meters high at the center and strong enough to support a jumbo jet.

The Dome could contain two Wembley Stadiums or the Eiffel Tower on its side. You could even fit the Great Pyramid of Giza inside it.

St. Stephen is the patron saint of bricklayers.

It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0.

According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.

The car-making Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it.

Studebaker was the only major car company to stop manufacturing cars while making a profit on them.

The issue of leap year and the weirdness of February is always worth looking at because, coming so infrequently, who can remember the explanation for it from the last time? The earth revolves around the sun every 365.24 days, not an even 365. That produces an extra day's worth of hours every four years. We could distribute them as a bonus to everyone: a one-day time-out every fourth year in which the clock is stopped and we stay in bed all day. But we don't. Instead we add an extra day onto February. Why February? It was originally the last month on the Roman calendar and a logical place to stick the extra day. But Julius Caesar changed the first month to January, stranding February and its little peculiarity in the second spot.

The first person selected as the Time Magazine Man of the Year - Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

Kate "God Bless America" Smith sold more U.S. war bonds than anyone else during World War II. She sold $600 million worth.