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

JUN 2014


Previous Archives

DATEFACT OF THE DAY
6/1/14     Swimsuits now can be made from UV-protective fabrics. The suits can offer 50+ UPF, blocking up to 98% of the sun's rays. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/2/14     Bears live as long as 30 years in the wild. One captive brown bear lived to the age of 47. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/3/14     In a lifetime, the kidneys clean more than 1 million gallons of water, enough to fill a small lake. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/4/14     The number one country of origin of foreign college students in the United States is India, followed by China and South Korea. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/5/14     The largest country in Africa is Sudan with a total area of 967,490 square miles (2.5 million square kilometers), and the smallest country is the island nation of The Seychelles with a total area of just 175 square miles (453 square kilometers). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/6/14     World War II was the most destructive conflict in history. It cost more money, damaged more property, killed more people, and caused more far-reaching changes than any other war in history - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/7/14     A normal, healthy amount of food for an average teenager or adult is about 1,800- 2,600 calories a day. During a bingeing episode, it is not unusual for someone to eat 20 to 25 times that amount, which is more than 50,000 calories - which is roughly equivalent to an entire extra-large pepperoni pizza, a tub of ice cream, a package of cookies, a bag of potato chips, and an entire cake. Bulimics might engage in this type of eating several times a day. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/8/14     During the temperance movement of the 1890s, marijuana was commonly recommended as a substitute for alcohol. The reason for this was that use of marijuana did not lead to domestic violence while alcohol abuse did. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/9/14     The "thump-thump" of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/10/14     Viruses mutate more in one day than humans did in several million years. They mutate so quickly due to their rapid rate of reproduction, their inability to fix their mutations, and their ability to exchange genes with one another. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/11/14     Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) believed that the center of thought was the heart and that the brain's function was merely to cool the heart. He was correct, however, in his observation that the processes involved in short-term memory differ from those involved in long-term memory. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/12/14     Mud was pushed under the mummy's skin to pad it out. False eyes could be made from onions. Hooked tools pulled the brain (which was always removed, along with the kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart) through the nose. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/13/14     In America, T.V. soap opera weddings attract more viewers than a presidential address. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/14/14     On July 1, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens was the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn. Launched on October 15, 1997, it traveled over 2,000,000,000 miles at a speed of 70,700 miles per hour before it reached the ringed planet. Its mission has been extended to 2012. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/15/14     There were an estimated 70.1 million fathers across the nation in 2008, the most recent year for which data are available. - Provided by U.S. Census Bureau
6/16/14     Some scientists suggest that shaking the head to mean "no" derives from newborns turning their head away from food when they are full. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/17/14     Saturn has no real surface. Gas merges gradually into a hot ocean of liquid hydrogen and helium. The planet's core is a ball of rock, about the size of Earth. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/18/14     The three best known Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley, and (president) Richard Nixon. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/19/14     Scholars are unsure if kissing is a learned or instinctual behavior. In some cultures in Africa and Asia, kissing does not seem to be practiced. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/20/14     In contrast to South Korea's per capita GDP of $18,000, North Korea's GDP is $1,000. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/21/14     President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/22/14     Romans thought that not owning slaves was a sign of extreme poverty. Many people would take three slaves with them just to go to the baths. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/23/14     The first chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1937 by Ruth Wakefield who ran the "Toll House Inn." The term "Toll House" is now legally a generic word for chocolate chip cookie. It is the most popular cookie worldwide and is the official cookie of Massachusetts. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/24/14     While general vocabulary and knowledge about the world often stays sharp through one's 70s, memory for names begins to decline as early as age 35. The ability to recognize faces and find one's car has already begun to wane by the 20s. However, research shows that brain stimulation not only stops cells from shrinking, but it can also increase brain cell and dendrite branching. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/25/14     For 5,000 years Iraqis have been keeping bees. Honey is an important source of food and income for many Iraq families. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/26/14     Ten countries produce 2/3 of the world's natural gas and hold about the same percentage of known reserves. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/27/14     Thirty-nine decimal places of pi suffice for computing the circumference of a circle girding the known universe with an error no greater than the radius of a hydrogen atom. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/28/14     The word "bully" was first used in 1530 and originally applied to both genders and meant "sweetheart." It is from the Dutch boel, meaning "lover" or "brother." Around the seventeenth century, the term began to mean "fine fellow," "blusterer," and then "harasser of the weak." - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/29/14     About 3% of all pregnant women will give birth to twins. This rate is an increase of nearly 60% since the early 1980s. However, 17% of pregnant women over 45 will give birth to twins. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
6/30/14     With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles. - Provided by RandomHistory.com


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