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.

The oldest person on record is Methuselah (969 years old).

Lady Peseshet of Ancient Egypt (2600-2100 BC) is the world’s first known female physician.

There are more than 600 million telephone lines today, yet almost half the world’s population has never made a phone call.

The word “electric” was first used in 1600 by William Gilbert, a doctor to Queen Elizabeth I.

English sailors came to be called Limeys after using lime juice to combat scurvy.

Adriaan van der Donck was the first and only lawyer in New York City in 1653.

Herbert Hoover is the only president to have an asteroid named after him. It was called Hooveria, and the reason it’s not on my asteroid list is because I don’t know of the asteroid number.

The first U.S. national monument was Devils Tower in Wyoming named by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

None of Franklin Pierce’s children was alive to see his presidency (3 children).

Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, was named for the original landowner, Vernon Washington.

President James Buchanan was a gracious host. When the Prince of Wales visited the White House in the fall of 1860, so many guests accompanied him, there weren’t enough beds. The story goes that the president decided to sleep in the hallway.

In 1973, Swedish confectionery salesman Roland Ohisson was buried in a coffin made entirely of chocolate.

English soldiers were called Tommies because the example name on the soldier forms was Thomas Atkins. (The example name on US forms is John Smith.)

Julius Caesar was known as a great swimmer.

There are about 5,000 prince and princesses in each Saudi Arabian royal.

Winston Churchill was a stutterer. As a child, one of his teachers warned, “Because of his stuttering he should be discouraged from following in his father’s political footsteps.”

Richard M. Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states.

Andrew Johnson was the only president to sew his own clothes.

David Rice Atchison, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, was president for a day. When Zachary Taylor was inaugurated in 1849, he refused to take the oath on a Sunday, so someone had to be sworn into office for one day. Atchison got the job.

Woodrow Wilson is the only president buried at Washington D.C.

Millard Fillmore authorized Matthew C. Perry’s trip to Japan, which helped open trade with Japan.