The Aztecs sacrificed 1% of their population every year, or about 250,000 people.
They also sacrificed eagles, jaguars, butterflies and hummingbirds.
William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, lived to be 84 – the same number of years that
Uranus takes to orbit the Sun.
Seahorses are the only fish with a neck and the only family of animals where the male
gives birth.
The word Sciapodous means one has feet large enough to be used as umbrellas.
Powerful acids in snakes' stomachs mean they will explode if given Alka-Seltzer.
Over the years, the British Royal Navy's fleet has included HMS Seagull, HMS Keith, HMS Tortoise,
HMS Wensleydale and HMS Cockchafer.
Nigeria makes more movies every year than the US.
Venezuela is Spanish for 'Little Venice'.
Despite their names, white rhinos and black rhinos are the same colour.
Feeding canaries red peppers turns them orange.
Hummingbirds have 2,000 meals a day and hibernate every night.
In 2007, a Bosnian called Amir Vehabovic faked his own death to see how many people would
go to his funeral.
Only his mother turned up.
Queen Elizabeth I often drank two pints of strong beer for breakfast.
In 1875, the king of Fiji brought back measles from a state visit to Australia and wiped
out a quarter of his own people.
In 2003, six monkeys were funded by the Arts Council of England to see how long it would
take them to type the works of Shakespeare.
After six months, they had failed to produce a single word of English, broken the computer
and used the keyboard as a lavatory.