A ‘riggwelter’ is a sheep that has fallen onto its back and can’t get up due to the weight of its fleece.

he Throne of Denmark is made of narwhal tusks, which were claimed to be unicorn horns, and is flanked by three life-sized silver lions, inspired by the legend of King Solomon’s throne, said to be surrounded by 12 gold lions. –

   In ancient Egypt, any books found in ships coming into port, would be brought immediately to the library of Alexandria and be copied. The original would be kept in the library and the copy given back to the owner

 John Adams, before becoming the second U.S. President, was the lawyer who defended the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre. Six of the soldiers were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences. 

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A nearly 2,000-year-old loaf of bread was found during excavations in Herculaneum, and the recipe has been recreated by The British Museum. –

 Bruce Lee had the ability to catch a grain of rice in mid-air with chopsticks. 

 Zebras and ostriches often live together to protect each other from predators. The ostrich can see much better than the zebra, while the zebra can hear or smell danger better than the ostrich. 

  President Andrew Jackson was sent a 1,400lb block of cheese. When two years passed and the cheese was still around, he held an open house party at the White House and 10,000 people helped him eat it. Even after it was gone, the stink of the cheese lingered in the White House for years.

   London is home to more than 10,000 foxes and most residents like having them around.

       Believe it or not, there are over 1,800 types of cheese in the world. Cheese.com actually has a catalog of 1,830 cheeses you can search!

   In all, the six surviving Shakespeare signatures, he spells his name differently, but none of it is spelt, William Shakespeare.

 USSR and the USA were originally in talks to jointly go into space together during the Cold War. USSR almost accepted but then President Kennedy was assassinated and the Soviets didn’t trust Vice President Johnson, so the plan fell through. –

   Some people wear adult diapers while celebrating New Year at Time Square due to the lack of toilets. –

 The average American has gone from consuming 20 teaspoons of sugar per year to 150 pounds of sugar per year, or nearly a half a pound of sugar per day. 

 On her 56th birthday, Carol Burnette woke up to news that her friend and mentor Lucille Ball had died. Flowers arrived later with a note that said “Happy Birthday, Kid. Love Lucy.”

  In Belgium, people with autism and other mental illnesses can request to be euthanized. –

When the bubonic plague struck London in 1665, one of the “cures” the plague doctors prescribed was fart jar. To combat the plague people would literally pass gas into a jar, then take a whiff. 

 In much of Cameroon, marriages are still arranged, although this tradition has been fading in recent years. The groom is expected to provide a dowry to his bride or her family, which may consist of goods such as palm wine, an animal, or bushmeat. A man can take multiple wives if he can pay the dowry for each bride.

King Gustav III of Sweden commuted the death sentences of a set of twins to life imprisonment if one drank 3 pots of coffee and the other drank 3 pots of tea to test the effects of the newly introduced coffee. 

  In the 19th century naturalist John James Audubon observed a flock of passenger pigeons over Minnesota that took three days to pass his observation point and, in doing so it totally blocked out the sun so that the entire area lived in a bird-created total eclipse. –

 For 2 years running, Allstate Insurance has declared Bostonians to be the worst drivers in the US.

 When John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world he replied “In the world? He`s not even the best drummer in The Beatles!”

The town of Dull in Scotland has been twinned with the town of Boring, Oregon since 2012. In 2013, the town of Bland, Australia joined them in what has become known as the ‘Trinity of Tedium’.

                   If you don’t pay a hotel bill in Ontario, there is a law that says that hotel can sell your horse.

• The Eiffel Tower can be 15 cm taller during the summer, due to thermal expansion meaning the iron heats up, the particles gain kinetic energy and take up more space.

 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, a Medieval Persian scholar, put forward the basic theory of evolution 600 years before Darwin was born. –

       Osama Bin Laden’s dad was a billionaire who fathered 54 children.

 Mathematically there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the Observable Universe. – 

   Zheng He (born 1371) was a Chinese explorer, mariner, diplomat and fleet admiral who travelled as far as Arabia. He was a eunuch who had been castrated by the Empire and enslaved as punishment, but rose to immense power. 

Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell had a cameo in the movie Apollo 13. He requested to play the captain of the ship that rescues him because that was the same rank he held when he retired from the Navy.