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

AUG 2015


Previous Archives

DATEFACT OF THE DAY
8/1/15     The average temperature on Venus' surface is about 870 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest planet in the solar system and hotter than most ovens. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/2/15     In 1346, rumors of a plague that started in China and spread throughout Asia, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and India reached Europe. All of India was rumored to have been depopulated. This plague later came to be known as the Black Death. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/3/15     "Little Willie" was the first prototype tank in WWI. Built in 1915, it carried a crew of three and could travel as fast as 3 mph (4.8 km/h). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/4/15     Every hour, about 180 million newly formed red blood cells enter the bloodstream. Red blood cells are basically shells. Before being released from the bone marrow, most of a red blood cell's internal structure is ejected, creating a disc-shaped balloon that is ideal for carrying oxygen and a small amount of the body's carbon dioxide. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/5/15     Since wine tasting is essentially wine smelling, women tend to be better wine testers because women, particularly of reproductive ages, have a better sense of smell than men. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/6/15     In Dyersburg, Tennessee, it is against the law for a girl to telephone a boy to ask for a date. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/7/15     The sun is the closest star to Earth and is 149.60 million kilometers (92.96 million miles) away. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/8/15     Fish can form schools containing millions of fish. They use their eyes and something called a lateral line to hold their places in the school. The lateral line is a row of pores running along the fish's sides from head to tail. Special hairs in the pores sense changes in water pressure from the movements of other fish or predators. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/9/15     A poll by the television show Animal Planet listed vampire bats as the third-most feared animal on the planet, right after wolves and gorillas and just ahead of piranhas. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/10/15     Different nations assign race in different ways. In Japan and the U.S., race is fixed and assigned at birth. However, in Brazil, race is more fluid and is determined by a number of factors such as a person's parents, a person's phenotype, and a person's socioeconomic status. In places like Brazil, a person's race can change as they become wealthier or poorer. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/11/15     A 2011 study showed that women who drink two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 15% less likely to develop depression over a 10-year period than those who drank one cup of coffee or less per week. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/12/15     It takes about five years for a female panda cub to become an adult panda and up to seven years for a male panda cub. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/13/15     The world's most unusual shark, the megamouth (Megachasma pelagios), wasn't discovered until 1976. Its mouth can reach up to three feet across, while the rest of the body is about 16 feet long. Only 14 megamouths have ever been seen. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/14/15     The West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, was once the world's largest shopping mall. It now ranks fifth, but it still contains the world' 's largest indoor amusement park. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/15/15     Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among American women after skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/16/15     Enologists are wine chemists who analyze samples of wine and advise winemakers. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/17/15     The pursuit to become more attractive is a $160 billion-a-year global industry that includes weight-loss programs, cosmetics, skin and hair care, perfumes, cosmetic surgery, health clubs, and hormone injections. Americans spend more money per year on beauty enhancements than they do on education. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/18/15     One of the dishes enjoyed by ancient Greek men at feasts was roast pig stuffed with thrushes, ducks, eggs, and oysters. Most feasts were for men only, though there were female entertainers (this was not considered a respectable occupation for women). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/19/15     Television greatly expanded the ability of advertisers to reach children and try to develop brand loyalty early in life. Today the average American child sees more than 10,000 food advertisements each year on television. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/20/15     Fats from junk food trigger the brain to want more food. This effect can last for several days. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/21/15     Under its fur, the skin of a giant panda is black where its fur is black, and pink where its fur is white. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/22/15     More than 80% of the Earth's surface is volcanic. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/23/15     Cocaine is the most frequently reported illicit substance associated with drug abuse fatalities and causes three times more deaths than any other illegal drug. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/24/15     A McDonald's corn muffin has more calories than a glazed donut. A small packet of Wendy's honey mustard dressing has 280 calories. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/25/15     One in every five people in the world is Chinese. China's population is estimated to reach a whopping 1,338,612,968 by July 2009. China's population is four times that of the United States. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/26/15     The smallest pedigreed cat is a Singapura, which can weigh just 4 lbs (1.8 kg), or about five large cans of cat food. The largest pedigreed cats are Maine Coon cats, which can weigh 25 lbs (11.3 kg), or nearly twice as much as an average cat weighs. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/27/15     The human brain consists of approximately 100 billion neurons (which is as many cells as there are stars in the Milky Way). Each neuron has somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 synapses, equaling about 1 quadrillion synapses. If all the neurons in the human brain were lined up, they would stretch 600 miles. As a comparison, an octopus has 300,000 neurons, a honeybee has 950,000, and a jellyfish has no brain at all. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/28/15     The greatest single loss of life in the history of the British army occurred during the Battle of Somme, when the British suffered 60,000 casualties in one day. More British men were killed in that one WWI battle than the U.S. lost from all of its armed forces and the National Guard combined. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/29/15     One third of the tap water used for drinking in North America is used to brew daily cups of coffee. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/30/15     Love is not necessarily a guarantee that a marriage will last. Other factors include a couple's age (a husband who is 9 or more years older than his wife or who marries before the age of 24 is more likely to divorce), those who are in their 2nd or 3rd marriage, those who had a child before marriage, and finances. Not pertinent to success of marriage are the number of children or their ages, the wife's employment status, and the number of years a wife has been employed. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/31/15     Greece has one of the richest varieties of wildlife in Europe, including 116 species of mammals, 18 of amphibians, 59 of reptiles, 240 of birds, and 107 of fish. About half of the endemic mammal species are in danger of becoming extinct. - Provided by RandomHistory.com


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