The crayfish isn't a fish at all -- it is related to the lobster.

The name of the Pilgrim's second ship that was to accompany the Mayflower to the New World was the Speedwell. It had to turn back because it wasn't seaworthy.

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky was financed by a wealthy widow for thirteen years. She stipulated that they never meet and they didn't.

When energy is used, it doesn't disappear; it merely goes elsewhere or is changed into another form.

The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.

Off the coast of southern California, around 200 bison still roam in Catalina Island's hinterlands, descendants of a few brought there in the 1920s for a movie and left there.

Since the Lego Group began manufacturing blocks in 1949, more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes have been produced. This is enough for about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on Earth.

The world's tallest mountains, the Himalayas, are also the fastest growing. Their growth -- about half an inch a year -- is caused by the pressure exerted by two of Earth's continental plates (the Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate) pushing against one another.

The U.S. state that contains the most square miles of inland water is Alaska.

During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort.

In 1982, its inaugural year, The Weather Channel lost $10.6 million, and came dangerously close to being shut down. In fact, the network didn't make any money until 1985. Since then, The Weather Channel has steadily grown to where it is now seen in more than 67 million homes, or 98 percent of

At funerals in ancient China, when the lid of the coffin was closed, mourners took a few steps backward lest their shadows get caught in the box.

Toffee is made by boiling together brown sugar, butter, and vinegar.

At birth, the white whale is black.

The term “hung jury,” a jury that cannot agree on a verdict, was coined in the 1840s.

In 1822, in his book Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas DeQuincy invented the word "tranquilizer" to describe the effect of opium.

After Helen Keller graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1904, she began writing about blindness, a subject taboo in women's magazines because so many cases were related to venereal disease.

In 4000 B.C., Egyptians discovered yeast's leavening abilities and turned out more than 40 types of bread.

Key West, Florida, is the top-ranking American city for warmth, with an annual average temperature of 77.7 degrees F; International Falls, Minnesota, is the coldest, with an annual average of 36.4 degrees F.

American colonists discovered that superior candles could be made from the fruit of a squat bush growing in the sand dunes along the New England seashore. The small, grayish bayberry was picked, crushed, and boiled. The mixture had to be skimmed several times before the pale, nearly transparent, green fat was sufficiently refined. Bayberry ...Read more