- The biggest palace on Earth is the Imperial Palace in Beijing. Building started in 1402. It is so huge that you could sleep in a different room every night for 25 years.
- There are more than 600 million telephone lines in the world today, yet almost half the planet's population has never made a phone call.
- Ivanov is the most common Russian surname.
- A hamlet is a village without a church; a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.
- The largest single flower on Earth is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They can grow up to four feet across and smell awful.
- There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.
- The English term "cop" came from Constable on Patrol.
- Statue lore: If a statue of a soldier on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one foot up in the air, the soldier died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four feet on the ground, the soldier died of natural causes. There are many examples that follow this "lore" in Civil War statues. It is not a rule, but an interesting bit of trivia.
- Even very clever people use only about one percent of the possible words in the English language when they talk to each other.
- Mexico once had three different Presidents in the space of 24 hours.
- The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse.
- About 10 million people in the world share your birthday.
- African witch doctors send their patients a bill only if they expect them to live.
- Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
Over 1500 Amazing Facts by Guy Campbell and Mark Devins ©2002
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