Respect for the United States

The Kingdom of Morocco was the world’s first country to give the United States diplomatic recognition. The year was 1777.

Feltman’s Sausage in a Bun

Until Charles Feltman came along, the clam was king of Coney Island. But in 1871, Feltman started selling hot dogs from a small shore lot. He had 3,684 customers that year, and they loved Feltman’s sausage in a bun, spreading the news to their friends and neighbors. Word-of-mouth was all the advertising Feltman needed to grow his operation. By 1923, he had a chain of Coney Island restaurants (one of which is pictured here) that catered to the tastes of more than 5.2 million customers.

Going Bananas

It didn’t take long for the banana to become a regular part of American culture. The first bananas were introduced to the United States at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Today, the average U.S. resident consumes 28 pounds of bananas each year.

From Rags to Rin Tin Tin

Rin Tin Tin, the canine star of 26 Warner Bros. productions, might have died an unknown if it weren’t for Cpl. Lee Duncan. Duncan rescued the German Shepherd puppy from a bombed dog kennel in Lorraine, France, during World War I.

Bingo!

More than $90 million is spent in the United States each week, playing Bingo.

More People Choose Goat Milk

More people in the world drink milk from goats than from any other animal. A dairy goat in prime condition will produce almost a gallon of milk each day.

Parasite Keeps Host Alive

Parasites are survivors. Take the Wolbachia bacterium for example. It kills male Trichogramma wasps (pictured), which causes a problem. When the male wasp dies, so does the bacteria. But this bacterium is very clever. Scientists have observed that Wolbachia, once inside the wasp egg, can feminize a male embryo, turning it into a female and assuring that both host and parasite live on.

The Color Aluminum

Edward Seymour invented spray paint in 1949. The first color was aluminum.

Andorrans Live Longer

Andorra, a prosperous country and popular tourist destination, has the world’s highest average life expectancy at 83.5 years. Botswana has the lowest: 34.19 years.

Good Teachers

A pair of surveys in 1950 and 1999 looked at qualities that Americans believe are important in a good teacher. In 1950, the characteristic cited most often by those interviewed was education. In 1999, the most important trait was “ability to handle children.”

U.S. Population Gain

In the United States, there is one birth every 8 seconds, one death every 13 seconds and one migrant every 26 seconds. This means the country has a net population gain of one person every 12 seconds.

Record Bowling Ball Stack

David Kremer set the world record for stacking bowling balls on Nov. 19, 1998, when he balanced 10 of them, vertically, without the use of adhesives.

Migraines Are for Women

Women are about twice as likely as men to suffer from migraine headaches. That’s the result of a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For both men and women, those who live with a partner other than a spouse, have more migraines than other population groups. Widowed men and women have the second highest level of risk.

The Long Road Home

The Trans-Canada highway is the longest such roadway in the world, stretching almost 5,000 miles from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to St. John’s, Newfoundland. The highway crosses five time zones and 10 provinces.

Attractive Dung

A male rhinoceros may seek out the dung piles that belong to the object of his affection, breaking them apart and flinging the pieces as far as he can. Biologists suggest this behavior prevents other male rhinos from finding and following the scent of that particular female.

Van Gogh’s Other Occupations

Vincent van Gogh was 27, when he decided to take up art. He had previously worked as an art dealer, a teacher and a clergyman.

Popcorn in the Forest

If you smell popcorn while traveling through a rain forest in Southeast Asia, the source of that scent may be a binturong, also called a bear cat. The popcorn-like aroma comes from a scent gland near the binturong’s tail.

Killing Trees

A cord of wood — measuring 128 cubic feet — is enough wood to produce 90,000 sheets of bond paper or 2,700 copies of a 35-page newspaper.

Chihuahuas Are Survivors

The smallest of recognized dog breeds may also be the longest lived. Chihuahuas commonly endure for 11 to 18 human years.

Majority of a Minority

Warren G. Harding (pictured) was the first U.S. President elected during a year that a majority of the electorate did not vote. Only 49.2 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots at the polls in that 1920 election.

Fight Fire with Fire

Pierce Brosnan, who first appeared as James Bond in “GoldenEye,” worked briefly in the circus as a fire-eater.

Not a Real Camel

Painters know that camel hair brushes do not actually have any camel hair. Instead, these brushes, used for blending oils or for a watercolor wash, are made of hair from oxen, goats, squirrels and ponies.

To Dye For

Shirley Polykoff (pictured) wrote the slogan that made Clairol a household name: “Does she or doesn’t she?” But Polykoff’s work made as much of a difference in American culture as it did for the company she represented. Over the course of Polykoff’s career, the number of women who dyed their hair rose from 7 percent in the 1950s to 40 percent in the 1970s.

Taking Over the World

From 1989 to 1999, the number of vegetarians in the United States grew from 3 percent of the population to 5 percent. Female vegetarians outnumbered male vegetarians by more than 2 to 1.

Keeps Going and Going and . . .

