Random Fact of the Day

2011-02-16T10:19:00.004-05:00

About one billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in the U.S. each year.

Women purchase 85% of all valentines.

In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts, and pets.

Parents receive one out of every five valentines.

About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

Valentine's Day and and Mother's Day are the biggest holidays for giving flowers

Worldwide, over fifty million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.

California produces 60% of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day in the U.S. are imported, mostly from South America.

73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

Verona, Italy, where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet lives, receives about one thousand letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentine's Day candy box in the late 1800s.

Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy," on Valentine's Day, 1876.

The oldest surviving love poem, to date, is written in a clay tablet from the time of the Sumerians, inventors of writing, around 3500 BCE.

2011-02-07T15:55:00.001-05:00

When water freezes inside clouds, ice crystals form. Ice crystals are crystals that have formed around tiny bits of dirt that have been carried up into the atmosphere by the wind. The ice crystals join together creating snowflakes.

All snowflakes have six sides.

Scientists believe that there are five different shapes of snow crystals. A long needle shape, hollow column that is shaped like a six-sided prism, thin and flat six-sided plates, six-pointed stars, and intricate dendrites.

The shape that a snow crystal will take depends on the temperature at which it was formed. When the temperature is around 32F to 25F, thin six-sided plates are formed. At 25F to 21F, long needle shapes are formed. At 21F to 14F, hollow columns are formed. At 14F to 10F, six-point stars are formed. At 10F to 3F, dendrites are formed.

The colder it is outside, the smaller the snowflakes fall.

The fluffiest snow falls at temperatures around 15F.

Snow is actually transparent. Snow appears white because the crystals act as prisms, breaking oup the light of the sun into the entire spectrum of color.

The largest snowflake recorded was fifteen inches in diameter.

Most snowflakes are less than one half inch across.

2011-02-06T20:31:00.001-05:00

Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa.

2011-02-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

Sugar does not cause children to be hyper.

2011-02-04T20:29:00.001-05:00

Hair and nails do not continue to grow after a person dies, it is the skin drying and shrinking away that makes it appear as if growing.

2011-02-03T20:27:00.001-05:00

Shaving for the first does not cause hair to grow back thicker, darker, or coarser.

2011-02-02T20:24:00.002-05:00

It is not harmful to pick up baby birds and return them to their nests, their mothers will not reject them.

2011-02-01T20:24:00.000-05:00

Sushi does not mean "raw fish."

2011-01-31T20:22:00.002-05:00

Napoleon Bonaparte was about 5 feet 6 1/2 inches, by modern measurements.

2011-01-30T20:11:00.002-05:00

There is no evidence that Vikings had horns on their helmets.

2011-01-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

Koalas' fingerprints are similar in shape and size to human fingerprints.

2011-01-28T01:41:00.003-05:00

Peking was the original English spelling of Beijing.

2011-01-27T01:39:00.002-05:00

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

2011-01-26T22:53:00.001-05:00

Depressive people are more honest with themselves than mentally healthy people, when people recover from their depressions, they become less honest.

2011-01-25T22:51:00.001-05:00

17% of men and women, aged 18 through 24, would reveal having an STD to a sexual partner.

2011-01-24T22:49:00.002-05:00

98% of teens say trust and honesty are essential in personal relationships. 96% to 98% say lying is morally wrong.

2011-01-23T22:45:00.002-05:00

1 in 10 people have lied to car insurance companies to save money on their premiums.

2011-01-22T00:34:00.000-05:00

50% of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.

2011-01-21T07:07:00.002-05:00

Rhode Island could fit in Alaska 425 times.

2011-01-20T00:33:00.000-05:00

98% of teenagers lie to their parents.

2011-01-19T00:33:00.000-05:00

42% of adults think it’s okay to lie.

2011-01-18T00:32:00.000-05:00

Only 54% of lies are accurately detected.

2011-01-17T22:13:00.001-05:00

40% of parents think it’s okay to lie to their kids about the trouble they got into when they were younger.

2011-01-16T01:31:00.002-05:00

The average person lies three times during ten minutes of conversation.

2011-01-15T14:23:00.001-05:00

Olivia de Havilland is the last living lead cast master from Gone with the Wind.

2011-01-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

Earth is 240,000 miles away from the Moon, 93,500,000 miles away from the Sun, and 3,695,000,000 miles away from Pluto at its farthest point.

2011-01-13T14:09:00.002-05:00

The closest star to the Earth, besides the Sun, is Proxima Centauri located in the Alpha Centauri system and is 4.22 light-years away.

2011-01-12T14:05:00.002-05:00

A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year. That means if a star is twenty light-years away, the light from that star will take twenty years to reach Earth.

2011-01-11T02:49:00.002-05:00

Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the fifth brightest star in the night sky. Before Polaris, Vega was the pole star circa 12,000 BCE. It will again be the pole star around 14,000 CE.

2011-01-10T02:20:00.001-05:00

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

2011-01-09T23:59:00.001-05:00

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

2011-01-08T03:02:00.002-05:00

Helen Mirren is the only actress to play both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II.

2011-01-07T02:44:00.001-05:00

The Thief and the Cobbler holds the record for longest production schedule of a completed feature film - 28 years.

2011-01-06T02:18:00.002-05:00

The Princess and the Goblin was the first animated feature to come from Wales.

2011-01-05T05:15:00.001-05:00

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was Tim Curry's feature film debut.

