The Taylor-Burton diamond is a dazzling 69.42-carat pear-shaped diamond. Cartier bought the diamond at auction. Screen actor Richard Burton bought the rare stone the very next day for his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, an avid collector of diamond jewelry.

Breathing for most snakes is accomplished with one lung only. The left lung is either greatly reduced in size or missing completely.

Batman is a DC Comics fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. He has since become, along with Superman and Spider-Man, one of the world's most recognized superheroes. Batman was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child led millionaire ...Read more

The letters in the acronym LED stand for light-emitting diode.

In Austria baked carp is served for the traditional Christmas dinner.

The British Broadcasting Company played the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in all its broadcasts to Europe during World War II. The familiar "dah-dah-dah-DAAAAH" opening is the same as Morse code for the letter "v" (dot-dot-dot-dash) the symbol adopted for "victory."

A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks. A tiger's forefeet have five toes and the hind feet have four toes. All toes have claws. The claws are 80 to 100 mm in length.

Almost half the pigs in the world are kept by farmers in China.

Long before Detroit became renowned for the production of automobiles, the city had earned a national reputation for the manufacturing of cigars and chewing tobacco. Tobacco companies were among the city's leading employers at the turn of the twentieth century, employing more than 10,000 people. In the mid-1920s, it was estimated that 210 ...Read more

In most cases men's boot cut and women's boot cuts differ. Women's boot cut jeans are tight to the knee and then flare out slightly to the hem while men's boot cut jeans are usually flared/loose all the way from crotch to hem.

In January 2000, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Grand Canyon stamp. However, the photo used was a reverse image, giving a mirror image of a view from the South Rim. The previous year, the Postal Service mistakenly labeled the Grand Canyon as a Colorado landmark on 100 million stamps. Those stamps were destroyed. A trade paper estimated the ...Read more

A quality, fully-faceted round brilliant diamond has at least 58 facets. These are important for the maximum sparkle and brilliance of the stone.

Brazil is a land with a lot of big creatures -- it is home to the world's largest snake (the anaconda, measuring up to 35 feet in length), largest spider, largest rodent (the capybara, a sort of guinea pig the size of a police dog), and the world's largest ant.

Prior to the invention of lawn mowers, lawns were cut with scythes, but this operation was ineffective unless the lawn was wet. The sale of lawn mowers got a great boost when lawn tennis came into vogue in England in 1870.

Lack of sleep is becoming such a problem for American adults that 8 percent say they occasionally or frequently fall asleep at work, and 19 percent say they make errors because of sleepiness.

Ostriches are such fast runners, they can outrun a horse. Male ostriches can roar like a lion.

M. R. Bissell had a china shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was allergic to the dusty straw scattered on the floor after unpacking china from crates. So, he invented the first carpet sweeper in 1876 to clean up the mess and protect his sinuses.

The average house wife walks 10 miles a day around the house doing her chores. In addition, she walks nearly 4 miles and spends 25 hours a year making beds.

Because Post had revealed Country Squares before it was ready, Post's biggest competitor Kellogg was able to develop their own version in six months. Post released their Country Squares in the same year, but sales lagged behind Pop-Tarts. It is widely believed that Country Squares failed because of their name. In the progressive culture of the ...Read more

The average American uses eight times as much fuel energy as an average person anywhere else in the world.