The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help (after SOS), it comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me"
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The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
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The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' depicts two women living under one roof'.
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In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.
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Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, remains the only person, to date, to have graduated from the West Point military academy without a single demerit.
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James Doohan, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand.
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First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
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Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
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The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
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The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosey..."), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of poseys..."), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!")
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Mr. Ed the talking horse, from the TV show Mr. Ed, was not a Mr. was not named Ed, and wasn't even a horse. The role of Mr. Ed was played by a female zebra named Amelia. Since the series was filmed in black and white, most viewers never noticed this.
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A grasshopper's blood is white.
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The cheetah is the only cat that can't retract its claw.
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Your hair grows at a rate of one-hundredth of an inch per day.
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Elephants can be pregnant for 24 months.
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Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal,
and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean McBricker.
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Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Josie in the '70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats."
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The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history.
It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show.
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The Sorcerer in Disney's "Fantasia" has a name.
It's "Yensid", Disney spelled backwards.
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When Genghis Khan conquered a territory, he demanded 1,000 virgins a year from it.
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To keep him from designing for others, Ivan the Terrible blinded Russia's greatest architect.
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23 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book. -----------------------------------------------
Michael Jordan's high school basketball team cut him. -----------------------------------------------
Richard Hooker's novel, M*A*S*H, was rejected by 21 publishers. -----------------------------------------------
Henry Ford went broke five times before succeeding. -----------------------------------------------
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