FACT-OF-THE-DAY ARCHIVE
"Our life is what our thoughts make it."
- Marcus Aurelius
AUG 2016

Previous Archives

DATE	FACT OF THE DAY
8/1/16	Before astronomers realized solar eclipses were caused by the moon, the Chinese thought an enormous dragon swallowed the sun, and they made as much noise as possible to scare the dragon away. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/2/16	There are two basic types of terrain on the moon: bright and dark. The bright terrain is called "highlands" because it is higher in elevation. The dark terrain is called the lunar "maria" (Latin for "seas") and is lower in elevation. The highlands are typically older than the maria. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/3/16	In general, carbs make you sleepy while protein makes you more alert. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/4/16	Each year, Americans throw out enough soda pop cans bottles to reach to the moon and back - twenty times. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/5/16	The Arabs brought dried pasta to Italy in the thirteenth century (though fresh pasta was made before then). It was commonly eaten with honey and sugar; tomato sauce was not added until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The old-fashioned way of eating pasta was with the fingers, arm held high and head tilted back. There are currently more than 500 different types of pasta eaten in Italy today. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/6/16	The bicycle was introduced into China around 1891 by two American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. The bicycle is now the primary transportation for millions of Chinese. The last Qing emperor (Puyi) rode a bicycle around the Forbidden City in Beijing. China is currently the leading bicycle manufacturer. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/7/16	Tumors and lesions in the brain have been associated with the development of abnormal eating patterns and symptoms of eating disorders. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/8/16	Mexico introduced chocolate, corn, and chilies to the world. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/9/16	Low cholesterol levels have been associated with higher rates of suicide, violence, Alzheimer's, and accidents. Scientists suggest that cholesterol plays a critical role in neuron signaling and brain structure. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/10/16	Gladiatorial combat in Rome probably dates back to the Etruscans or Samnites who made prisoners fight to the death during the funerals of aristocrats. It perhaps served as a kind of a substitute for old human sacrifices. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/11/16	Approximately 70% of the nearly $500 million spent on candy during the week leading up to Easter is for chocolate. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/12/16	More than 17 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died of AIDS, and experts estimate that at least 25 million more people in Africa are HIV-positive. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/13/16	The attempts to find cures for the Black Death plague started the momentum toward development of the scientific method and the changes in thinking that led to the Renaissance. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/14/16	Millions of monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico every year from the U.S. and Canada, though logging operations are rapidly destroying their habitat. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/15/16	Japan's massive 2011 earthquake shifted the earth's mass toward the center, causing the planet to spin faster and shortening the day by 1.6 microseconds. The 2004 Sumatra quake shorted the day by 6.8 microseconds. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/16/16	Twelve million men (11.2% of all men 20 years and older) and 11.5 million women (10.2% of all women 20 years and older) have diabetes in the U.S. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/17/16	Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which approximately 170 are populated. Greece's largest island is Crete (3,189 sq. miles) (8,260 sq. km.). - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/18/16	In December 1952, air pollution in London created fatal smog that immediately killed 4,000 people and then 8,000 more in the following weeks. Burning coal was the main cause. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/19/16	The circulatory system of arteries, veins, and capillaries is about 60,000 miles long. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/20/16	Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/21/16	Venus, the brightest of all the planets, can be so bright that on a moonless night, the planet can actually cast shadows on Earth. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/22/16	Before the discovery of insulin, surgeons rarely operated on diabetic patients with gangrene because the patients typically would not heal and would inevitably die. On occasion, an area of gangrene would "auto-amputate," meaning it would dry up and fall off. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/23/16	According to one poll, over 80% of American drivers have heard of the term BAC or blood alcohol content, but only 27% of drivers can correctly identify the legal BAC limit for their state. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/24/16	The name "Earth" comes from Old English and Old High Germanic words (eorthe and erda, respectively) for "ground" or "soil," and it is the only name for a planet of the solar system that does not come from Greco-Roman mythology. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/25/16	Contrary to common belief, the Great Wall of China cannot be seen from the moon without aid. This pervasive myth seems to have started in 1893 in the magazine The Century and then resurfaced in 1932 when Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe it Or Not claimed the Great Wall could be seen from the moon - even though space flight was decades away. It is questionable whether the Great Wall can be seen from a close orbit with the unaided eye. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/26/16	The Pap test is named after the physician George Papanicolaou, who introduced this technique in 1949. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/27/16	Italian food is one of the most popular restaurants for a first date. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/28/16	40 years and older. The biggest single risk factor for breast cancer is age. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/29/16	A bat's echolocation is so tuned that it can detect objects as thin as a human hair. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/30/16	The quality of dreams depends, at least in part, on the stage of sleep in which the dreams occur. Dreams during REM tend to be more bizarre and detailed and have story line. Dreams in stages 1 and 2 of sleep are simpler and shorter. Deep-sleep dreams tend to be diffused and may be about nothing more than a color or emotion. - Provided by RandomHistory.com
8/31/16	During the twentieth century alone, the average life expectancy in the United States increased by more than 30 years. Officials attribute most of this increase to advances in public health care and information. - Provided by RandomHistory.com

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