10 November 2013

10 GREAT FACTS A DAY - Part 69 (10/11/2013)






681.  The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah-Mat,” which
         means “the king is dead”.

682.  
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:  Spades – King
         David, Clubs – Alexander the Great, Hearts – Charlemagne, and Diamonds – Julius
         Caesar.

683.  
In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and
         Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than 100 years
         before either moon was discovered!

684.  
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died
         in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds
         received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural
         causes.

685.  
Quality standards for pasta were set in the 13th century by the Pope.

686.  
The A.A. Milne character of Winnie the Pooh made his animated film debut in 1966 in
         Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

687.  
People have the tendency to chew the food on the side that they most often use their
         hand.

688.  
Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.

689.  
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary.
         When it was built in the 1940s, the set of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring
         separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.

690.  
The Lemon shark grows about 24,000 new teeth a year. A new set of teeth grow
         approximately every 14 days.



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