Karl Marx was targeted for assassination when he met with two Prussian officers in his house in Cologne in 1848. Marx had friends among the German labor unions, and he was considered a threat to the autocrats. Dressed in his bathrobe, he forced the officers out at the point of a revolver, which,

The name of the Pilgrim's second ship that was to accompany the Mayflower to the New World was the Speedwell. It had to turn back because it wasn't seaworthy.

The optimum depth of water in a birdbath, says the Audubon Society of America, is two and a half inches. Less water makes it difficult for birds to take a bath; more makes them afraid.

All the planets in our solar system could be placed inside the planet Jupiter.

Glamorous sex kitten during the 1950s, starring in movies such as Trapeze and Solomon and Sheba, Gina Lollobridgida retired from films in the 1970s to become a professional photographer.

Since the 1980s, Birkenstock footwear has become popular among medical professionals (e.g. dentists, nurses) and others who work on their feet. In Germany, the sandals are most often used as houseslippers, but in the United States they have become a part of everyday clothing from professionals to blue collar workers, even to the entertainment ...Read more

The English-language alphabet originally had only 24 letters. One missing letter was "J," which was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. The other latecomer to the alphabet was "U."

While, certainly, the vote on July 2 was the decisive act, July 4 is the date on the Declaration itself. Jefferson's stirring prose, as edited by the Congress, was first adopted by the vote of the 4th. It was also the first day Philadelphians heard the official news of independence from the Continental Congress, as opposed to rumors in the ...Read more

The point of a samurai sword is called a Kissaki. This is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge and to hand create a quality one would require an extremely skilful artisan. The value of a sword is determined largely by the quality of the point.

In 1843, mathematician Ada Byron published the first computer programs. She based them on Jacquard's punch-card idea. Her programs were for the first general-purpose mechanical digital computer that had just been invented by Charles Babbage.

Held since 1785, the Bristol Fourth of July Parade in Bristol, Rhode Island is the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States.

In Bangkok, Thailand in 1996, police searched the men's room of Thailand's Parliament after an anonymous bomb threat was phoned in. They got a surprise. They found a box they feared contained a bomb, but discovered the contents were an abandoned monitor lizard. "Monitor lizard fails to explode in MPs' toilet," the Bangkok Post reported in its ...Read more

The Penny is the only coin currently minted in the United States with a profile that faces to the right. All other coins – the silver dollar, half dollar, quarter, dime, and nickel -- all feature profiles that face to the left.

Rhubarb is named after the Volga River. In Greek, the name of the Volga is Rha, and barb means "uncultivated." Rhubarb is thus a wild plant that grows along the Volga.

The flower of the Calla lily is 8 feet high and 12 feet wide. It is grown in Sumatra.

Evergreens, because of their long life span and their needles' year-round exposure to pollution, are the most vulnerable trees to air pollution.

The dense globules of gas from which stars are born are much larger than the stars they will form. In the Orion nebula, globules have been detected which are 500 times larger than the solar system.

In Alaska, it is legal to shoot bears. However, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited.

John Adams, credited by Thomas Jefferson as the unofficial, tireless whip of the independence-minded, wrote his wife Abigail on July 3, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding

The most common proposal is a tether, usually in the form of a cable or ribbon, that spans from the surface to a point beyond geosynchronous orbit. As the planet rotates, the inertia at the end of the tether counteracts gravity and keeps the tether taut. Vehicles can then climb the tether and escape the planet's gravity without the use of ...Read more