The Romans were enamored with the smell of roses. According to historians, Nero had pipes installed under banquet plates to allow his guests to be spritzed with rose scent between dinner courses.

In 1990, American tennis pro John McEnroe, often called "The Brat" because of his infantile, volatile on-court behavior, became the first player in 27 years to be disqualified from a Grand Slam tournament for misconduct. His repeated bad manners led to his being booted from the Australian Open.

In 1984, Britons ate 41 pounds of beef per person per year, according to the Meat & Livestock Commission. By 1994, the figure dropped to 35 pounds. In March 1996, "Mad Cow Disease" in Britain lowered the consumption figure even more, although many Britons continued to eat roast beef despite the

The Medal of Honor is the only service decoration that is singled out in federal law to protect it from being imitated or privately sold. All Medals of Honor are issued in the original only, by the Department of Defense, to a recipient. Misuse of the medal, including unauthorized manufacture or wear, is punishable by fine and imprisonment ...Read more

The original story of a knight rescuing a damsel in distress from the clutches of a marauding dragon came in the tale of Saint George. He was a Roman Calvary officer that rode to the aid of a town in Cappadocia. The people their had been plagued by a dragon and sacrificed their best sheep to try and appease it, failing they offered up a village ...Read more

One Laysan albatross, tracked by biologists at Wake Forest University, flew more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in just 90 days — a flight distance equivalent to circling the globe.

Mayflies, after hatching and then spending one to three years developing as naiads, live less than one day as adults. The lifetime of mayflies usually begins in late afternoon. During this single day, they molt twice, mate, and lay eggs in water. Because these adults do not have developed mouth

In a note in his diary Munch described his inspiration for the image thus: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood ...Read more

Tuna can cruise up to 55 miles per hour, and they are constantly in motion. To keep this speed machine going, the tuna eats up to ten percent of its body weight daily. Depending on the variety, weights average from 10 pounds up to 600 pounds per fish.

Cultured Christmas trees must be shaped as they grow to produce fuller foliage. To slow the upward growth and to encourage branching, they are hand-clipped in each spring. Trees grown in the wild have sparser branches, and are known in the industry as "Charlie Brown" trees.

In 1904, a Georgist Quaker, Lizzie Magie, patented a game called The Landlord's Game with the object of showing how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if the rent problem and the Georgist solution ...Read more

The early eating bars of chocolate were made of bittersweet chocolate. Milk chocolate was introduced in 1875 when Henry Nestle, a maker of evaporated milk and Daniel Peter, a chocolate maker, got together and invented milk chocolate, which today is preferred by 80% of the world's population.

In Japan, a gruesome TV drama series, "Shitsurakuen" (or, "Paradise Lost"), popularized the drinking of red wine. The Japanese demand for red wine exploded when the show's main characters committed suicide by mixing poison with Chateau Margaux. Many Japanese wine drinkers switched from the preferred white to red after the 1997 TV episode aired. ...Read more

Snake oil originally came from China, where it is called shéyòu. There, it was used as a remedy for inflammation and pain in rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, and other similar conditions. Snake oil is still used as a pain reliever in China. Fats and oils from snakes are higher in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) than other sources, so snake oil was ...Read more

On February 23, 1836, Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis entered the Alamo with a force that later totalled approximately 187 men to defend it against the advance of the Mexican army. Approximately 6,000 Mexican soldiers under the command of General Antonio López de Santa Anna laid siege to the fortress for 13 days. The siege climaxed on ...Read more

Jack Broughton was one of the most revered boxing figures in England. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, the burial place of British nobility, although Broughton was not a member of English royalty.

Astronomers know that over the next few billion years, the sun will swell so large as to envelop Earth. If we're still here, we'll probably fry and the planet will be vaporized. There's a chance, however, that the changing mass of the sun will cause Earth to move into a more distant and pleasant orbit. One mathematical calculation shows it would...Read more

In 1916, Jones Wister of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania invented a rifle for shooting around corners. It had a curved barrel and periscopic sights.

Abraham Lincoln offered this timeless, usually unheeded, piece of advice to lawyers: "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbor to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."