Sorry to have started this and then not kept it up but I've been in hospital. These have been collected from various sources on the Internet. I do not claim credit for any of these, nor can I vouch for their validity. Enjoy!
• In 1935, Jesse Owens set six track and field world records in less than one hour.
• The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set in a lunar rover.
• The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. So if there was a bathtub large enough to hold it (which would be pretty weird to begin with), Saturn would float.
• Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood.
• The toes of mummies are wrapped individually.
• A cockroach can live for several weeks without its head.
• Every major league baseball team in the U.S. buys about eighteen thousand baseballs each season.
• Leonardo da Vinci spent twelve years painting the Mona Lisa's lips.
• Before 1859, baseball umpires were seated in padded chairs behind home plate.
• Rennin, the enzyme obtained from the fourth stomach of a calf and used chiefly in the manufacture of cheese, is capable of coagulating more than 25,000 times its weight of fresh milk.
• When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
• The kerosene fungus can live in jet fuel tanks. If there is a minute amount of water in the tank, the fungus can use the fuel as food.
• Each day is 0.00000002 seconds longer than the one before because the Earth is gradually slowing down.
• Fingernails have a life span of three to six months. That's how long it takes them to grow from base to tip, progressing at the pace of 1.5 inches a year -- or 0.000000047 inches a second.
• The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
• Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die.
• Between the time of death and the onset of rigor mortis in a human body, the contraction of the muscles can cause the body to turn over on its side.
• A prehistoric horse called Eohippus was approximately the size of a house cat.
• The surface area of the lungs in an adult human is 90 square yards. By comparison, the surface area of the skin is only about one square yard.
• The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
• Every 24 hours a leaking water faucet with an opening the size of a pin will waste 170 gallons.
• A silicon chip a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block.
• If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe.
• The digestive juices of crocodiles contain so much hydrochloric acid that they have dissolved swallowed iron spearheads and six-inch steel hooks.
• Gold is so ductile that a single ounce can be drawn into a fine wire 50 miles long.
• The total amount of skin covering the human body weighs six pounds. A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
• The albatross can glide on air currents for several days and can even sleep while in flight.
• Just twenty seconds' worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.
• Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.
• If the normal one hundred thousand hairs on a head were woven into a rope, it could support a weight of more than twelve tons
• In South America a fish known as the payara has saber teeth that are two inches long. A common bait used to catch these freshwater fish is a small piranha
• If you could drive to the sun -- at 55 miles per hour -- it would take about 193 years
• While humans have 639 muscles, caterpillars have over four thousand
• A cubic mile of ordinary fog contains less than a gallon of water.
• Americans use over 16,000 tons of aspirin a year.
• Lightning strikes the earth somewhere more than seventeen million times every day, or about two hundred times every second
• Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin
• The moon is one million times drier than the Gobi Desert
• Ten minutes of one hurricane contains enough energy to match the nuclear stockpiles of the world
• Before 1800 there were no separately designed shoes for right and left feet
• The average human produces a quart of saliva a day -- about 10,000 gallons in a lifetime
• The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born
• Each square inch of human skin contains seventy-two feet of nerves
• The Chinese lettered goldfish is covered with Chinese characters, achieved through thousands of years of crossbreeding
• A typical double-bed mattress contains as many as two million house dust mites (Demodex folliculorom)
• Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to have been born in a hospital
• Americans pay over $30,500 in federal, state, and local taxes every second
• The amount of gold dissolved in the oceans is nearly ten million tons, which is about 180 times the total amount of gold dug in mines in the entire history of humanity
• Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles's Compound Extract of Tomato
• Because it has no backbone, a seventy-pound octopus can squeeze through a hole the size of a silver dollar
• If each count were one second long, it would take about twelve days to count to a million and thirty-two years to count to a billion
• A manned rocket reaches the moon in less time than it took a stagecoach to travel the length of England
• Proportionally speaking, the earth is smoother than a billiard ball
• Soccer players who head the ball 10 or more times per game have an average IQ of 103. Those who head the ball once or less have an average IQ of 112
• Traveling at the speed of the fastest elevator in the Empire State Building, it would take 30 minutes to reach the bottom of the Marianas Trench
• In the 19th century, the British Navy attempted to dispel the superstition that Friday is an unlucky day to embark on a ship. The keel of a new ship was laid on a Friday, she was named H.M.S. Friday, commanded by a Captain Friday, and finally went to sea on a Friday. Neither the ship nor her crew were ever heard of again
• The food making up a single bite for a Tyrannosaurus rex, it was speculated, would feed a human family of four for an entire month
• If space debris already circling the globe continues to increase at its current rate, the chance that a space shuttle will collide with debris will increase to 1-in-10 flights by the year 2000
• Blue whales can produce sounds of more than 185 decibels, which is nearly twice as loud as a jumbo jet at takeoff
• While living in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1866-67, Thomas Edison developed a device to electrocute cockroaches
• Potholes in American roads cost Americans over $100 million in repairs every day!
