FACT-OF-THE-DAY ARCHIVE
"Our life is what our thoughts make it."
- Marcus Aurelius
FEB 2015

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DATE FACT OF THE DAY 2/1/15      Otherwise dark hair may turn red or blond in cases of severe protein deficiency due to starvation. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/2/15      Parmesan cheese originated in the area around Parma, Italy. Italians also created many other cheeses, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and ricotta. No one knows when the pizza was invented, but the people of Naples made it popular. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/3/15      In one Voodoo curse, a bottle is filled with the victim's urine, pins, needles, nails, and herbs, and then wedged into a hole in the tree. The victim allegedly will develop kidney disease. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/4/15      The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake lasted nearly 10 minutes - the longest on record. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/5/15      In astrology, the moon represents the inner nature of a person. The moon sign reveals a person's emotional and subconscious state. In Western astrology, the moon is associated with the maternal, while the sun is associated with fatherhood. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/6/15      According to U.S. intelligence, North Korea could shoot a missile capable of striking Alaska, Hawaii, and the American West Coast. North Korea has an estimated 5,000 pounds of biological and chemical weapons. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/7/15      According to Florida law, anyone who takes a bath must wear clothes. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/8/15      When Pluto was considered a planet, it was the coldest of all the planets. Temperatures on Pluto can range from -240 degrees to -218 degrees C. The average temperature on Pluto is -229 degrees C. The hottest recorded temperature on Earth was 70.7 degrees C (159 degrees F) in the Lut Desert in Iran. The coldest temperature recorded on Earth was -89.2 degrees C (-120 degrees F) in Antarctica. The average temperature on Earth is about 14-15 degrees C (59 degrees F). - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/9/15      Improved nutrition (as well as vaccinations and antibiotics) has extended the average U.S. lifespan from 30 to 40 years old in the early twentieth century to 70 to 80 years old today. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/10/15      Amid recession fears in March 2008, the price of gold topped $1,000 an ounce for the first time in history. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/11/15      Gerald Ford was the first person to be both vice president and president without being elected by the people. He was appointed vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned and he succeeded to the presidency when Nixon resigned. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/12/15      Because white is the color of mourning in Eastern cultures, white wedding dresses are uncommon. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/13/15      The infant mortality in medieval Europe was as high as 30-50%. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/14/15      The total number of florist establishments nationwide in 2012 was 14,344. These businesses employed 62,397 people. - Provided by U.S. Census Bureau 2/15/15      Google accounts for roughly 0.013% of the world's energy use. It uses enough energy to continuously power 200,000 homes. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/16/15      The terms "hurricane," "typhoon," and "cyclone" are different names for a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones that occur in the Atlantic Ocean or eastern Pacific Ocean are called hurricanes; in the western Pacific Ocean they are called typhoons (from the Cantonese word tai-fun); and in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, tropical cyclones are called cyclones (from the Greek word for "coiled snake"). In Australia, hurricanes are called "willy-willies." - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/17/15      A University of Arkansas study found that 2% of college-aged women have osteoporosis and 15% more have such low levels of bone density that they are at high risk for developing the disease in the near future. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/18/15      For the ancient Egyptians, the Nile was mysterious. Unlike most other rivers, it flows south to north, it floods in the summer, and no one knew where the water came from. Explorers discovered the source of the Nile in East Africa just 150 years ago. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/19/15      A genetically engineered hormone called rBGH is given to cows in the U.S. to increase milk production - even though its chemical byproducts may be carcinogenic. Residues of rBGH have been found in meat products, such as hamburgers sold in fast food chains. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/20/15      People in Asian cultures have traditionally used bear organs and secretions for medicinal purposes. One author notes that there "are fewer than one million bears on Earth and more than one billion potential consumers of bear parts as medicine." - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/21/15      Wolves do not make good guard dogs because they are naturally afraid of the unfamiliar and will hide from visitors rather than bark at them. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/22/15      The first recorded "nose job" is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts (600 B.C.). - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/23/15      Hours before the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, people reported seeing elephants and flamingos heading for higher ground. Dogs and zoo animals refused to leave their shelters. After the tsunami, very few dead animals were found. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/24/15      Haiti is one of the least developed yet most densely populated countries in the Western Hemisphere. Its population density is 747 people per square mile (295 per sq. km.). - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/25/15      The world's largest stockpile of gold can be found five stories underground inside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's vault and it holds 25% of the world's gold reserve (540,000 gold bars). While it contains more gold than Fort Knox, most of it belongs to foreign governments. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/26/15      An estimated one third of male fish in British waters are changing sex due to pollution in human sewage. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/27/15      The greatest verified age for any living organism is from a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree in Nevada called Prometheus that was measured by a ring count to be about 4,900 years old when it was cut down in 1964. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 2/28/15      Bears have been known to eat almost anything, including snowmobile seats, engine oil, and rubber boots. - Provided by RandomHistory.com

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