At least 15 American presidents have been elected without a majority of the popular vote. The five most recent were George W. Bush with 47.9 percent of the vote, William J. Clinton (49.2 percent in 1996 and 43 percent in 1992), Richard M. Nixon (43.4 percent in 1968), John F. Kennedy (49.7 percent in 1960) and Harry S. Truman (49.6 percent in 1948).

Each box of Cracker Jack contains nine peanuts...read more

The original Cinderella wore "pantoufles en vair" or slippers made of white squirrel fur. But when Charles Perrault retold the story in his 1697 book, "Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals," he wrote that she wore "pantoufles en verre" or glass slippers. The mistake stuck

When running, the average jogger's heel comes in contact with the ground about 1,500...read more

President John Tyler, more than George Washington, probably should have been known as the Father of Our Country. After all, Tyler had 15 children, more than any other U.S. President.

The Statue of Liberty sits in New York Harbor, but it is within Jersey City's waters, making it a part of New Jersey, not of New York. But New York gained control of Bedloe Island and the statue in an 1834 compact...read more

The kilt, often believed to have originated in Scotland, actually came from Egypt's Old Kingdom (2700 - 2200 B.C.E.). The kilt was also worn on the island of Crete from 2500 to 1100 B.C.E. and in Persia during the sixth century B.C.E. Historians say the kilt most likely came to Scotland with the Romans

In the United States, there are at least 63 non-military federal agencies whose officers have...read more

The average high school sports coach is a 36-year-old white male with 12 years' coaching experience. Close to 70 percent have taken part in varsity athletics in college, and 97 percent participated in at least one varsity high school sport.

On any given night in America, 1.35 million children are homeless. Of those identified by the state education departments, 35 percent live in shelters, 34...read more

The town of Britt, Iowa, has become known nationally for its annual Hobo Convention, which features carnivals, a talent show, servings of mulligan stew and a hobo parade.

On a clear night and with an unobstructed view of the night sky, the careful observer should be able to count roughly 2,500 different stars without the use of a telescope or any other magnification device

Francis Scott Key, a...read more

The line "Who could ask for anything more?" was a popular one with the Gershwin Brothers, who used it in three of their songs: "I Got Rhythm," "I'm About to Be a Mother" and "Nice Work If You Can Get It."

New York City has more than 2,000 surveillance cameras monitoring the city's public spaces

The National Sporting Goods Association reports that...read more

The Council of Nicea first prohibited priests from marrying after ordination in 325 C.E. But priests who had already been married were allowed to stay married. It wasn't until 1920 that Pope Benedict XV prohibited all priests from marrying, though there continue to be some exceptions to the rule. For instance, a married Anglican priest who converts to Catholicism and becomes a Catholic priest...read more

A hogshead isn't a hog's head. Instead, the unit of measure is commonly used in the United States to denote a volume of 63 gallons.

About 168,000 new Bibles are sold, on average, each day in the United States. This is enough copies of the scriptures to give the entire population a new copy once each five years

The feet of a typical adult touch the floor an average of 7,000 times each day...read more

In order to communicate in dark waters, herring use a language known to scientists as FRT or Fast Repetitive Tick, which involves breaking wind. The fish produce high-frequency bursts of sound by releasing air from their rear ends. Biologists believe the fish can hear the bubbles, and they note that FRT is primarily used when high numbers of other fish are around

Fewer than half of all Americans...read more

Some historians have speculated that the original Mother Goose may have actually been Queen Bertha of France.

There are some 40,000 different kinds of spiders in the world, and most people report fearing spiders more than they fear death. Of all these spiders, however, only about 30 are actually poisonous to humans

Emily Post wrote the following in defining the source of all good manners: "Manners...read more

Americans consume about 75 acres of pizza every day.

Residents of Atlanta, Georgia, drive more miles per person than do residents in any other U.S. city

Chipmunks communicate with each other about food by urinating, and their system is so developed that they can easily identify the difference between spots where there is food and places where all the stored food has already been eaten.

Judith...read more

Elephant feet may act a bit like antennae as the stomping of one six-ton elephant can transmit vibrations through the earth for distances of up to 20 miles, much farther than can be accomplished with airborne sounds. In at least one instance, scientists have recorded seeing elephants running away from the slaughter of other elephants. The slaughter, however, was miles away, leading the researchers...read more

What's the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath? None. Both are labels used to describe those who have anti-social personality disorder. Back in 1835, the commonly accepted term for the disorder was moral insanity.

At least 1 in every 10 female drivers receives a traffic ticket in any given year. Roughly twice as many male drivers are ticketed in the same 12-month period

When two...read more

Louis Pasteur discovered in 1858 that garlic kills bacteria. Researchers have furthered Pasteur's findings with the discovery that eating garlic specifically inhibits bacterial growth in the stomach, an effect that may help lower the risk of stomach cancer

Biologists have observed the golden frog of Costa Rica and Panama making slow, circular movements with its limbs that seem to signal to other...read more

Mozart once admitted that when his pet starling sang his newest composition, "Piano Concerto in G Major" back to him, with the sharps changed to flats, it was an improvement on his work, so he incorporated the suggested changes

One billion seconds add up to 31.7 years while 1 billion days is more than 2.7 million years, and 1 billion miles per hour is 1.5 times the speed of light.

