Useless Trivia - Big Big Forums

the fugative · 05-02-2003, 12:37 AM

Mayday! Actually, the international distress call has nothing to do with the first of May. It's simply an anglicized version of the French word m'aidez, which means "help me!" It was adopted by mariners and airmen in 1927 and is to be used only when in "grave and imminent danger."

Plato was a proponent of animals in the courtroom. He believed every trial should have a dog present as a lie detector, because he believed that dogs could tell when someone was lying.

What's the name for the blue-green sparks that appear when you chew wintergreen Lifesavers in the dark? "Triboluminescence."

At the age of 33, Andrew Carnegie decided that $50,000 a year was the most he really needed to live comfortably, and decided to give away anything above that. When he made over $500 million in steel, he built Carnegie Hall, founded Carnegie Mellon University, funded the Tuskegee Institute, began a retirement fund for professors, and established more than 2,500 libraries worldwide, including 1,700 in the United States.

Louis XIV ruled France for a record 72 years. He's the "Sun King" who built the palace of Versailles.

During World War I, when England was losing a generation to German arms, the British royal family decided that having a German name wasn't an ideal situation. They changed their surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to "the House of Windsor" (after one of their homes, Windsor Castle).

The last ship to sink after hitting an iceberg was the Titanic.

Newborn rabbits are helpless for quite a long time, but baby hares can hop around within minutes of being born.

Harvard was the first college in what would be the United States. In 1636 it was chartered as "a schoale or colledge" by the Massachusetts General Court.

Jolie Rouge · 05-02-2003, 12:57 AM

kewl ...

denisemm · 05-02-2003, 01:17 AM

I love trivia stuff. Thanks!