Totally Useless Facts
  1. Gary Lineker's cousin runs a bar on Tenerife.
  2. The cost of the recommended textbook is inversely proportional to the complexity of the course.
  3. A splat is the name commonly given to the asterisk character "*" due to the fact that on early line printers it looked like a squashed bug.
  4. A banana bond is a 3 centre electron deficient bond.
  5. The word 'diadochy' came from Alexander The Great.
  6. The two raised marks on the 'F' and 'J' keys on a QWERTY keyboard are in fact for touch typists.
  7. The help key on WordPerfect is F3.
  8. Sulphuric Acid production for a particular country is proportional to the wealth of that country.
  9. Mount Snowdon is 3559 feet high.
  10. Elvis is dead.
  11. The capital city of Sao Tome is Sao Tome.
  12. Uranium emits alpha and gamma radiation.
  13. Naurau is a pacific island made up of a phosphate rock.
  14. John Major lives at No.10 Downing Street, London, England.
  15. Debbie Harry is Blondie.
  16. The Queen has 4 children: Charles, Anne, Edward and Andrew.
  17. Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
  18. The planet Mars has canals on it.
  19. The longest reign of a British King was George III. He ruled for 59 years.
  20. The movement of the mouse to give a 1 pixel screen movement is called a mickey.
  21. 2 + 2 = 4.
  22. A person once jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and the strong wind at the time blew him back onto an 83rd floor window ledge.
  23. Qatar is a country in the Middle East.
  24. W is the chemical symbol for Tungsten, from the original German name, Wolfram.
  25. Queen Elizabeth I owned the first wristwatch.
  26. The first bathtub was owned by Benjamin Franklin.
  27. In 19th century Britain failed suicidals were hanged.
  28. Pope John XII was beaten to death by a furious husband who found him making love to his wife.
  29. Attila The Hun died while making love.
  30. In 1938 Miss Phyllis Newcome spontaneously combusted while waltzing in a crowded dance hall.
  31. Turkey lost 13 of its 14 wars in the 19th century.
  32. The first international cricket match was held between the USA and Canada in 1884.
  33. Lewis Carroll wrote his books standing up.
  34. A giraffe's blood pressure is twice that of a human.
  35. The ancient Swedes practised euthanasia by putting people in earthen ware jars and leaving them to die.
  36. King George VI enjoyed sewing.
  37. The sepic crocodile has oblong eggs with white yokes.
  38. The Chinese are wild about stamp collecting.
  39. Possum meat tastes like veal.
  40. Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI did not consummate their marriage until 7 years after the wedding.
  41. Princess Anne drives a car with a number plate that used to belong to an Ealing milkfloat.
  42. For centuries, women used to rub strawberries on their breasts in the belief that it would enlarge them.
  43. Buttercups cause indegestion if you eat them.
  44. Milk from young coconuts was used succesfully as blood plasma in the World War II.
  45. Tonga issued a postage stamp which was shaped like a banana.
  46. Psalm 117 verse 2 is the middle of the bible.
  47. St George is also the patron saint of Portugal.
  48. The World's shortest frontier is that between Spain and Gibraltar.
  49. 845 dialects are spoken in India.
  50. The Government of Dubai have a snowplough to shift sand of the roads.
  51. In the 1956 Olympics the equestrian events were held in Stockholm while the rest of the events were held in Melbourne. This was due to the strict Australian quarantine laws.
  52. Canada has the longest coastline.
  53. During the rutting season the male deer's (stag's) antlers become erogenous.
  54. Prince Charles is the first heir of the throne to have ridden on the back of a killer whale.
  55. The Guppy was the first fish in space, in 1976.
  56. Alan Shepherd used a 6 iron for his round of golf on the moon.
  57. More first class letters posted on a Tuesday arrive the next day than letters posted on any other day.
  58. Butterflies fly at approx 20mph.
  59. In 1888 246 people were killed by hail in northen India.
  60. A Spanish airforce jet shot itself down when its gunfire ricochetted off a mountain.
  61. The silkworm has 11 brains.
  62. Giraffes can lick their ears.
  63. Cats can lick their own privates.
  64. There is a sport Camel Wrestling is a sport.
  65. There are 16 feathers on a shuttlecock.
  66. Joe Davis, the snooker champion, only had one eye.
  67. In 1976 a Pakistani cricket umpire gave a number of bad decisions. The fielding team pulled up the stumps and beat him to death with them.
  68. Nacre is the correct name for mother of pearl.
  69. Posology is the study of the quantities in which drugs should be administered.
  70. Paper was invented by a Chinese eunuch.
  71. Authentic Chilli Con Carne contains dark chocolate.
  72. In Tibet rancid yak butter is used in tea instead of milk.
  73. 'Treason' and 'Piracy With Violence' are the only crimes you can be hung for.
  74. Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner to be kept in the Tower of London.
  75. Only 6 people were killed in the fire of London.
  76. Houses in London were not numbered until 1764.
  77. The River Effra runs under the Oval cricket ground.
  78. The Coventry climax engine used in the Lotus Elite was developed from a fire pump.
  79. Shredded Wheat was invented for people with stomach disorders.
  80. Nancy met Ronald Reagan when she asked for his help in removing her name from a list of communist sympathisers.
  81. The first sign language for deaf mutes was invented in Portugal in 1749.
  82. Battersea Park was once a swamp, it was reclaimed using soil excavated from the Royal Victoria Docks.
  83. Kleenex tissues were originally developed as gas mask filters in World War I.
  84. The Chinese typewriter has 5,850 characters. 11 words per minute is considered fast.
  85. Scunthorpe was named after a Danish pirate.
  86. Harvey Kennedy invented the shoelace.
  87. Lagartijo killed 4500 bulls during his bull-fighting career.
  88. The graffiti phrase 'Kilroy was here' originated from James Kilroy, who was a warship inspector in the World War II. He wrote the words to prove he had inspected any particular ship.
  89. The Bible is the best selling book of all time.
  90. Mao Tse-Tung's little red book is the second best selling book of all time.
  91. In 1631 Charles I fined printers Barker and Lucas for leaving out a vital word in their edition of the Bible. Verse 14 Chapter 20 read "thou shalt commit adultery."
  92. Cherry leaves are poisionous.
  93. In 1818, American 4th of July celebrations were interupted by snowstorms.
  94. Flies take off backwards.
  95. At the moment there are about 1,800 thunderstorms taking place.
  96. Willian Caxton's assistant was called Wynkyn de Worde.
  97. The Queen's first Corgi was called Susan.
  98. Moles can swim.
  99. There are 5 types of yoga.
  100. The widest part of the face is measured between the zygomatic arches, otherwise known as the cheek bones.