• On any given day in the United States, over 100 convenience stores are robbed.
• Don't know why, but people living in mountain states eat 30% more cookies than other people.
• A mosquito has 47 teeth.
• Something like 300 people report to emergency rooms across the country every day due to roller blading accidents.
• One in five of the world's 2.5 million medical doctors are Russian.
• Americans consumed approximately 45 million turkeys this past Thanksgiving.
• According to a market research survey done some time ago, 68% of consumers receiving junk mail actually open the envelopes.
• Head injuries occur about every 15 seconds in the United States.
• Ants do not sleep.
• The earth experiences 50,000 earthquakes each year.
• Flamingos are not naturally pink - no matter what the guy sitting next to you at the bar says.
• I don't believe this one, but according to Harper's Index - the average adult has one nightmare a year.
• 33 percent of the news stories that you read quote an "unnamed" source.
• Americans eat over 250,000 pounds of lobster each and every day.
• One out of every four Americans will come down with cancer of one form or another.
• "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed.
• It seems longer to be sure, but a common housefly only lives for two weeks. They also prefer to breed in the center of a room.
• The average life span of an umbrella is 1 1/2 years.
• Honey does not spoil.
• The color combination with the strongest impact on people is - yellow (?) - Well, so say sources.
• Dairy products make up 29% of all food consumed in the United States.
• A U.S. House subcommittee determined that the chances your doctor is a phony are 1 in 50.
• The onion is actually a lily.
• The average American uses eight times as much fuel as anyone else in the world.
• Mickey Mouse has only four fingers.
• More men than women commit suicide in the United States.
• The Statue Of Liberty's mouth is three feet wide.
• A sneeze can travel up to 100 miles per hour.
• The average person flexes the joints in their fingers 24 million times during a lifetime.
• Each person inhales about seven quarts of air every minute.
• On average, we breathe between 12 and 18 times a minute.
• Women's hearts generally beat faster than mens.
• Our mouths produce a quart of saliva every day.
• Every day, citizens of the United States pass more than 9 million cubic feet of gas!
• Hair grows at the rate of one hundredth of an inch each day. The average guy will grow about 27 feet of hair out of his face during his lifetime.
• Americans spend over $272 million every day ordering products through mail order.
• 25% of all cookies baked in the United States are chocolate-chip.
• Fleas can live for months without food. If a human were a flea, they would be able to jump 1000 feet high.
• Two people die every ten minutes in auto accidents.
• Something like 4% of what you spend on any given product goes to pay for the packaging.
• The United States has 5% of the world's population, yet consumes 25% of it's energy supply.
• Six percent of all American men are killed by either their wife or girlfriend - or wife who caught them with their girlfriend.
• Approximately 1 out of 25 people suffers from asthma
• The first traffic light was installed in England in 1868 in front of the Houses of Parliment.
• There are approximately 450 million chickens in the United States.
• The average man sweats 2 1/2 quarts every day.
• Every day in the United States, people steal $20,000 from coin-operated machines.
• Americans spend $300 million on clothes every day!
• One out of every hundred American citizens is color blind.
• 130 million cups of coffee are consumed every day in the United States alone!
• The average U.S. high school graduate has a vocabulary of about 60,000 words.
• The average person makes about 1,140 telephone calls each year.
• On any given day, Americans spend over $33 million buying lottery tickets.
• On that same day, 99 American families fall below the poverty line.
• Somewhere near 33 new consumer products are introduced every day. 13 of them are toys.
• Almost 18 million pounds of medical trash is generated each day in the U.S.
• Each of us generates about 3.5 pounds of trash each day. Most of our personal trash consists of paper products.
