The P.T.A., or the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, was founded in the United States in 1897. It was originally called the "National Congress of Mothers," but was expanded to include fathers, teachers, and other citizens.

The leaves of palm trees vary greatly in size. The largest are the talipot palm with fan-shaped leaves that may be 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, and the raffia palm whose leaves may be 65 feet (20 m) long and 8 feet (2.47 m) wide.

A dripping hot water faucet wastes an average of 40 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. This is the equivalent of running a color television 8 hours a day for about 31 days.

Of all the world's peoples, the only ones known not to use fire are the Andaman Islanders and the Pygmies.

Super glue was first discovered in 1941, during WWII research for the manufacturing of plastic gun sights, but it was rejected at that time for being, "too sticky." It was not until two men named Harry Coover and Fred Joyner, from Eastman Kodak, saw the potential of super glue for commercial and consumer use in 1951, that this miracle glue ...Read more

Hugnes was archbishop of Reims in the tenth century when he was five years old.

Drinking chocolate mixed with milk, wine, or beer was considered a must at fashionable social events in the seventeenth century.

The paddlefish, a living fossil, has existed virtually unchanged in the Mississippi River for 230 million years, although it now weighs no more than one-third of its ancient weight. The only other part of the world in which the paddlefish is found is China.

The steel industry in 1943 introduced the 5-day, 40-hour work week. Henry Ford adopted it in 1926.

A hurricane that hit Puerto Rico in 1928 dropped 30 inches of rain over the island; the deluge was estimated to weigh 2,800,000,000 tons.

In 1901, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen won the first Nobel Prize for physics. He noticed that certain rays caused paper coated with barium platinocyanide to glow, even when the paper was in the next room. Baffled by the mystery, he called them "X rays."

Ben Franklin was nearly killed by his early experiments with lightning; he survived only because he luckily didn't receive a strong enough charge. Twice he was knocked senseless - once when he attempted to treat a paralyzed man with electric shock, and another time preparing to kill a turkey by electric shock. In both cases Ben managed to take ...Read more

In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Incas, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.

Seven-foot-two Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born just a bit longer than the average newborn at 22½ inches, but he weighed a hefty 12 pounds, 11 ounces. His name at birth was Lewis Alcindor.

Today's oldest form of horse is the Przewalski, or Mongolian Wild Horse. Survivors of this breed were discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1881.

Until the Middle Ages, passports were given only to the privileged well-to-do. In 1215, the Magna Carta established that "All merchants are to be safe and secure in leaving and entering England." One of the earliest U.S. passports on record was issued in France in 1778. It was signed by Benjamin

A wine cork costs about 10 cents if it is made from pressed cork scraps, and about 45 cents if it is one of the extra-long corks used to close the bottles at famous wine estates in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italy, and California.

The exuberant film dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was on the Box Office Top Ten List three times. Some critics feel that their Top Hat and Swing Time are the two best film musicals Hollywood ever produced. Astaire and Rogers' films are among the brightest musicals that MGM released

The story of Don Juan has been told over 35 times in the movies. The 1926 version, starring John Barrymore holds a place in movie history, as Don Juan (Barrymore) plants 191 kisses on various females during the course of the film, an average of one every 53 seconds.