Fact of the Day

[1959_60]

Peter Durand patented the tin can in 1810. Ezra Warner patented a can opener in 1858. In between, people used chisels and hammers.

[Altobelli]

North Korea holds elections every 5 years in which the ballots list only one candidate.

[Altobelli]

Pianos can have upwards of 12,000 individual parts.

[Altobelli]

Italy's PM Benito Mussolini tortured his enemies by forcing them to swallow massive doses of castor oil.

[Altobelli]

The word "oxymoron" is an oxymoron. The Greek word "oxy" means "sharp" and "moron" means "dull".

[1959_60]

In 1967, the Nigerian Civil War ground to a halt for two days because both sides wanted to watch Pelé play in an exhibition soccer match.

[Altobelli]

Jim Fixx, the man who popularized jogging, died from a heart attack while running.

[Altobelli]

The night before his execution, a man in Georgia escaped from prison and, later that night, was beaten to death in a bar fight.

[Altobelli]

Anne Frank is on YouTube. She was captured on film while leaning out of her window to get a good look of a wedding.




July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.

[Altobelli]

Over half of all British women under 50 have never been married.