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

OCT 2014


Previous Archives

DATEFACT OF THE DAY
10/1/14     Though scientists first recognized HIV/AIDS as a disease in 1981, it was introduced into North America by a Haitian immigrant during the late 1960s. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/2/14     Mars, Inc, claims that the 3 Musketeers bar was named after its original composition: three pieces and three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. When the price of strawberries rose, the company dropped them as an ingredient in the chocolate bar. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/3/14     Breastfeeding has consistently been shown to reduce breast cancer - the greater the duration, the greater the benefit. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/4/14     The first cartoon cat was Felix the Cat in 1919. In 1940, Tom and Jerry starred in the first theatrical cartoon "Puss Gets the Boot." In 1981, Andrew Lloyd Weber created the musical Cats, based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/5/14     A transplanted heart beats about 100-110 beats per minute (70 beats is about normal). A transplanted heart also doesn't increase its rate as quickly in response to exercise. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/6/14     Signs that a woman is not interested in her date include avoiding eye contact, faking a smile or not smiling, leaning away, answering in monosyllables, sagging her shoulders, looking at her watch, tapping her foot, or staring blankly. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/7/14     The English word "girl" was initially used to describe a young person of either sex. It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that the term was used specifically to describe a female child. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/8/14     No U.S. president has ever been an only child. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/9/14     The 2011 Egyptian revolution began on January 25th. Egyptian protestors focused on lack of free speech and free elections, police brutality, government corruption, high unemployment, inflation, and continued use of emergency law. An estimated 800 people died and over 6,000 were injured in the process. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11th. The Egyptian revolution sparked other revolutions in Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Libya, and Bahrain. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/10/14     Approximately 98% of the people in Greece are ethnic Greeks. Turks form the largest minority group. Other minorities are Albanians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Armenians, and gypsies. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/11/14     Okinawans are thought to live longer than any other ethnic group and they have healthier hearts and bones. This is largely due to their cultural practice called Hara Hachi Bu, which means they eat just until they are 80% full. Their diet is rich in complex carbohydrates and plant-based foods and is low in fat. They are also physically active. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/12/14     Experts estimate that in a lifetime, a human brain may retain one quadrillion separate bits of information. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/13/14     Iraq once had one of the highest quality schools and colleges in the Arab world. However, after the 1991 Gulf War and the United Nations sanctions, today only around 40% of Iraqis can read and write. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/14/14     Globally, boy babies are 25% more likely to die in infancy than girl babies. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/15/14     Because earthquake-prone Japan had placed high-tech sensors around the country after its 1995 quake, Japan's 2011 earthquake is the best-recorded earthquake in history. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/16/14     The first formalized bathing costume in the modern era was not a piece of clothing at all but a piece of architecture: a bathing machine. Invented by a Quaker in 1753, the horse-drawn half carriage contained a "modesty tunnel" that allowed a fully clothed Victorian woman to enter the sea privately. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/17/14     Scientists believe that an asteroid struck the Indian Ocean about 4,800 years ago. The tsunami that resulted is theorized to have been approximately 600 feet (180 m) high. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/18/14     Prehistoric humans appreciated the power of physical attractiveness. For example, the most famous femme of the Paleolithic Age, the Venus of Willendorf - a 25,000-year-old limestone statue - is a faceless, Rubenesque woman with luxuriously coiffed tresses. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/19/14     Venus is constantly covered by thick clouds of sulfuric acid, through which no visible light can penetrate. For this reason, astronomers have been unable to view the planet's features through optical telescopes. Most of the knowledge about Venus' surface has been gained through radar images acquired from U.S. and Soviet space probes. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/20/14     The Ganges River in India is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The pollution includes sewage, trash, food, and animal remains. In some places the Ganges is septic, and corpses of semi-cremated adults or enshrouded babies drift down the river. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/21/14     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
10/22/14     Commercially, Valentine cards didn't appear in England until almost the 1800s, though handmade cards had been popular for some time. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/23/14     As of July 2011, the population of Egypt was 82,079,663, making it the 15th most populated country in the world. Approximately 99% of the population lives on about 5.5% of the land. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/24/14     J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/25/14     By age 80, smokers have bone density 6% to 10% lower than nonsmokers. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/26/14     Vatican City is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night. It has its own phone company, radio, T.V. stations, money, and stamps. It even has its own army, the historic Swiss Guard. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/27/14     The Circus Maximus in Rome could seat nearly 250,000 fans. In its passageways and arches under the seats, cooks and prostitutes catered to the fans' other needs. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/28/14     The amount of energy Americans use doubles every 20 years. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/29/14     Nearly 75% of drunk drivers involved in fatal collisions are not wearing their safety belts. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/30/14     The small measured changes in the sun's radiation output from one decade to the next are only about one-tenth of 1%, not even large enough to really provide a detectable signal in Earth's surface temperature record. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
10/31/14     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


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