A green diamond is the rarest diamond.

Hurricanes, tornadoes and bigger bodies of water always go clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. This directional spinning has to do with the rotation of the earth and is called the Coriolis force.

All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

The magnetic north pole is near Ellef Ringes Island in northern Canada.

There is no record of a person being killed by a meteorite but animals are occasionally hit.

The first movie to use sound was “The Jazz Singer,” released in 1927: the first words, spoken by Al Jolson, were: “Wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothing yet.”

The video recording machine was invented by the Ampex corporation of California in 1956. The first video recorder, the Ampex VR1000, stood 1,1 m (3 ft 3 in) high and weighed as much as a small car: 665 kg (1,466 lb).

In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” More Oscar fast facts

The first daily broadcast was started by the BBC in November 1936.

The first porn movie was the 1908 Fench film al’Ecu d’or oula bonne auberge.

About 2,4 billion CDs are sold annually. The number of recorded CDs and blank CDs sold has been about equal.

In August 1983, Peter Stewart of Birmingham, UK set a world record by disco dancing for 408 hours.

Klezmer music is derived from two Hebrew words, clay and zimmer, meaning “vessel of music.”

The Beatles song “Martha My Dear” was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog Martha.

Since its launch in 1981 the song Memory of the musical Cats has been played on radio more than a million times.

A grand piano can be played faster than an upright (spinet) piano.

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.

Chevy Chase was a battle that took place on the english-Scottish border in 1388.

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War 1. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulphur and pitch to overcome the enemy. During ancient and medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of plague victims over the walls of besieged cities, or into water wells. During the French and Indian wars in North America (1689-1763), blankets used by smallpox victims were given to American Indians in the hope they would carry the disease.

The first reference to a handgun was made in an order for iron bullets in 1326.

In 1998, the US spent more than $35 billion on its nuclear weapons programme.

The first recorded revolution took place at around 2800 BC when people from the Sumerian city of Lagash overthrew bureaucrats who were lining their own pockets but kept raising taxes.