Miscellaneous Trivia

The first telephone directory was one page long. It was printed in 1878 and listed the 50 telephone customers in New Haven, Connecticut.

The first bar code scanning equipment was installed in June of 1974 at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first item to be scanned using a UPC bar code was a 10 pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum. This pack of gum is on display at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History.

Old Faithful, the famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park, can spout water up to 170 feet in the air. That's equivalent to a 17 story building.

There are more collect calls made on Father's Day than any other day of the year.

Fire escapes, laser printers, windshield wipers and bullet proof vest were all invented by women.

Almost all boat owners name their boat. The most common name is Obsession.

Only two people actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th - John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the others signed on August 2. It wasn't until five years later that the last signature was added.

In a deck of cards, each king represents a great king in history:

• Diamonds - Julius Caesar
• Hearts - Charlemagne
• Spades - King David
• Clubs - Alexander, the Great

The only mobile national monument is cable cars in San Francisco.

You are generally safe if you are in a car when lightening strikes it. The Farrady effect explains that electricity dissipates over the area of the car.

The highest rate of alcoholism is the US is Reno, Nevada. The lowest rate id Provo, Utah.

Since water is never totally consumed but recycled, there is the exact same amount of water on the earth today as there was when it was created.

The Catholic Herald, published in the UK, warns about the danger of drinking holy water from a religious shrine. Although it may have curative powers, it also is a breeding ground for germs.

Buildings in Belgium used to be taxed of it had a street light on it, unless it also has a statue of the Virgin Mary above the light. Hence, virtually all buildings from the past have these statues.

When commuting to work on a highway, you can expect your average speed to be 35 miles per hour.

Using the law or averages, you are more likely to be killed by a flying cork from a champagne bottle that from a bite from a poisonous snake.

Eskimos do not gamble.

In 1998 in the US, 48 people died due to a roller coaster accident.

In 1999 in England, 43 people died in bathtubs.

The first fatal plane crash was in 1908 when the plane's propeller broke. The pilot was Orville Wright. He suffered multiple hip and leg fractures. His passenger, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Signal Corps, died.

In the course of a life time, you can expect to eat about a pound of insects. Three of them will be spiders.

The Bible is the world’s best-selling book. It is also the world’s most shoplifted book.

Statue in the park: If both horse's legs are in the air, the person was killed in battle. If one leg is in the air, the person died later as the results of wounds received in a battle. If both all legs are on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

The only man-made structures in the world which can be seen from space are the Great Wall of China and the motorway system of Belgium.

Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.

Beijing , China , has the world's largest Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.

The Eiffel Tower is 6" taller in summer than it is in winter because of the expansion of the steel.

US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record on August 19, 1957. He spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against a civil rights bill. He beat the previous record. After Thurmond's death in 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed that she was his illegitimate daughter by a black maid named Carrie "Tunch" Butler when Butler was 16 and Thurmond was 22.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

In Paraguay, dueling is legal as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Charlie Brown's father was a barber.

Miss Piggy and her love, Kermit the Frog, are left-handed.

In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's frequency to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for example). But they did not renumber the other channel assignments. That is why a television set has Channel 2 and up, but no Channel 1.

The Queen Elizabeth II cruise liner moves six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel it burns.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class.

Every day, Parker Brothers prints more Monopoly money than the US Treasury prints in real money.

Mark Twain was the first author to write a novel using a typewriter. He used it to write Tom Sawyer.

Sherlock Holmes never says,"Elementary, my dear Watson."

In most watch advertisements, the time displayed is either 10:10 or 1:50, which gives the face and hands a symmetrical look.

The interstate highway system requires at least one mile in five to be straight. The straight miles are usable as airstrips during a war or emergency.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The scissors were invented by Leonardo Da Vinci.

On average, over the US, there are 61,000 people airborne at any given hour.

More than 50% of the people in the world are without telephone service.

The plastic end of a shoelace is called an aglet.

The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

The opposite sides of a die cube always add up to seven

It is illegal for alcohol commercials to use the description "refreshing."

The Speaker of the House in England is not allowed to speak.