Look at the number four on a clock face that uses Roman numerals. If the clock is made correctly then the Roman numeral four is wrong. The standard and correct way to write the Roman numeral four is "IV," but the traditional way to show it on a clock face is "IIII." Legend has it that a clock was made for a British king. When he saw the clock he mis-informedly corrected the clock maker who re-did the clock face to show a "IIII" instead of an "IV" thus not risking offending the king. Other clock makers followed suit so as not to embarrass the king. Now it is the traditional way to make clocks.

Every episode of "Seinfeld" contains at least one reference to Superman.

Hummingbirds can't walk.

The dunce cap of schoolhouse fame originates from a paper cone that was placed on the heads of accused witches during the Middle Ages. When Joan of Arc was martyred, she was wearing one of them.

Despite the hump, a camel's spine is straight.

"Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels.

There is no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible.

The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.

Jacques Cousteau invented scuba gear while in the French resistance during World War II. The acronym SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes.

"Halloween" took place in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois but almost all the cars in the film had California license plates.

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes.

Peanuts are used in the production of dynamite.

The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why.

Soda water does not contain soda.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

"Smithee" is a pseudonym that filmmakers use when they don't want their names to appear in the credits.

The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days.

Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.

When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

Liquid Paper was invented by Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951.

The turkey was wrongly named after what was thought to be it's country of origin.

More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury.

There is a city called Rome on every continent.

The screwdriver was invented before the screw.

Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.

The names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru: See no evil, Mikazaru: Hear no evil, and Mazaru: Speak no evil.

There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia.

John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and was found in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was found in a theatre.

Anteaters prefer termites to ants.

Nine pennies weigh exactly one ounce.

Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter.

It takes 8.5 minutes for light to get from the sun to earth.

Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

Earth is the only planet not named after a God.

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating.

The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Huptmobile.

In the Andes, time is often measured by how long it takes to smoke a cigarette.

Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard.

Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

A species of earthworm in Australia grows up to 10 feet in length.

Turkey's often look up at the sky during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown as a result.

The bat on the Bacardi symbol is there because the soil where the sugar cane grows is fertile from the excessive guano (bat droppings.)

Catgut comes from sheep not cats.

A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.

Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead.

If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun. If you don't, you can't see it.

It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breath-alyzer to read 0.

Clark Gable used to shower more than 4 times a day.

There are only three cities that are named exactly after the state they are located in: Maine, ME; New York, NY; and Wyoming, WY.

The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off could throw a pickup truck over a mile.

Only female mosquitoes bite.

A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times.

Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time.

There is about 200 times more gold in the world’s oceans, than has been mined in our entire history.

By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

Blonde beards grow faster than darker beards.

From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size.

Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.

If a surgeon in Ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off.

Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups.

All of the officers in the Confederate army were given copies of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, to carry with them at all times. Robert E. Lee, among others, believed that the book symbolized their cause. Both revolts were defeated.

Human hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death.

The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.

The Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.

Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, remains the only person, to date, to have graduated from the West Point military academy without a single demerit.

Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.

The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years.

No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins, which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.

It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary.

The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eyes."

Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother. They were both deaf.

Soweto in South Africa was derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship.

The car manufacturer Henry Ford was awarded Hitler's Supreme Order of the German Eagle.

On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan.

Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that have blue eyes.

While at Havard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam. His character remains essentially unchanged.

Barbie's full name is Barbra Millicent Roberts.

Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds.

The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

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

Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.)

The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' depicts two women living under one roof'.

It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their disliked or unwanted people, without actually killing them, use to burn their houses down -- hence the statement "to get fired."

The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Round-The-Rosies' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.

Lizzie Borden was acquitted.

Cat urine glows under a black light.

Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan. Mitsubishi built the Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star.

On the new one hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

This list was prepared, for no particular reason, by Michael Lee of Lee Street Management. If you would like to add a useless fact, please let me know. I would be happy to do it.

Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree (his third wife) was then burnt, freeing him to marry (for the fourth time) again.

The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905.

Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply ' if you were my wife, I would drink it!'

142857 is a cyclic number, the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multiplied by any number from 1 to 6. 142857 * 2 = 285714 142857 * 3 = 428571 142857 * 4 = 571428 142857 * 5 = 714285 142857 * 6 = 857142

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.

In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam," Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson," and Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty."

Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of twenty-four hours.

A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon.

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

"Evian" (the bottled water) spelled backwards is "naive."

There are four cars and eleven light posts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

It is illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces.

The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. If you know why, email me, I'd like to know.

George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

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.

Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.

Human birth control pills work on gorillas.

Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on to form that band. He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna amount to nothin'."

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen parked in the background.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

Alexander the Great was an epileptic.

When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

S.O.S. doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" -- It was chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash.

Crickets hear through their knees.

Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer.

U.S. Interstates which go north-south are numbered sequentially starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even numbers.

A walla-walla movie scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The phrase ' The 3 R's ' ( standing for 'reading, writing and arithmetic' ) was created by Sir William Curtis, who was illiterate.

The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first video ever played on MTV.

During World War II, W.C. Fields kept US $50,000 in Germany 'in case the little bastard wins'.

According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg.

To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.

Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle.

A whale's penis is called a "dork."

The hair on an elephant's ass is called "dude."

If someone says you are uglier than dude on a dork, that's bad.

A barnacle has the largest penis of any other animal in the world in relation to its size.

Iguanas, koalas and Komodo dragons all have two penises.

Jet lag was once called boat lag, back before jets existed.

There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.

The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon.

Ancient tomb robbers believed that knocking Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off would forestall curses.

Mozart was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.

The allele for six fingers and toes is dominant in humans.

Polar bear fur is not white, it's clear.

Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.

Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

Samuel Clemens's pseudonym "Mark Twain" was the nickname of a riverboat pilot about whom Clemens wrote a needless nasty satirical piece. Apparently, Clemens felt guilty later and adopted the nom de plume as some sort of expiation. The phrase "mark twain" from which the river pilot got his name does not mean two fathoms (twelve feet.)

A rhinoceros' horn is made of compacted hair.

The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore.

Revolvers cannot be silenced, due to all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.

The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.

The pet ferret (Mustela putorias furo) was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.

Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son.

The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost. The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to as a holograph. That is a term for a handmade copy of a document and is not the same as a laser produced hologram.

The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor.

"Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention and he would appear.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.

Gerald Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason.

After human death, post-mortem rigidity starts in the head and travels to the feet, and leaves the same way it came -- head to toe.

Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.

The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.

In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it's smiling.)

Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth, and whose shame created the statement for ignominy, "His name is Mudd."

Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

The 'Screwdriver' was invented by oilmen, who used the tool to stir the drink.

The term "Mayday" is used for signaling for help. It comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me."

The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

February 1865 is the last time this month has not had a full-moon.

The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.

Leonardo De Vinci invented the scissors.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.

Pearls melt in vinegar.

Ninety eight per cent of the weight of water is made up from oxygen.

A fully loaded supertanker traveling at normal speed takes a least twenty minutes to stop.

A flush toilet exists that dates back to 2000 BC.

No matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because farting into a spacesuit damages them.

Former US President Ulysses S. Grant had the boyhood nickname 'Useless Grunt'.

Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem.

Russians (in Russia) formally answer the phone by saying, 'I'm listening.'

Until 1967, LSD was legal in California.

In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'

Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.

The NY phone book had 22 Hitlers before WWII. The NY phone book had 0 Hitlers after WWII.

There is a town in Texas called 'Ding Dong.'

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.

Generally men will leave their hotel rooms cleaner than women will.

While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

If you multiply 526,315,789,473,684,210 with "any" number you will always find the original number in the result!

If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe.