Mary Todd Lincoln was so disliked in her day that she was nicknamed "The She-Wolf."

Spinach is native to the area of Iran, but didn't spread to other parts of the world until the beginning of the Christian era.

Since its earliest times, alchemy has been closely connected to astrology - which, in the Islamic world and Europe, generally meant the traditional Babylonian-Greek school of astrology. Alchemical systems often postulated that each of the seven planets known to the ancients "ruled" or was associated with a certain metal. See the separate article...Read more

According to the federal Trade Commission, there are 20,000 television commercials made each year that are aimed exclusively at children. Of these, 7,000 are for sugared breakfast cereals.

The Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, California is built to resemble a stack of records. A red airplane-warning light atop the structure flashes out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code every 20 seconds or so.

The average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tons.

The Sears Tower contains enough phone wire to wrap around the earth 1.75 times and enough electrical wiring to run a power line from Chicago to Los Angeles.

The state with the most automobile miles driven per capita is Delaware, racking up an average of 10,165 miles average annually per person.

The Scream is a seminal expressionist painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Regarded by many as his most important work, it is said by some to symbolize modern man taken by an attack of existential angst, with the skyline inspired by the red twilights seen after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. The Norwegian word skrik is usually translated ...Read more

More turkeys are raised in California than in any other state in the United States.

The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If no other pigeon is available, her own reflection in a mirror will suffice.

A squirrel has no color vision, it sees only in black and white. Every part of its field of vision, however, is in perfect focus, not just straight ahead, as with humans.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

The Romans were enamored with the smell of roses. According to historians, Nero had pipes installed under banquet plates to allow his guests to be spritzed with rose scent between dinner courses.

In 1990, American tennis pro John McEnroe, often called "The Brat" because of his infantile, volatile on-court behavior, became the first player in 27 years to be disqualified from a Grand Slam tournament for misconduct. His repeated bad manners led to his being booted from the Australian Open.

In 1984, Britons ate 41 pounds of beef per person per year, according to the Meat & Livestock Commission. By 1994, the figure dropped to 35 pounds. In March 1996, "Mad Cow Disease" in Britain lowered the consumption figure even more, although many Britons continued to eat roast beef despite the

The Medal of Honor is the only service decoration that is singled out in federal law to protect it from being imitated or privately sold. All Medals of Honor are issued in the original only, by the Department of Defense, to a recipient. Misuse of the medal, including unauthorized manufacture or wear, is punishable by fine and imprisonment ...Read more

The original story of a knight rescuing a damsel in distress from the clutches of a marauding dragon came in the tale of Saint George. He was a Roman Calvary officer that rode to the aid of a town in Cappadocia. The people their had been plagued by a dragon and sacrificed their best sheep to try and appease it, failing they offered up a village ...Read more

One Laysan albatross, tracked by biologists at Wake Forest University, flew more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in just 90 days — a flight distance equivalent to circling the globe.

Mayflies, after hatching and then spending one to three years developing as naiads, live less than one day as adults. The lifetime of mayflies usually begins in late afternoon. During this single day, they molt twice, mate, and lay eggs in water. Because these adults do not have developed mouth