You may not know that… March 17, 2010

I came across this interesting search engine, stumbleupon. I decided to share the information I learned today in my brand new blog.

• When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn’t understand German.
• St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish.
• A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.
• China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.
• Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups
• The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence – he invented dynamite.
• In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.
• The magic word “Abracadabra” was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
• Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems.
• Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20 February.
• Only 1 child in 20 are born on the day predicted by the doctor.
• Native American Indians used to name their children after the first thing they saw as they left their tepees subsequent to the birth. Hence such strange names as Sitting Bull and Running Water.
• Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness.
• Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother, they were both deaf.
• On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson’s fictional ship was the Titan.
• The women of an African tribe make themselves more attractive by permanently scaring their faces.
• George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.
• Urine was once used to wash clothes.
• The two highest IQ’s ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women.

I’ll leave it at that. There are so many curiosities in this world. And I just can’t put them all on this blog, but I did choose the most interesting ones, in my opinion. Just goes to show, our world is a curious, bizarre place.