40 Interesting Facts about the USA

1. California has issued at least 6 drivers licenses to people named Jesus Christ.

2. Kangaroos can not walk backwards.

3. 'Jedi' is an official religion, with over 70,000 followers, in Australia.

4. According to a recent survey, more than half of British adults have had sex in a public place!

5. Most alcoholic beverages contain all 13 minerals necessary to sustain human life.

6. Nachos is the food most craved by pregnant women.

7. Each year, 24,000 Americans are bitten by rats!

8. Most dreams last only 5 to 20 minutes.

9. The hair of an adult man or woman can stretch 25 percent of its length without breaking.

10. On average, the life span of an American dollar bill is eighteen months.

11. Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

12. The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com.

13. Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second.

14. U.S. President Calvin Coolidge liked to eat breakfast while having his head rubbed with Vaseline.

15. When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.

16. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

17. The creator of the NIKE Swoosh symbol was paid only $35 for the design.

18. How does a shark find fish? It can hear their hearts beating.

19. Penguins can convert salt water into fresh water.

20. In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined!

21. The IRS employees tax manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.

22. During WWII, because a lot of players were called to duty, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles combined to become The Steagles.

23. Nearly 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong account over the next hour.

24. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

25. There are more fatal car accidents in July than any other month.

26. There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

27. More than 2 million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.

28. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

29. Washington, D.C. has one lawyer for every 19 residents!

30. Avocados have more protein than any other fruit.

31. The average car produces a pound of pollution every 25 miles!

32. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

33. In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die!

34. The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.

35. If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

36. Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.

37. In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog!

38. You are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark.

39. Half of all identity thieves are either relatives, friends, or neighbors of their victims.

40. One in three male motorists picks their nose while driving.

Some little known United States history
Did you know.....

Wyatt Earp is know as a legendary western gunfighter and lawman in the 1880's. But did you know in his later life he went, "Hollywood"? He visited many movie sets and even met John Wayne as a very young actor. Wyatt died in his apartment in Los Angeles in 1929 at the age of 80. He was cremated and buried by his wife, Josie, in Colma, California. She is buried next to him. Tom Mix was a pallbearer at Earp's funeral.

Ernest Hemingway is probably thought of as a worldly author. But he died and is buried in Ketchum, Idaho. This was the site of his favorite hunting grounds. He committed suicide. Just like his father.

In 1715 the slave ship Whydah, from England, at the helm Captain Lawrence Prince, was attacked by pirates near Cuba. "Black Sam" Bellamy was the leader of the pirates. The ship was then directed up to Cape Cod. In 1717, the ship encountered a violent storm and sank very close to the shoreline. 102 pirates died. Zoom ahead to 1984. Ocean explorer Barry Clifford discovered the wreck. They found the bell with the inscription, THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716. This made it the first and only verified pirate ship wrecked in the United States.

In 1999 the US Postal service printed a stamp depicting the Grand Canyon, but on the stamp they put Grand Canyon, Colorado.
It cost over $500,000 to destroy the stamps and reprint. When they corrected it, people noticed it had a reverse image of the Grand Canyon. In other words, like it was reflected in a mirror. Did they correct this? Nope. Supposedly they said that no matter how you look at it, the Grand Canyon is beautiful!


Barbara Bush is both wife and mother to a president. You probably knew that. But did you know her name was Barbara Pierce? As in President Franklin Pierce? She is a distant cousin of him. She is the only one who is mother, wife, and cousin to a president.

President Grover Cleveland was married in office. Not unusual. But he was 49 and his bride, Frances Folsom, who was only 21.

The first woman to run for president was Victoria Woodhull, 1872. Her running mate was Frederick Douglass. She was declared ineligible, but not because she was a woman. She would not yet be 35 years old until September after the January inauguration day. She received some votes, but are not recorded in the official results.

Ghandi's ashes can be found in the Lake Shrine near Los Angeles.

Juneau, Alaska covers 3,000 square miles. Larger than any other US city.

Martin Luther King, jr., was first named Michael. His father later changed it.

Amelia Earhart designed clothes.

Degas once lived in New Orleans.

The first person to become president who was born in a hospital was Jimmy Carter.

Arlington National Cemetery was once Gen. Robert E. Lee's plantation.

The S in Harry S. Truman stands for nothing. It's just S.

The London Bridge was transplanted to Lake Havasu, Arizona, in 1968.

The Missouri River is longer than the Mississippi.

American Indians were not US citizens until 1924.