The Roman emperor Commodus had all of the dwarfs, cripples, and freaks collected in the city of Rome and had them brought to the Colosseum, where they were ordered to fight each other to the death.

According to the Gregorian calendar, which is the civil calendar in use today, years evenly divisible by 4 are leap years, with the exception of centurial years that are not evenly divisible by 400. Therefore, the years ...Read More

It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States that it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World.

During an eclipse of the sun in 1868, spectral lines were located that were attributed to an unknown element that was called "helium," from the Greek word for "sun." Thirty years later, helium was discovered on Earth.

Bad weather on the way to the wedding is thought to be an omen of an unhappy marriage; some cultures, however, consider rain is considered a good omen. Cloudy skies and wind are believed to cause stormy marriages. Snow, on...Read More

Cork comes from the bark of trees. Specifically, it is harvested from the cork tree, which takes more than ten years to produce one layer of cork.