The Encyclopedia of Useless Information by William Hartston

Author:William Hartston [Hartston, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Reference, Humor, Curiosities & Wonders, Curiosities and wonders, Trivia, Handbooks & Manuals, Encyclopedias, Handbooks; vade-mecums; etc
ISBN: 9781402208287
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2007-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

LIECHTENSTEIN

Liechtenstein is the last survivor of the 343 states that once made up the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations. The national anthem is sung to the same tune as

“God Save the Queen.”

Liechtenstein is the world’s major exporter of false teeth. Owing largely to this domination of the denture market, Liechtenstein tops the world trade league for per capita exports with around $95,000 worth of goods per person each year. There are even two false-teeth factories specializing in making dark-brown teeth, for export to countries such as India where people chew tooth-black-ening betel nut.

Johannes the Good, Prince of Liechtenstein from 1858 until 1929, was Europe’s second longest–reigning monarch, exceeded only by Louis XIV of France.

Liechtenstein won its first ever Olympic gold medal 204

when Hanni Weizel won the giant slalom in 1980. With nine Olympic medals in total since 1948 (all from the Winter Games) and a population slightly above thirty thousand, Liechtenstein is well ahead of any other nation in the league table of Olympic medals per capita.

If the entire population of Liechtenstein went to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, there would be 39,500

empty seats.

Liechtenstein has no army and only twenty-two policemen.

UZBEKISTAN

LIFETIME

In an average lifetime, a person will walk a distance equivalent to three times round the equator, produce over six thousand gallons of saliva, grow 2 m of nose hair from each follicle, catch 140 colds, shed 40 lbs. of skin, create over 100,000 lbs. of rubbish, and spend about five years dreaming. The average American will also visit McDonald’s 1,811 times and spend six months waiting at red traffic lights.

DOG, HAIR, SKIN, TELEVISION, VAN GOGH

LIGHT BULB

The first street in the world to be lit by electric light bulbs was Mosley Street in Newcastle, England, in 1879. The light bulbs were invented by Joseph Wilson Swan.

Unfortunately, Swan was rather slow in filing for a patent and Edison got in first with a rather inferior version of the light bulb in January 1880.

In January 2001, a light bulb in the men’s toilet in a shop in Ipswich, England, finally failed after giving nearly seventy years’ good service. The shape of the bulb at the Martin and Newby electrical shop dated it back to the 1930s. This is believed to be a world record for a light 205

bulb in constant use.

LIGHTNING

On July 22, 1918, in the Wasatch National Park in Utah, 504 sheep were killed by lightning.

AUGUSTUS, CAMEL, DEATH, GOLF, THOR,

TREVINO

LINCOLN, Abraham (1809 65)

Lincoln’s celebrated Gettysburg Address was dismissed by the Chicago Times as “silly, flat and dishwatery utterances.” The play Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated was Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin.

DARWIN, UNITED STATES

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.