HOW TO PICK A HAM

Bartolomeo Sacchi, a well-known 15th-century author, offered his readers simple advice for choosing the best quality ham: “Stick a knife into the middle of a ham, and smell it. If it smells good, the ham will be good; if bad, it should be thrown away.”

Pigeons in captivity have been known to live for up to 30 years.

Data from the Polar Psychology Research Stations suggests that the average human probably needs about 10 hours of sleep for each 24-hour day.

The leotard was named after Julius Leotard, a 19th-century French gymnast.

Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died when she drank the milk of a cow that had grazed on white snakeroot.

A number of Winston Churchill’s radio speeches were read by 37-year-old actor Norman Shelley, who impersonated Churchill’s voice.

Escherichia coli are capable of astronomical reproduction rates. Researchers estimate that the rod-shaped bacteria could multiply in three days to a mass greater than the earth if enough food were available.

Measles is commonly labelled the most infectious disease. Medical experts claim that if it weren’t for immunizations, every person alive would have had the measles.

Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, the origin of the word salary.