Shakespeare’s tombstone in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church bears this inscription, said to have been written by him: Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones”.
The Hindus of India once believed that the Earth was a huge bowl (to keep the oceans from falling off) held up by giant elephants standing on long pillars. No one back then ever thought to ask what the pillars were standing on!
The first black surgeon to do open heart surgery was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. In 1893, he saved a man who was knifed by opening his chest and sewing together the wound, which was only a fraction of an inch from his heart. He was one of the first to do this. He accomplished this without any modern medical devices, such as x-rays.
Thomas Crapper developed the flush toilet. In 1884, he simulated the materials a toilet would normally handle, to create “a super-flush which had completely cleared away: 10 apples, 1 flat sponge, 3 air vessels, Plumbers Smudge coated over the pan, 4 pieces of paper adhering closely to the soiled surface.” A fantastic feat of flushing!
Vincent Van Gogh only sold 1 painting his whole life and that was to his brother!
A Japanese explorer named Maomi Uemura was the first man to reach the North Pole alone, on April 29, 1978, after his eight-week journey.
Mark Twain, one of America’s best-loved authors, dropped out of school when he was 12 years old, after his father died.
On April 2, 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman candidate for the U.S. presidency.
Babe Ruth kept a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep cool.
Abraham Lincoln once invented a device for lifting riverboats over shallow water.
Did you know that the Egyptians thought the world was in the shape of a rectangle and that the heavans were held up by four giant pillars? They also warned sailors not to go to far away or you just might row off the giant rectangle called Earth. When the Queen of England heard this she sent 4 ships south, north, east and west to search for these “pillars”. When they didn’t find any (because the world is in the shape of a sphere) they questioned the Eygptians and they told her the pillars must have been farther than they predicted! Clever weren’t they?
There were about 300 bones in your body when you were born, but by the time you reach adulthood you only have 206.
A dentist invented the electric chair!!!
The largest baby to be born so far weighed in at 15 pounds, 5 ounces!
Sir Edmund was the first to climb Mt. Everest and return back.
The tallest man in this world was Robert Wadlow, who was 8’11” tall!
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, was actually afraid of the dark.