2011-01-03T17:46:00.002-05:00

There are about 7,500,000,000,000,000,000, or seven quintillion five quadrillion grains of sand in the world.

The current guestimate of the number of stars in the observable universe is 70 sextillion, 7 x 10^22, or 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

2011-01-02T17:43:00.002-05:00

Yul Brynner is the only man to have played a lead role in a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II production both on the stage and on the screen.

2011-01-01T02:43:00.000-05:00

99% of the solar system's mass is concentrated in the sun.

2010-12-31T02:42:00.001-05:00

A ten gallon hat barely holds six pints.

2010-12-30T02:41:00.000-05:00

85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S.

2010-12-29T02:40:00.000-05:00

160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.

2010-12-28T02:39:00.000-05:00

You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.

2010-12-27T02:38:00.000-05:00

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

2010-12-26T02:38:00.000-05:00

There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

2010-12-25T02:37:00.000-05:00

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

2010-12-24T02:36:00.000-05:00

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin, today it is known as Tennessee.

2010-12-23T02:35:00.000-05:00

Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb, was afraid of the dark.

2010-12-22T02:34:00.001-05:00

There are only thirteen blimps in the world, nine of which are in the United States.

2010-12-21T02:33:00.000-05:00

There are more chickens than people in the world.

2010-12-20T02:32:00.000-05:00

The state of Florida is bigger than England.

2010-12-19T02:31:00.000-05:00

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses, no one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

2010-12-18T02:30:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-17T02:29:00.000-05:00

The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.

2010-12-16T02:29:00.000-05:00

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

2010-12-15T02:28:00.000-05:00

The Earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.

2010-12-14T02:27:00.000-05:00

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

2010-12-13T02:26:00.000-05:00

Texas is the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.

2010-12-12T02:25:00.000-05:00

Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.

2010-12-11T02:25:00.000-05:00

Slugs have four noses.

2010-12-10T02:24:00.000-05:00

Polar Bears trying to blend in with the ice will sometimes cover up their black nose with their paws.

2010-12-09T01:57:00.001-05:00

Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue.

2010-12-08T01:57:00.000-05:00

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

2010-12-07T00:22:00.001-05:00

Walt Disney won 26 of 59 Academy Award nominations.

2010-12-06T00:19:00.001-05:00

Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.

2010-12-05T00:18:00.000-05:00

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

2010-12-04T00:17:00.000-05:00

Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

2010-12-03T00:16:00.000-05:00

Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.

2010-12-02T00:15:00.001-05:00

Mosquitoes have teeth.

2010-12-01T00:12:00.002-05:00

Leonardo da Vinci invented the scissors.

2010-11-30T00:09:00.000-05:00

Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son.

2010-11-29T00:03:00.000-05:00

It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound.

2010-11-28T23:58:00.001-05:00

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

2010-11-27T23:56:00.000-05:00

Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.

2010-11-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono.

2010-11-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

Canada is a Native American word meaning "Big Village."

2010-11-24T23:53:00.000-05:00

Bubble gum contains rubber.

2010-11-23T23:52:00.000-05:00

Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.

2010-11-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.

2010-11-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

Baby robins eat fourteen feet of earthworms every day.

2010-11-19T23:49:00.000-05:00

An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.

2010-11-18T23:48:00.000-05:00

About 3,000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.

2010-11-17T23:47:00.000-05:00

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

2010-11-16T23:46:00.002-05:00

Windmills always turn counter-clockwise, except for the windmills in Ireland.

2010-11-15T23:45:00.000-05:00

Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

2010-11-14T23:43:00.001-05:00

You blink over 20,000,000 times a year.

2010-11-12T23:42:00.001-05:00

Your ribs move about five million times a year, everytime you breathe.

Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.

2010-11-11T17:17:00.001-05:00

100 grams of brussel sprouts is 55 calories.

2010-11-10T17:10:00.001-05:00

The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is the farthest inland port in the United States.

2010-11-09T17:07:00.002-05:00

In Corinth, there were one thousand priestesses, who acted as sacred prostitutes, dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. They had arrows on the bottom of their shoes that would leave imprints in the dust leading up to the temple of Aphrodite.

2010-11-08T17:05:00.001-05:00

The first European woman to be baptized in the Christian faith was named Lydia.

2010-11-07T21:55:00.001-05:00

An IV gets drugs to the brain within 7 to 11 seconds, second to inhalation, which takes 5 seconds.

2010-11-06T02:17:00.003-04:00

October of 2010 has five Fridays, five Saturdays, and five Sundays all in one month, this only occurs every 823 years.

2010-11-05T02:14:00.003-04:00

Queen Elizabeth II retains the right to claim any unmarked swimming in any English waterway, although in practice she only claims the swans on the Thames, and then only as tradition.

2010-11-04T17:02:00.003-04:00

Big Ben isn't actually the clock, but the bell inside the clock.

2010-11-03T00:36:00.001-04:00

Children laugh an average of 146 times a day, adults laugh an average of 4 times a day.

2010-11-02T02:19:00.001-04:00

Grand Hotel is the only Best Picture Oscar winner not to be nominated for any other Academy Awards.

2010-11-01T02:18:00.000-04:00

A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.

2010-10-31T02:17:00.000-04:00

A mole can dig a tunnel three hundred feet long in just one night.

2010-10-30T02:16:00.000-04:00

A jellyfish is 95% water.

2010-10-29T02:15:00.000-04:00

Camel's milk does not curdle.