A dog was the first in space and a sheep, a duck and a rooster the first to fly in a hot air balloon.

The first mention of soap was on Sumerian clay tablets dating about 2,500 BC. The soap was made of water, alkali and cassia oil.

Only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still survives: the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The world’s first skyscraper was the 10-storey Home Insurance office, built in Chicago in 1885. (During Roman times buildings were up to 8 storeys high.)

Napoleon’s christening name was Italian: Napoleone Buonaparte. He was born on the island of Corsica one year after it became French property. As a boy, Napoleon hated the French.

Excavations from Egyptian tombs dating to 5,000 BC show that the ancient Egyptian kids played with toy hedgehogs.

In 1889, Kansas undertaker Almon B. Strowger wanted to prevent telephone operators from advising his rivals of the death of local citizens. So he invented the automatic exchange.

Joseph Niepce developed the world’s first photographic image in 1827.

The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. When a coin was dropped into a slot, its weight would pull a cork out of a spigot and the machine would dispense a trickle of water.

Optical fibre was invented in 1966 by two British scientists called Charles Kao and George Hockham working for the British company Standard Telecommunication.

The very first projection of an image on a screen was made by a German priest. In 1646, Athanasius Kircher used a candle or oil lamp to project hand-painted images onto a white screen.

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 15 minutes 2 seconds, by Tom Sietas..

After a certain period of growth, hair becomes dormant. That means that it is attached to the hair follicle until replaced by new hair.

The liver is the largest of the body’s internal organs. The skin is the body’s largest organ.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth.

Approximately two-thirds of a person’s body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.

Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.

John Quincy Adams married for money.

James Abram Garfield was the last president to be born in a log cabin.

Eleven years after Abraham Lincoln’s burial, grave robbers broke into his tomb and dragged the casket partially out before they were caught. The men were convicted merely of breaking and entering and served a year in prison as there was no law in America then against body snatching.

John F. Kennedy was the first U.S. president who had formally been a Boy Scout.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first President to make a hole-in-one in golf.

Queen Elizabeth II is one of the 10th wealthiest women in the world.

In gambling language, for a gambling house a “sure-thing” is a wager that a player has little chance of winning; “easy money” is their profit from an inexperienced bettor, an unlucky player is called a “stiff.”

In 1965, CEOs earned on average 44 times more than factory workers. In 1998, CEOs earned on average 326 times more than factory workers and in 1999, they earned 419 times more than factory workers.

Tourism is the world’s biggest industry, affecting 240 million jobs.

The term “Blue Chip” comes from the colour of the poker chip with the highest value, blue.