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

DEC 2013


Previous Archives

DATEFACT OF THE DAY
12/1/13     Iran first participated in the Olympics in 1948 and has sent athletes to every Summer Olympic Games since then, except for 1980 and 1984. Iran has also participated in the winter Olympics multiple times since 1956. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/2/13     The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/3/13     The grasp of a newborn baby is so strong that its whole body can hang in midair, with its bent fingers supporting its weight. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/4/13     The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany had started WWI. It took many key territories from Germany and vastly reduced its army. A 1921 Reparations Committee decided that Germany should pay $33 billion in compensation to the Allies for the damage it caused. The Treaty left Germany humiliated and impoverished, which left the world vulnerable to another world war. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/5/13     Saturn has seven main rings that consist of thousands of smaller rings. The ring farthest from the planet, the E ring, is about 180,000 miles (300,000 km.) across. In contrast, the F ring is about 20-300 miles (30-500 km.) wide. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/6/13     The Enola Gay became well known for dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but few people know the name of the B-29 that bombed Nagasaki. It was Bock's Car, named after the plane's usual commander, Frederick Bock. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/7/13     The Persian Gulf holds 60% of the world's oil reserves. Iran alone has reserves of 125 billion barrels of oil, or 10% of the world's total reserves. Iran pumps nearly 4 million barrels of oil each day. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/8/13     While Albert Einstein's brain weighed 1,230 grams, which is within normal human range, the brain had no parietal operculum in either hemisphere and had an enlarged Sylvan fissure. Certain parts of his brain also had more glial cells in relation to neurons. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/9/13     By the time a person in the United States is 65 years old, he would have seen an estimated two million television commercials. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/10/13     During the Great Depression, a record 60-80 million Americans went to the movies every week. One of the biggest blockbusters was Merian C. Cooper's 1933 King Kong. Other popular movies included The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/11/13     Research suggests that dark chocolate boosts memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain. Studies have also found that dark chocolate can improve the ability to see in low-contrast situations (such as poor weather) and promote lower blood pressure, which has positive effects on cholesterol levels, platelet function, and insulin sensitivity. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/12/13     Cats are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Cats are said to detect earthquake tremors 10 or 15 minutes before humans can. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/13/13     More than 400,000 babies are born addicted to cocaine each year in the U.S, due to their mothers' use of the drug during pregnancy. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/14/13     In India, grasping one's ears signifies repentance or sincerity. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/15/13     The world's first novel, The Tale of Genji, was published in Japan around A.D. 1000 by female author Murasaki Shikibu. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/16/13     In Australia it is valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants on Facebook. A summons posted on Facebook is legally binding. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/17/13     On India's Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand to a million people. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/18/13     Big Bertha was a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in WWI. It was named after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp. It could fire a 2,050-lb (930-kg) shell a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km). However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble. Germany had 13 of these huge guns or "wonder weapons." - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/19/13     James Madison (1751-1836) was the shortest president of the United States, standing at only 5'4". He never weighed more than 100 pounds. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/20/13     The shortest opera is only seven minutes long and is Darius Milhaud's The Deliverance of Theseus. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/21/13     The first Olympic Games took place in Greece in 776 B.C. The first Olympic champion was a Greek cook named Coroebus who won the sprint race. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/22/13     Every month, approximately nine out of 10 American children visit a McDonald's restaurant. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/23/13     With the inclusion of the disputed Western Sahara territory and the island nations off the continental coast, there are a total of 54 independent nations in Africa. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/24/13     Roman physicians had a wide range of surgical tools, including catheters and speculums. Many modern medical terms still have Latin roots. The knee cap, for example, is the patella, which is Latin for "shallow dish." - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/25/13     The U.S. imports $1.0 billion of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and September 2013. China was the leading country of origin for such items. Similarly, China was the leading foreign source of artificial Christmas trees shipped to the United States ($93.0 million worth) during the same period. - Provided by USA Trade Online
12/26/13     Approximately 1 million children in the U.S. are being raised by same-sex couples. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/27/13     According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/28/13     The online dating industry generates $1.8 billion per year and the matchmaker/dating coach business generates $260 million per year in the United States. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/29/13     Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/30/13     Scientists believe that Earth will exist for another 7.5 billion years before the sun becomes a red giant star and, in all probability, destroys the planet. Earth may cease to support life forms far before that date, however, due to increased energy output from the sun over time. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
12/31/13     As our nation prepares to begin the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected that on Jan. 1, 2014, the United States population will be 317,297,938. This represents an increase of 2,218,622, or 0.7 percent, from New Year's Day 2013.
In January 2014, one birth is expected to occur every 8 seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.
The projected world population on Jan. 1, 2014, is 7,137,577,750, an increase of 77,630,563, or 1.1 percent from New Year's Day 2013. In January 2014, 4.3 births and 1.8 deaths are expected worldwide every second. India added 15.6 million people over the one-year period, which led all countries, followed by China, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ethiopia. - Provided by U.S. Census Bureau


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