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

MAY 2017


Previous Archives

DATE FACT OF THE DAY
5/1/17     An old Greek legend says that when God created the world, he sifted all the soil onto the earth through a strainer. After every country had good soil, he tossed the stones left in the strainer over his shoulder and created Greece. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/2/17     Women in the United States increasingly began smoking publicly in the 1920s when the cigarette was adopted by advertisers as a symbol of equality, rebellion, and women's independence. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/3/17     In December 1952, air pollution in London created fatal smog that immediately killed 4,000 people and then 8,000 more in the following weeks. Burning coal was the main cause. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/4/17     For 5,000 years Iraqis have been keeping bees. Honey is an important source of food and income for many Iraq families. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/5/17     Among true wolves, two species are recognized. Canis lupus (often known simply as the "gray wolf"), contains 38 subspecies, including gray, timber, Arctic, tundra, lobos, and buffalo wolves. The other recognized species is the "red wolf" (Canis rufus), which is smaller and has longer legs and shorter fur than its relatives. Many scientists debate whether Canis rufus is a separate species. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/6/17     Google has managed to reduce its tax rates by billions of dollars by taking advantage of offshore tax havens such as Ireland and Bermuda. The top corporate income tax level in the U.S. is 35%. In Ireland, it’s only 12.5%, and in Bermuda it’s zero. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/7/17     Neurological complications occur in at least 70% of patients who are diagnosed with AIDS. At autopsy, 80-90% have neurological abnormalities. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/8/17     Whale sharks give birth to the greatest number of pups. They can produce several hundred in a litter. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/9/17     In 1900, a hurricane in Galveston, Texas, killed more than 8,000 people, making it the deadliest weather emergency in U.S. history. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/10/17     The moon appears to be much larger than usual when it's low in the sky because the mind interprets the size of the moon in relation to distant objects and the horizon. But when the moon is high in the sky, the mind has no such frame of reference, and so the moon appears smaller. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/11/17     D.W. Griffith (1875-1948), a pioneering Hollywood film director, is credited with using the first close-up, the long shot, the fade-out, and other film techniques in his 1915 groundbreaking and highly racist film The Birth of a Nation (a.k.a. The Clansman), a film that portrayed the Ku Klux Klan in a positive way. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/12/17     Mexico City has the highest elevation and is oldest city in North America. It is also one of the largest cities in the world. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/13/17     On August 28, 1991, the first true email message from space was sent by the crew of the space shuttle STS-43 Atlantis using a Mac Portable and specifically configured AppleLink software. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/14/17     The German for "left-handed" is linkisch, which means awkward, clumsy, and maladroit. In Italian, the word is mancino, which is derived from "crooked" or "maimed" (mancus) and is also used to mean deceitful or dishonest. In Russian, to be called a left-hander (levja) is a term of insult. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/15/17     Cannabis (marijuana) seeds were used as a food source in China as early as 6000 B.C. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/16/17     An inflated porcupine fish can reach a diameter of up to 35 inches (90 cm). It puffs up by swallowing water and then storing it in its stomach. The stomach increases in size with more water. If the fish is taken out of water, it can inflate in a similar way by swallowing air. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/17/17     Approximately 1% of Haiti's population owns more than 50% of the nation's wealth. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/18/17     Sam Houston (1793-1863) was the first president and first governor of Texas. The Cherokee, with whom he lived in Tennessee, called him "the Raven." Though one of the most famous Texans, he was actually born in Virginia and served as governor of Tennessee. A statue of Sam Houston called a "Tribute to Courage" is the world's largest freestanding statute of an American. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/19/17     King Tut is the nickname for Tutankhamen, an Egyptian leader who ruled from age 9 to 18. He was buried with 145 underpants. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/20/17     Osteoporosis is the 4th leading cause of death of women, following heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Death from osteoporosis is usually a result of complications that may follow bone fractures. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/21/17     The United States invented both the tea bag and iced tea in 1904. Many tea lovers consider the tea bag as one of the worst inventions of the 20th century. Tea brewed with loose tea is generally considered to be richer than tea made from bags. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/22/17     Connections between the right and left sides of the brain are faster in left-handed people. This means information is transferred faster, making left-handers more efficient in dealing with multiple stimuli and using both sides of the brain more easily. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/23/17     A wormhole (a.k.a. an Einstein-Rosen Bridge) is a hypothetical "tunnel" that connects two different points in space-time. In theory, at the end of a wormhole could be two universes. Some scientists speculate that our universe could be located within the interior of a wormhole, which itself is a part of a black hole that lies within a much bigger universe. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/24/17     Most of us dream every 90 minutes, and the longest dreams (30-45 minutes) occur in the morning. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/25/17     Americans spend 10% of their income on food, which is the lowest of any country. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/26/17     Researchers have noted that infants who had early accelerated head growth were at risk for autism. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/27/17     In Iran, there is no legal category for marital rape because a woman is her husband’s property. If there are signs of abuse, male members of her family may threaten her husband, but it is not the duty of the police. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/28/17     Tsunami means "harbor wave" in Japanese (tsu = harbor + nami = wave), reflecting Japan's tsunami-prone history. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/29/17     Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/30/17     Redheaded women report bruising more easily than other women of different hair colors. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/31/17     The largest hurricane can be the size of the state of Montana, 600 miles (966 kilometers) wide. - Provided by FactRetriever.com


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[ Return to Fact-of-the-Day ]


