Yoghurt, got its name from the Turkish word 'yogurur', which means 'long life'.

Marie Curie, the Nobel prize winning scientist who discovered radium, died of radiation poisoning.

20% of tuxedo rentals take place in May.

A toaster uses almost half as much energy as a full-sized oven.

At Stalin’s funeral 500 people were trampled to death.

The biggest dam built by beavers is twice as long as the Hoover Dam.

Early Romans used to use porcupine quills as toothpicks.

'Second Street' is the most common street name in the U.S.; 'First Street' is the sixth.

New-car smell is toxic to humans.

6% of drivers deliberately swerve to kill animals.

During the 1741 General Election, angry voters pelted candidates with dead cats and dogs.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Babies who wear disposable diapers are five times more likely to develop diaper rash than those that wear cotton diapers.

Digestive biscuits have no particular digestive qualities. In the USA it is illegal to sell them under that name.

Qatar is the only country that begins with a Q and Iraq is the only country that ends with one.

The banana tree cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.

Left-handed people are better at sports that require good spatial judgment and fast reaction, compared to right-handed individuals.

There are 2,500 species of moth in the UK but only 60 species of butterfly.

Thomas Alva Edison patented almost 1,300 inventions in his lifetime.

Mexico City is built on top of an underground resevoir!

The technology behind smartphones relies on up to 250,000 separate patents.

Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill.

There are about 294,000,000,000,000 leaves in the world; for every leaf there are 340 ants.

Eagles mate while airborne.

Racehorses can wear out new horse shoes in one race.

The United States has never lost a war when donkeys were used.

Britons spend eight times as long watching television as they do cooking meals.

A quarter of philosophers believe in zombies.

UK house spiders include the Pink Prowler, the Spitting Spider and the Missing Sector Orb Weaver.

All geese eat a vegetarian diet, feeding on grasses, seeds and grains.

To sleep for one night in every bed in Las Vegas would take 288 years.

On average, soccer players run as far as 9.5 miles in a single match.

12% of a sloth’s energy is used to climb up and down trees to go to the lavatory.

Baby zebras can begin running just one hour after they are born.

Sarcasm has been proven to make you smarter and more creative.

The voice actor of SpongeBob is married to the voice actor of Plankton's computer wife (Karen) in real life.

'face-off' in hockey was originally called a 'puck-off'.

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

The world’s smallest advert was stencilled onto a bee’s knee.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

If you ate in a different New York eatery every day for 12 years, you still wouldn’t have visited all of the city’s restaurants.

The word "nice" originally meant "foolish and stupid."

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth.

If you laid all the molecules in a teaspoon of water end to end, it would stretch 10 times the width of the solar system.

One-third of toads crossing roads are fatally run over.

All of the stars comprising the Milky Way galaxy revolve around the centre of the galaxy once every 200 million years or so.

The city of Las Vegas has the most hotel rooms in the world.

Ball lightning is a "ball of fire" that lasts for a few seconds in the sky and is very rare.

Thomas Alva Edison patented almost 1,300 inventions in his lifetime!

Human beings have as many brain cells in their stomachs as cats have in their brains.