Largest Flocks

Flamingos in East Africa form some of the largest flocks of birds anywhere in the world with up to 1 million of them together at one time.

Travel Safety

The National Safety Council reported that in 2001 a car passenger was more than 400 times more likely to die in an accident than someone, who rode the bus instead.

Ancient Adhesive

Egg whites have been used since ancient times to attach gold leaf to paper or parchment.

Hell on Earth

There is a Hell on earth, and it’s in Norway. The name for this picturesque town comes from the Old Norse “hellir,” meaning an overhanging rock or cave.

Thousands of Teeth

The Great White Shark has about 3,000 teeth.

Biggest Cow Statue

Salem Sue in New Salem, N.D., is billed as the world’s largest cow statue. The fiberglass bovine is 38 feet tall, 50 feet long and rumored to weigh more than 12,000 pounds.

Smokey’s Fan Mail

The first Smokey Bear poster was created by Artist Rudolph Wendelin in 1944. But the real Smokey Bear, originally named Hotfoot, was a cub rescued by firefighters in 1950, during the 17,000-acre forest fire in New Mexico’s Capitan Gap. Smokey garnered so much public attention that he was eventually given his own zip code to accommodate the amount of mail he received.

We Rounded It Down

The Hundred Years’ War between France and England actually lasted for 116 years.

The Perfect Pet

Advertising Executive Gary Dahl created the Pet Rock in 1975 as an answer to traditional pets, which he claimed were often messy, costly and misbehaved. At least three tons of stone from Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico, were used to create the perfect pets. Each rock came with a carrying case, a bed of straw and a “Pet Rock Training Manual” with helpful articles such as “How to make your Pet Rock roll over and play dead” and “How to house-train your Pet Rock.”

Fast Wings

A bee in flight moves its wings about 200 times per second.

Fewer Bones

At birth, a child has almost 300 bones. But many of those bones fuse together, leaving the average adult with only 206 bones.

Keeping Eggs Fresh

The fact that refrigerating eggs helps them stay fresh is no surprise. But how much of a difference does the practice actually make? An egg stored at room temperature ages as much in one day as a refrigerated egg does in a week.

Efficiency Expert Finds Fame

Before finding work as a professional actor, Peter Falk worked as an efficiency expert for the Connecticut State Budget Bureau.

50 Million a Day

Almost 50 million customers visit a McDonald’s restaurant, somewhere in the world, each day.

Kitty Litter Makes Cats Likeable

In 1947, Ed Lowe created a product that helped cats to grow in popularity as pets. His Kitty Litter would largely replace the boxes of sand and ashes that most cat-lovers were using. But it took time for the absorbent, clay-based creation to catch on. Lowe traveled across the country, selling 5-pound bags out of his trunk, and he attended cat shows. Lowe didn’t have much money, so he cleaned out hundreds of cat boxes each day at the shows in exchange for free booth space, where he displayed his creation. The strategy worked, and Kitty Litter became a household name.

Shipwrecked Settlers

Bermuda was settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists, trying to find their way to Virginia.

Russia Has the Most Land

Geographically, Russia is the world’s largest country with almost 6.6 million square miles of land. Canada is in second place (3.9), followed by the United States (3.7). The smallest country is Monaco with fewer than 500 total acres.

Marriage Is Normal

Sociologists found that more than half of Americans in 1957 viewed an adult who did not plan to get married as “selfish, peculiar or morally flawed.”

The First Telethon

Comedian Milton Berle hosted the world’s first telethon in April 1949. The 16-hour television show took in $100,000 for New York’s Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund.