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In 1811 and 1812, three earthquakes measuring around 8 on the richter scale, caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards. These earthquakes also created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
Glaciers store between 70% and 80% of all the freshwater on the planet. 99% of those glaciers are in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The hottest temperature recorded on earth is El Azizia Libya at 136 F, the coldest was -134 degrees fahrenheit in Vostok Antarctica. The hottest average temp is in western Australia, it is 96 degrees year round on average.
The largest city in the world based on surface area, is Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia which is 263,953 km squared.
Gorgias of Epirus (3rd century BC), a Greek sophist, was born in his dead mother's coffin! Pallbearers heard him crying out as they carried his mother's coffin to the grave.
In the 1700s in Paris, women wore hats with lightning rods attached when venturing outdoors during bad weather. Bad idea.
In 1958, the US sent two mice called Laska and Benjy into space.
Accounts from Holland and Spain suggest that during the 1500s and 1600s urine was commonly used as a tooth-cleaning agent.
Playing-cards were known in Persia and India as far back as the 12th century. A pack then consisted of 48 instead of 52 cards.
Beer was the first trademarked product – British beer Bass Pale Ale received its trademark in 1876.
Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.
On 21 June 1913, over Los Angeles, Georgia Broadwick became the first women to parachute from an airplane.
The first parachute jump from an airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1912.
Only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still survives: the Great Pyramid of Giza.
John Rolfe married Pocahontas the Red Indian Princess in 1613.
In 1961. the US launched a male chimpanzee called Ham into space.
The first policewoman was Alice Stebbins Wells (pictured) who joined the LAPD in 1910. Because she was the first (and only) policewoman, she designed her own police uniform. Four years later, Britain had their first woman policeman.
The grid layout used in many cities around the world is not a new invention it first appeared in the city of Mohenjo Daro, in India, 4,500 years ago. The houses to the side of the streets had bare walls facing the street to keep out the sun and dust from carts.
When anaesthetic was used for the first time in childbirth in 1847, the mother was so amazed and relieved at how painless the birth was that she named her child Anaesthesia.
Alexander the Great (pictured) invented a spying technique still used today: he had his soldiers write letters home, which he then intercepted and read to discover who was against him.
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