The Energizer Bunny has appeared in more than 115 different commercials since first created in 1989. And he keeps going and going and . . .

Roll out the Barrel

Worldwide oil consumption totals about 70 million barrels each day. Experts estimate that the world’s total reserves of oil top out at 3 trillion barrels.

Biggest Bills for Banks Only

The largest bill ever produced by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing was a $100,000 Gold Certificate with the portrait of President Wilson on the front. But you won’t find one in a box in Grandma’s attic. The bills were never issued into circulation as public currency. Instead, they were used for official transactions between Federal Reserve banks.

Ultimate Athletes

The first Ironman triathlon competition, held in Hawaii in 1978, was the result of an argument between several Navy Seals, stationed on the islands. They couldn’t agree on who were the fittest athletes in the world: swimmers, cyclists or runners. John Collins and his wife, Judy, suggested that the only way to find out was to include all three sports in a single, 17-hour race. The 15 competitors in that event swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles. Now international in scope, Ironman triathlons will be held at 18 locations this year with an expected 22,000 participants.

Arboreal Thirst

A healthy, mature oak tree may draw up to 50 gallons of water each day.

Goat, Mouse or Deer?

The chevrotain, an animal with a name that means “goat kid,” has little relation to goats. Instead, the small Asian creature looks more like a small deer with its brown coat, speckled with white markings. That may be why some people refer to the animal — 13 inches high at the shoulder — as the “mouse deer.”

Florida Knows Grapefruit

Florida farmers grow more grapefruit than all other U.S. states combined. California and Texas, Florida’s closest competition, together produce less than one pound of the citrus fruit for every four pounds grown in Florida.

Buddha’s Canines

When Buddha passed away, his four canine teeth were saved as relics and passed down through the ages. One of those teeth has its own temple, The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, in Sri Lanka. When the tooth first came to the country in the 4th century A.D., it was treated as a symbol of kingship for the nation’s rulers.

Eye See

Most people blink every 2 to 10 seconds.

No Sweat

The Matschie tree kangaroo, found in Papua New Guinea, doesn’t sweat. Instead, each animal licks its forearms. The evaporating saliva helps keep the kangaroo cool on a hot day.

Most Man-Made Lakes

Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state in the nation.

Pluto Platter

The first plastic “frisbie,” later named the Pluto Platter, was created in 1948 by a Los Angeles building inspector, Walter Morrison. The Wham-O Company bought rights to the invention in 1957 and changed the name to Frisbee. But some historians claim that Ultimate Frisbee, also known as Ultimate — the touch-football-like sport that created increased demand among adults for the flying disc — may be older than the toy itself. They’ve documented a game played by students at Gambler, Ohio’s Kenyon College as early as 1942, where players, having no Frisbee, tossed an Oven-Ex cake pan instead.

Traffic Fatalities

The National Safety Council reports that there is a motor-vehicle-related death in the United States about once every 12 minutes.

Man of Steel

Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. But he ruled under an assumed name. Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili adopted the name Stalin, which means “man of steel,” while still a revolutionary.

Out of Town

Traveling. Back by Monday.

Not Good at Keeping Secrets

In 1811, Timothy Pickering was the first U.S. Senator to be censured by Congress. Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, read documents on the Senate floor before an injunction of secrecy had been removed. The vote for censure was 20 to 7.

Nicotine and Alzheimer’s

Researchers report that nicotine may help to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s.

In Search of Einstein’s Brain

Albert Einstein died and was cremated in 1955. But it was rumored that Einstein’s brain had been preserved. The rumor proved true in 1978 when an enterprising reporter tracked the brain to the home of Dr. Thomas S. Harvey in Wichita, Kan. Harvey, the pathologist, who performed the final autopsy on Einstein, had stored the scientist’s brain in two mason jars and kept it for future study. Smart move.

Cats Win

Cats are more popular than dogs in the United States. The country’s pet-lovers own a combined 70 million cats but only about 60 million dogs.

The Virgin Birth

Virgin births may seem miraculous, but they’re not so rare among insects. Take aphids, for example. The females are born pregnant.

Rocky & Bullwinkle Waited 10 Years

Rocky and Bullwinkle, the moose and squirrel stars of the 1959 cartoon, “Rocky and His Friends,” were already almost 10 years old when they finally made it on to primetime television. The two adventurers had been part of an earlier concept called “The Frostbite Falls Review,” where a gang of forest animals produce their own show. That cartoon, with Rocket J. Squirrel (a.k.a. Rocky) and Canadian Moose (Bullwinkle), didn’t appeal to advertisers.

In a Jiffy

A jiffy is the amount of time required for light to travel 1 centimeter.

Flying Snakes

The Paradise Tree Snake is sometimes called the flying snake because of its ability to glide from tree to tree. The reptile sucks in its belly along the entire length of its body in order to form a kind of parachute, which allows it to float for distances of up to 100 meters.

Veterinarians Like Dogs

The average pet dog visits the veterinarian almost twice as often as the average pet cat.