• Someone constructs 12 new golf holes every day.
• Americans eat something like 24 million hotdogs every day.
• Something like 75 acres of pizza are consumed in the United States every day!
• Two million Americans go to the doctor with heartburn every day.
• Ever been laying in bed, almost asleep and your leg jerks ? It's a conditiion called "hypnagogic myoclonus".
• Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her doctor supply her with marijuana.
• Roses cut in the afternoon last longer than ones cut in the morning.
• No dear, chickens do not have lips, and yes, horses can sleep standing up.
• Thirty-seven million Americans don't have health coverage.
• There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.
• There is a town in Newfoundland, Canada called Dildo.
• In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
• Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during WWI.
• If an orangutan belches at you, watch out. He's warning you to stay out of his territory.
• Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
• In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
• About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
• In 1984, a New Jersey man opened a summer camp for Cabbage Patch dolls.
• You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.
• How can you tell when a gorilla is angry? It sticks its tongue out.
• In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary formally married her 50-pound pet rock.
• In 1980, the Yellow Pages accidentally listed a Texas funeral home under frozen foods.
• 1,200 college students streaked at the same time in Boulder, CO in 1974.
• In 1977, a 13-year-old boy discovered a tooth growing on his left foot.
• In the early '80s, a toad was discovered that meows instead of croaking.
• In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows.
• About 96% of all American children can recognize Ronald McDonald.
• An average person laughs about 15 times a day.
• Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
• The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million.
• The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.
• A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
• The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500s.
• The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
• Watch out for flying hockey pucks - they travel at up to 100 mph.
• America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men.
• When he's feeling amorous, the male sea otter grabs the female's nose with his teeth.
• In 1681, the last dodo bird died.
• A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
• The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
• The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.
• Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.
• You can only smell one twentieth as well as a dog. Deodorant does help the situation some.
• What color was Christopher Columbus's hair? Blonde.
• In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan.
• The most extras ever used in a movie was 300,000, for the film Gandhi in 1981.
• Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
• Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
• When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.
• Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
• Bubble gum contains rubber.
• In high school, Robin Williams was voted "Least Likely to Succeed."
• Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
• The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
• The sex organ on a male spider is located at the end of one of its legs.
• Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.
• Chicken soup was considered an aphrodisiac in the Middle Ages.
• Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
• The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.
• Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
• In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.
• A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
• About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money. [The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.]
• It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
• Someone paid $14,000 for the bra Marilyn Monroe wore in Some Like It Hot.
• Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.
• Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991.
• Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific.
• There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones. [And most of them are in Parma!]
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.
• Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
• Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.
• The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
• When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
• Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
• Captain Kangaroo won five Emmy awards.
• In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
• Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."
• "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
• During a 1976 doctors strike, the death rate in Los Angeles dropped 18 percent.
• If you had a balloon the size of the moon, all the water in all of the Earth's oceans would fill it up one-third of the way.
• The Great Salt Lake in Utah never freezes over entirely in the winter. You can thank all the salt for that.
• The longest shadow in the world is cast by El Tition Peak in the Canary Islands. it's up to 200 miles long.
• The orchid lasts longer than any other bloom.
• Pound for pound, wood is stronger than steel.
• Most gemstones contain several elements. The exception? The diamond. It's all carbon.
• Which of the 50 states has never had an earthquake? North Dakota.
• Lurking beneath the state capitol building in Oklahoma City is a working oil well.
• Half the members of the National Rodeo Assosiation have never worked on a ranch.
• Among its many other reputations, Las Vegas has more churches per capita than any other U.S. city.
• Odds are that your house is painted white, just like 70% of your neighbors in the United States.
• Every day 20 pounds of chewing gum are deposited on the bottom of the 6,200 seats in New York's Radio City Music Hall.
• Herbert Hoover is the only president who left the White House with fewer employees than where there when he took office. He also declined pay for his Executive position.
• FDR coined the term "chisler."
• Total number of only-child US Presidents: None.
• After snails mate, they both lay eggs.
• During the last 3,500 years the world has been at peace only 8 percent of the time.
• Thirty-three percent of Los Angelinos have an unlisted phone number.
• Daniel Webster originated the habit of standing when the national anthem is played.
• Poor Chester A. Arrthur. He's the only president who's never had a biography written about him.
• New Orleans elevation is -4 feet (below sea level).
