George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 fared little better - at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of Fowl cooked in a broth of Turnips, cabbage and potatoes.

In the United States, species were first introduced from Europe and China around 1900 as garden predators in an effort to control pest populations. The Carolina mantis is the official state insect of South Carolina, and the European mantis is the official state insect of Connecticut.

Although manatees are excellent swimmers, the deepest that one has been observed diving is 33 feet. Typically, the large, gentle creatures feed no deeper than about ten feet below the surface of the water.

The "Sandcastle Effect" was identified by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana and first published on June 18, 1997. It explained why sandcastles do not collapse after the sand in them has almost totally dried out.

Auto racer Dan Gurney was one of the first U.S. drivers to use rear-engine race cars. He won the Le Mans race (1967), and finished second in the Indianapolis 500 twice (1968 and 1969).

There are ten human body parts that are only three letters long: eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, gum.

The Colt Single Action Army handgun (also known as the Colt Peacemaker, Single Action Army, Colt .45 and sometimes as The Equalizer) is a single action revolver with a revolving cylinder holding six rounds. It was designed for the U.S. government service revolver trials of 1873 by Colt's Manufacturing Company and adopted as the standard military...Read more

When ordering coffee on U.S. flights, for the East Coast, "regular" is with milk and sugar; on the West Coast, "regular" coffee is black.

Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish, is made from the lungs, heart, and liver of a sheep, chopped with onions, seasonings, suet, and oatmeal, and then broiled in a bag made from the sheep's stomach.

Only if he was fond of strumming in front of the fire. Coined in the early 1980s, the slang term "rock jock" is a mountaineering enthusiast.

Despite its popularity as a seasoning, basil has a controversial history. Basil was a sacred plant in ancient Hindu religion, and it was handled warily by European herbalists of the Middle Ages, who feared it as a scorpion breeder.

Each 2-ounce bottle of Tabasco Sauce contains at least 720 drops of sauce. The fiery pepper sauce is produced by the McIlhenny family, and the McIlhenny Company was founded back in 1868 at Avery Island, Louisiana.

Three Whigs have served as President of the United States: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore.

Actor Dean Cain, the leading man in TV's Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, was signed to play professional football with the Buffalo Bills after his graduation from Princeton. However, he injured his knee three days before his first pre-season NFL game. The unfortunate injury forced

If Earth was the size of an apple, the atmospheric layer would be no thicker than the skin of the apple.

The Japanese business environment requires strict adherence to rules of etiquette. Graduating students prepare for important job interviews by first learning how to bow properly and show proper manners when entering and seating themselves in the interview room.

More than 7,000 magnets are on display at the Guinness World of Records Museum and Gift Shop, located on the Las Vegas Strip. The exhibit is a portion of the more than 26,000-magnet collection of Louise J. Greenfarb, dubbed "The Magnet Lady," whose accumulation was designated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's "Largest ...Read more

The woolly mammoth, extinct since the Ice Age, had tusks almost 16 feet high.

In 1996, Christmas caroling was banned at two major malls in Pensacola, Florida. Apparently, shoppers and merchants complained the carolers were too loud and took up too much space.

No, anyone can contract AIDS. One possibility for the misconception that AIDS infects only homosexual men is that AIDS was termed Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome when it was first recognized in 1981 (it was subsequently renamed after it was recognised that there were methods of transmission other than male-male intercourse). HIV appears ...Read more