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

SEP 2016


Previous Archives

DATEFACT OF THE DAY
9/1/16     South Asian Hindus developed the idea that this world is actually a dream and the "real" reality is somewhere else. The Vedas, the oldest Hindu scriptures (3,000-4,000 years old) suggest that people are reincarnated back into this world, which is a dream, and it's only after breaking the cycle of reincarnation or "waking up" from this dream world, that they'll understand the truth and become complete. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/2/16     Hydrogen peroxide was discovered in 1818, but there was little application for it until 1867 when it was found that it could bleach hair. It quickly became popular throughout Europe and America, superseding everything else that had been used as bleach before then. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/3/16     Only approximately 142,000 tons of gold have been mined throughout history. Assuming the price of gold is $1,000 per ounce, the total amount of gold that has been mined would equal roughly $4.5 trillion. The United States alone circulates or deposits over $7.6 trillion, suggesting that a return to the gold standard would not be feasible. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/4/16     Up until the 7th century, doctors believed many infant sicknesses were caused by the presence of too much acid in the stomach. Babies were fed chalk, crushed eggshells, coral, and oyster shells mixed with their gruel to counteract the acidity. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/5/16     The number of people age 16 and over in the nation's labor force as of May 2016 was 158.5 million. - Provided by U.S. Census Bureau
9/6/16     Harvard University's stadium was the first reinforced concrete structure in the world. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/7/16     The largest baby ever born weighed in at over 23 pounds but died just 11 hours after his birth in 1879. The largest surviving baby was born in October 2009 in Sumatra, Indonesia and weighed an astounding 19.2 pounds at birth. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/8/16     A newly born Kodiak brown bear can weigh less than one pound. As it grows up, its weight may increase as much as 1,000 times. If human babies grew this much, as adults they would weigh over 6,000 lbs. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/9/16     Some scholars say that the Greek civilization has been around for so long that it has had a chance to try nearly every form of government. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/10/16     The earliest named dinosaur found so far is the Eoraptor ("dawn stealer"). It was so named because it lived at the dawn of the Dinosaur Age. It was a meat eater about the size of a German shepherd. The first Eoraptor skeleton was discovered in Argentina in 1991. However, another dinosaur has recently been found in Madagascar that dates as being 230 million years old. It has not been named yet. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/11/16     There were 2.6 million grandparents responsible for the basic needs of one or more grandchildren under age 18 living with them in 2014. Of these caregivers, 1.6 million were grandmothers and 1.0 million were grandfathers. - Provided by U.S. Census Bureau
9/12/16     Aristotle and Pliny the Elder believed that a full moon affected the water in a human's brain, causing insanity or irrational behavior. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/13/16     Modern Western marriage traditions have long been shaped by Roman, Hebrew, and Germanic cultures as well as by doctrines and traditions of the Medieval Christian church, the Protestant Reformation, and the Industrial Revolution. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/14/16     For ancient Egyptians, bread was the most important food and beer was their favorite drink. Models of brewers were even left in tombs to ensure that the deceased had plenty of beer in the next world. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/15/16     In 1953, the National Weather Service adopted the Navy's practice of naming Atlantic hurricanes after women. Previously, hurricanes were named either according to their longitude and latitude or were identified by the phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.). In 1979, meteorologists added men's names to alternate with women's names. The first three male names ever used for hurricanes (Bob, David, and Frederick) all are retired. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/16/16     Most fish cannot swim backwards. Those that can are mainly members of one of the eel families. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/17/16     The NSF estimates that a human brain produces as many as 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day, depending on how deep a thinker a person is. Most of the so-called random daily thoughts are about our social environment and ourselves. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/18/16     The manpower to build the Great Wall of China came from frontier guards, peasants, unemployed intellectuals, disgraced noblemen, and convicts. In fact, there existed a special penalty during the Qin and Han dynasties under which convicted criminals were made to work on the Wall. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/19/16     The formal name of Egypt is the Arab Republic of Egypt. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/20/16     Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was not only the first woman surgeon in U.S. Military history, but she was also the only woman in the Civil War to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest honor given to a citizen of the U.S. She is the only female recipient of the award to date. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/21/16     The FBI estimates that over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from nine to 19, with the average being age 11. Many victims are not just runaways or abandoned, but are from "good" families who are coerced by clever traffickers. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
9/22/16     President James Buchanan (1791-1868) quietly but consistently bought slaves in Washington, D.C., and then set them free in Pennsylvania. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/23/16     Portuguese man-of-wars can grow to be 165 feet (50 meters) long, although 30 feet is more typical. On a baseball diamond, they would reach from home plate to first base and more than halfway to second. Man-of-wars can sometimes be seen in groups of 1,000 or more floating in warm ocean waters. To avoid threats, they can deflate their air bladder and briefly sink under the water. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/24/16     Americans eat more popcorn than any other country. Most of the popcorn eaten around the world is grown in the United States. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/25/16     The speed of the fastest seismic wave is 225 miles (360 kilometers) per hour. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/26/16     The earliest recorded female physician was Merit Ptah, a doctor in ancient Egypt who lived around 2700 B.C. Many historians believe she is the first woman recorded by name in the history of all of the sciences. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/27/16     The smallest known normal brain belonged to a woman who died in 1977. Her brain weighed just 2.41 pounds. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/28/16     Scholars believe that yoga incorporated elements of Stone Age shamanism, which dates back to at least 25,000 B.C. Yoga assimilated such elements as shamanic poses, transcendence, asceticism, and illumination. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/29/16     Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits on the site of an ancient supervoclano. It erupted around 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago. If it follows the same pattern, another eruption is due any time now. - Provided by FactRetriever.com
9/30/16     Researchers determined that in 2004, 33% of the firearms owned in the U.S. were rifles, 21% were shotguns, 20% were revolvers, 14% were semi-automatic pistols, 6% were other long guns, 5% were other handguns, and 1% were other guns. - Provided by FactRetriever.com


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