The...read more

The Brothers Grimm started a German dictionary, "Deutsche Wortherbuch," in 1854 that wasn't finished until 1971, making it the world's slowest-published book

The English word "hysterical" comes from the Greek word for nervous disorders of the uterus.

A bird-watcher, observing a male northern mockingbird over the course of a year, heard it mimic the sound of 25 other...read more

Episcopal can easily be rearranged to spell Pepsi Cola, though denominational leaders and the beverage maker have yet to capitalize on the coincidence.

When a physician speaks of "plasma," he is referring to the fluid part of blood, lymph or milk, not the materials suspended in that fluid. A physicist, however, speaking of plasma, refers to a roughly equal collection of negatively charged...read more

Rome's Emperor Constantine abolished gladiatorial contests in A.D. 325. But the fights must have continued because Honorius banished them again in the fifth century.

Although it's called a sea, the Caspian Sea is actually a salt lake. That's because a sea is a body of water that is connected to an ocean. The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water in the world, is surrounded by...read more

Gouging was a popular frontier sport in the Ohio River Valley around 1800. Competitors let each thumbnail grow extra long in preparation for the contest in which the object was to gouge out the opponent's eye.

Senior citizens do more grocery shopping on Fridays than on any other day of the week. The portion of America's population that is under age 35 mostly buys its groceries on Saturdays

Nutritionists...read more

At the first recorded baseball game on June 19, 1846, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the New York Club defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1. New York Club pitcher James White Davis was also fined 6 cents for swearing at the umpire.

Left-handed children reach puberty an average of 4 to 5 months later than their right-handed peers. They also tend to measure about a half-inch shorter and...read more

Workers in New York's Times Square pick up an average of 2 tons of trash each day.

All Scrabble games produced in the U.S. contain letter tiles that are made in China

The following foods are not kosher (clean or fit to eat, according to the Old Testament dietary code): birds of prey, reptiles, any animal except those that both chew the cud and have cloven hooves (no pork, horse or camel), seafood...read more

Both the 1953 and 1997 movies titled "Titanic" have a band playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as the ship finally sinks. But Harold Bride, the ship's surviving wireless operator, reported that the band had actually been playing the Episcopalian hymn "Autumn."

The Jocotoco antpitta, a bird found in southern Ecuador, barks like a dog

Offal literally means "off...read more

Researchers have found that female birds tend to learn faster than their male counterparts. For instance, a female cardinal was able to learn a selection of music in one-third the time it took a male to master the same songs

Some Italian pastas are as follows: cannelle (pipes), cannelloni (large pipes, usually filled), farfalle (butterflies), gnocchi (small dumplings or lumps), orecchiette (little...read more

Pizza Hut may have sent the first pizza into space, but the first food consumed in outer space was pureed applesauce. U.S. astronaut John Glenn did the honors in 1962

While a gourmet is a connoisseur of fine food and wine, a gourmand is "one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking."

Ty Cobb has the world record for stealing home, doing so a total of 46 times during his 22-year...read more

The World Canine Freestyle Organization, a group devoted to dancing with dogs, has about 8,000 people on its mailing list

The United States has had only six honorary citizens in its history: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill received honorary citizenship in 1963; Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg (1981); Pennsylvania founders William Penn and his wife, Hannah (1984); Mother Teresa (1996); and...read more

The American sausage is known as a banger in England, and America's lima bean is a broad bean across the Atlantic. Other American foods and their English names include the following: zucchini (courgette), baked potato (jacket potato), jello (jelly), papaya (paw paw), cocktail (snifter) and juice (squash).

Scientists report that blind mole rats communicate with each other by drumming their heads...read more

Prairie dogs have a single sharp note to signal, "hawk overhead," and repeated calling by a group as a "coyote alert." The small mammals also use a mix of long notes and barks to tell others that there is a "human approaching." But the communication between prairie dogs isn't all about danger. For instance, Arizona scientists recorded a special call used by the communicative...read more

Although the fine diner might carve a roast, other meats require other cutting terms. For instance, the true gourmet would thigh a pigeon, chine a salmon, culpon a trout, tranch a sturgeon, tame a crab, barb a lobster, wing a partridge, frusche a chicken, rear a goose or break a deer

In English-language crossword puzzles, the most popular major prophet is Isaiah, followed in frequency of appearance...read more

On television's "The Simpsons," Homer Simpson's favorite phrase, "Mmm," has been used in response to the following: doughnuts, money, the Land of Chocolate, invisible Cola, free goo, caramel, organized crime, unprocessed fish sticks, a foot long chili dog and hog fat

No U.S. poet laureate served longer than Joseph Auslander, who filled the honorary position from 1937 to...read more