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.

Global sales of pre-recorded music total more than $40 billion.

It was at a concert in Minneapolis in 1954 that Al Dvorin first closed Elvis’s concerts with: “Ladies and Gentleman, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good night.”

The first pop video was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, released in 1975.

In 1972 Leslie Harvey of Stone the Crows died after being electrocuted onstage in England. In 1976 Keith Relf, who used to play for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted by his guitar while playing in his basement. During a mid-performance in 1994 Ramon Barrero, a Mexican musician famous for playing the world’s smallest harmonica, inhaled the harmonica and choked to death.

Bob Dylan’s first professional performance was as opening act for John Lee Hooker at Gerde’s Folk City in New York, 1961.

When William McKinley’s wife Ida McKinley became first lady of the White House, she hated the color yellow so much that she made it a White House yellow-free zone. She even ordered the gardeners to yank every yellow flower out of the garden grounds.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes won lots of spelling contests when he was in elementary school.

Theodore Roosevelt found his favorite dog, Skip, wandering around the Grand Canyon. While Roosevelt had many dogs, Skip was the only one permitted to sleep in the presidential bed.

Millard Fillmore’s wife, Abigail Powers, was his former teacher and was the first First Lady to have a job after marriage.

President Grover Cleveland used his veto powers 584 times during his two terms in office. This is the highest record for any resident that served for two terms. For all the presidents, this is the second highest. First highest came from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died on his fourth term.