Popular

According to the Gallup Poll, the five U.S. presidents most popular during their presidency were John F. Kennedy with a median approval rating of 70.1 percent, Dwight Eisenhower (65), George Bush Sr. (61), Lyndon B. Johnson (55) and Bill Clinton (55).

Zero

Zero was first used by the Babylonians as a place-holder (to distinguish 36 from 306 or 360). In its mathematical sense, the concept of zero was first developed in India during the fifth century.

Five Boys

The world's first chocolate bar, known as Five Boys, was created in 1847 by British company Fry and Sons by mixing cocoa butter with chocolate and sugar. Another British company, Cadbury Brothers, introduced its own bar in 1849. The first American chocolate bar was introduced by Hershey's in 1905.

Shaq

At age 12, future basketball great Shaquille O'Neal was already 5 feet 10 inches and wearing a 10-1/2-size shoe. Today, he stands 7 feet 1 inch tall and has size-22 feet.

Necco

NECCO's classic Valentine's Day candy hearts stay edible for about five years. Another surprise is that each color is supposed to be a different flavor: pink (cherry), yellow (banana), orange (orange), green (lemon), purple (grape) and white (wintergreen).

College

Of all the U.S. presidents, nine never attended college: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland and Harry S Truman.

Wallpaper

Playwright Oscar Wilde, whose full name was Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, was dying while lodged in what has been described as a garishly decorated hotel room. His last words were, "Either this wallpaper goes - or I do."

Mosquitoes

Canadian researchers in the Arctic bared their arms, legs and torsos in order to measure the bites of swarming, newly-hatched mosquitoes. The mosquitoes attacked each researcher at the rate of about 9,000 bites per minute.

911

The world's first 911 call originated in Haleyville, Alabama. The call was placed from the mayor's office by state Rep. Rankin Fite and answered at the police station by U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill as part of a successful attempt by the Alabama Telephone Company to beat AT&T in its efforts to install the nation's first 911 system.

Term

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution allows a U.S. president to serve up to 10 years in office by competing two years of the term of his predecessor and then being elected to two full terms.

Metal

Michel Lotito set a world record by eating about two pounds of ground-up metal every day since 1959, totaling 18 bicycles, a cash register, a coffin, 15 shopping carts and an entire airplane. The record is considered unbreakable because "Guinness World Records" won't allow challengers, claiming the practice is a health risk.

Priest

Galileo's father sent him to a Jesuit monastery to study medicine. While there, Galileo became a monk. His father promptly had Galileo withdrawn, making him a defrocked priest for life.

Chocolates

The first heart-shaped box of chocolates was made by Richard Cadbury in 1861 or 1868. (Early accounts vary.) It featured a picture of his daughter holding a kitten.

Spam

SPAM was introduced to the world in 1937. By July 2002, Hormel Foods had produced more than 6 billion cans of the processed meat. Residents of Hawaii eat an average four cans per person each year, more than any other place on Earth.

Fish

American Humane Society guidelines require that fish used in the film industry may not be out of water for more than 30 seconds at a time, and to avoid undue stress, they cannot be used more than three times in one day. The society recommends the use of already-dead fish or animatronics whenever possible.

Anabolic

One of the first therapeutic uses of anabolic steroids was in Germany, during World War II. Nazis used the synthesized testosterone to treat concentration-camp victims of chronic wasting.

Bridegroom

Etymologists claim that the word bridegroom first got its start as the Old English brydguma. Bryd became bride. Guma, a poetic word for man, became gome. But by the 16th century, nobody remembered what gome meant, so they replaced it with the term for a servant-male: groom.

Clorox

Opened in 1913, the Electro-Alkaline Company of Oakland, Calif., was America's first commercial scale liquid bleach factory. But an engineer for one of the company's equipment suppliers suggested that the bleach needed a snappier name. That engineer, Abel M. Hamblet, designed a diamond-shaped logo and combined the names for the product's two active ingredients, chlorine and sodium hydroxide, coining the brand-name Clorox.

Letter Z

In the English language, the letter Z shows up only once, on average, in every 1,000 letters. On the other hand, the letter E would be used about 130 times in that same passage while the letter T would appear 93 times.

Paris Exposition

Although 55 United States' athletes took part in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, most of them did not know they were competing in the Olympics until they won. That's because the proper name of the event only appeared on the medals. Even the official program identified the "world's amateur track and field championships" as part of the Paris Exposition.

Cordless

When Henry W. Seely invented the first electric iron in 1882, he was a little bit ahead of his time. The country's first power station didn't start generating electricity until three months after the debut of Seely's invention. Just one year later, Seely did it again, inventing a working, cordless electric iron in 1883.

Cryptography

Louis XIV is often called the most powerful of France's many kings. But most of that credit is due to a secret weapon: intelligence. Louis XIV employed a mathematician, Antoine Rossignol, who was skilled in the art of cryptography and could read the secret messages of all the world's kings and nobles.

Beast

In the late 1980s television show, "Beauty and the Beast," Ron Perlman spent nearly five hours each day, getting made up for his role as Vincent, the beast. The series ended about a dozen episodes into its third season.

Brain

In 1824, when Lord Byron died in Greece, the attending physician removed and measured Byron's brain. Its weight of "about six medicinal pounds" made it one of the largest human brains on record and at least 25 percent larger than the average.

Valley Forge

During the winter of 1777-78, the American forces at Valley Forge suffered from cold weather, a lack of provisions and the threat of mutiny. Many soldiers simply deserted rather than continue to endure such hardship. On average, 8 to 10 men left the Continental Army each day.

Hurricane

When measured in terms of energy, the condensation heat released by a hurricane in one day could provide heat and light to U.S. homes and businesses for almost six months.

Olympics

The Olympics have been canceled five times as a result of war: 1916 Summer Olympics (Berlin, Germany), 1940 Winter Olympics (Sapporo, Japan), 1940 Summer Olympics (Tokyo, Japan), 1944 Winter Olympics (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy) and the 1944 Summer Olympics (London, England).

Garfield

Garfield, a popular comic-strip cat, once claimed that his favorite movie was "Old Yeller." Why a film about a dog? Garfield claimed it was because of the motion picture's "happy ending."

Surstromming

Those who've experienced the Swedish dish Surstromming claim it's an acquired taste. Small fresh-caught herrings are placed in wooden vats with a solution of brine. The heads and intestines are removed after 48 hours. The barrels are left in the summer heat for 8 to 12 weeks while the fish decompose. Although the resulting "delicacy" smells quite bad, there are those who claim it is a gastronomic treat.