1 Who was the first person to sail around the world? If Ferdinand Magellan’s name came to mind, you’d be half right. Magellan started the voyage but didn’t finish it; he died about halfway through. Navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano (shown in a 1791 engraving) stepped up to lead the crew back to Spain.
2 Iguazú Falls (a/k/a Iguaçu Falls) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River which form the 761 mile border between Argentina and Brazil Together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the world. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil; however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side.
3 Abraham Lincoln was the second child of his parents. They were farmers and lived in Kentucky until 1816. There has not yet been a president who was an only child. Most US presidents were middle children. Lincoln was an accomplished wrestler, having lost only one fight out of the 300 he fought, and he is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
4 There are only two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”
5 Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different. Tongues have unique identifying marks and a physiological texture and geometric shape that can possibly be used for verification purposes.
6 Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, was near three out of four presidential assassinations. His parents’ eldest son, he was supposed to be at Ford’s Theater with his mom and dad the night the president was assassinated, but he stayed back at the White House, less than a mile away. Sixteen years later, he watched President James Garfield get fatally shot at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C. He was also at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY when President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
7 You may be able to recycle plastic bottles, but the plastic bottle caps probably aren’t recyclable They’re often made from a type of plastic that can’t be recycled. Make sure you crush the bottles and put the caps in the trash before sending them off to the recycling facility.
8 Cheetahs are native to Africa and central Iran; they are the fastest land animals, capable of running at from 50 to 80 mph. Surprisingly, they can’t roar; they sometimes make a range of noises similar to a house cat, but the most distinctive is a bird-like chirp (technically known as a chirrup)—a house cat.
9 According to Phys.org, an average person sleeps for one-third of his/her life—i.e., because of sleep, about 318 months in an average person’s life is spent lying in bed (based on the average life expectancy of 79.5 years).
10 A 10-pack of Wrigley Juicy Fruit gum was the first product scanned for its UPC in a grocery store in 1974.
11 Boxing is the only sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the winner until the contest ends.
12 The Muppet vampire, Count von Count from Sesame Street, is based on actual vampire myth. One way to supposedly deter a vampire is to throw seeds outside a door. Vampires are compelled to count the seeds, delaying them until morning.