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

MAY 2017


Previous Archives

DATE FACT OF THE DAY
5/1/17     An old Greek legend says that when God created the world, he sifted all the soil onto the earth through a strainer. After every country had good soil, he tossed the stones left in the strainer over his shoulder and created Greece. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/2/17     Women in the United States increasingly began smoking publicly in the 1920s when the cigarette was adopted by advertisers as a symbol of equality, rebellion, and women's independence. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/3/17     In December 1952, air pollution in London created fatal smog that immediately killed 4,000 people and then 8,000 more in the following weeks. Burning coal was the main cause. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/4/17     For 5,000 years Iraqis have been keeping bees. Honey is an important source of food and income for many Iraq families. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/5/17     Among true wolves, two species are recognized. Canis lupus (often known simply as the "gray wolf"), contains 38 subspecies, including gray, timber, Arctic, tundra, lobos, and buffalo wolves. The other recognized species is the "red wolf" (Canis rufus), which is smaller and has longer legs and shorter fur than its relatives. Many scientists debate whether Canis rufus is a separate species. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/6/17     Google has managed to reduce its tax rates by billions of dollars by taking advantage of offshore tax havens such as Ireland and Bermuda. The top corporate income tax level in the U.S. is 35%. In Ireland, it’s only 12.5%, and in Bermuda it’s zero. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/7/17     Neurological complications occur in at least 70% of patients who are diagnosed with AIDS. At autopsy, 80-90% have neurological abnormalities. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/8/17     Whale sharks give birth to the greatest number of pups. They can produce several hundred in a litter. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/9/17     In 1900, a hurricane in Galveston, Texas, killed more than 8,000 people, making it the deadliest weather emergency in U.S. history. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/10/17     The moon appears to be much larger than usual when it's low in the sky because the mind interprets the size of the moon in relation to distant objects and the horizon. But when the moon is high in the sky, the mind has no such frame of reference, and so the moon appears smaller. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/11/17     D.W. Griffith (1875-1948), a pioneering Hollywood film director, is credited with using the first close-up, the long shot, the fade-out, and other film techniques in his 1915 groundbreaking and highly racist film The Birth of a Nation (a.k.a. The Clansman), a film that portrayed the Ku Klux Klan in a positive way. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/12/17     Mexico City has the highest elevation and is oldest city in North America. It is also one of the largest cities in the world. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/13/17     On August 28, 1991, the first true email message from space was sent by the crew of the space shuttle STS-43 Atlantis using a Mac Portable and specifically configured AppleLink software. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/14/17     The German for "left-handed" is linkisch, which means awkward, clumsy, and maladroit. In Italian, the word is mancino, which is derived from "crooked" or "maimed" (mancus) and is also used to mean deceitful or dishonest. In Russian, to be called a left-hander (levja) is a term of insult. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/15/17     Cannabis (marijuana) seeds were used as a food source in China as early as 6000 B.C. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/16/17     An inflated porcupine fish can reach a diameter of up to 35 inches (90 cm). It puffs up by swallowing water and then storing it in its stomach. The stomach increases in size with more water. If the fish is taken out of water, it can inflate in a similar way by swallowing air. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/17/17     Approximately 1% of Haiti's population owns more than 50% of the nation's wealth. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/18/17     Sam Houston (1793-1863) was the first president and first governor of Texas. The Cherokee, with whom he lived in Tennessee, called him "the Raven." Though one of the most famous Texans, he was actually born in Virginia and served as governor of Tennessee. A statue of Sam Houston called a "Tribute to Courage" is the world's largest freestanding statute of an American. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/19/17     King Tut is the nickname for Tutankhamen, an Egyptian leader who ruled from age 9 to 18. He was buried with 145 underpants. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/20/17     Osteoporosis is the 4th leading cause of death of women, following heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Death from osteoporosis is usually a result of complications that may follow bone fractures. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/21/17     The United States invented both the tea bag and iced tea in 1904. Many tea lovers consider the tea bag as one of the worst inventions of the 20th century. Tea brewed with loose tea is generally considered to be richer than tea made from bags. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/22/17     Connections between the right and left sides of the brain are faster in left-handed people. This means information is transferred faster, making left-handers more efficient in dealing with multiple stimuli and using both sides of the brain more easily. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/23/17     A wormhole (a.k.a. an Einstein-Rosen Bridge) is a hypothetical "tunnel" that connects two different points in space-time. In theory, at the end of a wormhole could be two universes. Some scientists speculate that our universe could be located within the interior of a wormhole, which itself is a part of a black hole that lies within a much bigger universe. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/24/17     Most of us dream every 90 minutes, and the longest dreams (30-45 minutes) occur in the morning. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/25/17     Americans spend 10% of their income on food, which is the lowest of any country. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/26/17     Researchers have noted that infants who had early accelerated head growth were at risk for autism. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/27/17     In Iran, there is no legal category for marital rape because a woman is her husband’s property. If there are signs of abuse, male members of her family may threaten her husband, but it is not the duty of the police. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/28/17     Tsunami means "harbor wave" in Japanese (tsu = harbor + nami = wave), reflecting Japan's tsunami-prone history. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/29/17     Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/30/17     Redheaded women report bruising more easily than other women of different hair colors. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
5/31/17     The largest hurricane can be the size of the state of Montana, 600 miles (966 kilometers) wide. - Provided by FactRetriever.com


Fact-of-the-Day Archives

N
2017
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2016
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2015
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2014
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2013
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2012
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2011
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN
2010
DEC NOV OCT SEP AUG JUL
JUN MAY APR MAR FEB JAN

[ Return to Fact-of-the-Day ]





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