World Facts

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  • Sames goes for the Italian lira which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius).


  • Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff.


  • QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service.


  • In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch.


  • Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.


  • Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts."


  • Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England.


  • St. Bernard is the patron saint of skiers.


  • The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan."


  • The hieroglyph for 100,000 is a tadpole.


  • Medieval knights put sharkskin on their swordhandles to give them a more secure grip; they would dig the sharp scales into their palms.


  • Between 1947 and 1959, 42 nuclear devices were detonated in the Marshall Islands.


  • Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.


  • Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer


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


  • The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp.


  • Way back when they were using marble columns, the people selling the columns would carve out the centers and fill it with wax.So the people buying them started asking "Is it without wax?" Or in other words "Are you sincere?"


  • The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."