Fun Facts

In the 18th and 19th centuries America was commonly referred to as Columbia.

There are about 6,800 languages in the world.

Truman was the last American president to not attend college.

Maine is closer to Bermuda than Florida.

The only part of the contiguous 48 states above the 49th parallel is in Minnesota. It is a small area known as the northwest region that is only accessible from the United States by boat. To drive by car to it a visitor must travel through Canada. The only reason it exists is because of a mapping error that occurred 200 years ago.

Hawaii is the most isolated major population center in the world.

The Hundred Years War lasted for 116 years.

Hawaii is the only state that was once a kingdom.

The United States has the highest minimum drinking age in the world.

More than 10% of all Americans can trace their ancestory back to the Mayflower.

Honolulu, Hawaii is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace.

The U.S. Government does not allow portraits of living persons to appear on stamps.

75% of Honda vehicles purchased in the U.S. are manufactured in North America.

Andrew Jackson’s tombstone does not mention that he served as the president of the United States.

In Pennsylvania there is a fire that has been burning since 1962. A fire broke out in a coal mine and every attempt to put it out failed. So the federal government used $42 million to relocate the 1,200 residents of Centralia, Pennsylvania. It now has a population of 12 residents and the fire is still burning.

If New York City had the same per capita per square mile as Alaska it would have 32 residents.

Pennsylvania is one of the largest producers of mushrooms. The old coal mines are now used to grow mushrooms. The cold, dark, and damp coal mines are a perfect environment for growing mushrooms.

The only part of the United States to be invaded since the war of 1812 is Alaska. During World War II the Japanese invaded two of the Aleutian Islands and kept bases there for one year.

Sunscreen was first invented in 1944 by a resident of Florida.

Walt Disney World resort is the largest theme park in the world and it covers 47 square miles, twice the size of Manhattan. It employees 60,000 people making it the largest single site employer in the United States.

Florida leads the nation in the number of people killed by lighting each year. The lightning center of the United States is Tampa Bay, Florida. The warm air from the Gulf of Mexico and the cool air from the Atlantic Ocean collide making Tampa Bay the epicenter.

The Indy 500 in Indianapolis, Indiana is considered the largest single day sporting event in the world consisting of about 270,000 spectators.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is so salty that few fish actually inhabit the lake. The salt is a result of having no natural outlets, all tributaries bring in salt deposits but no outlets take it out.

The city of Seattle known for being the rainiest city in the United States actually gets a full foot less of rain per year than New York City. However, it does get an average of more than 200 cloudy days per year. But the residents of Seattle buy more sunglasses per capita than any other city in the nation.

For over 600 years, French was the official language of England.

No one knows who designed the first American Flag.

The Speaker of the House in England is not allowed to speak.

Due to alluvial deposits from the Mississippi River, Louisiana is the only state that grows in land area every year.

The U.S. motto, 'In God We Trust' was adopted as the national slogan in 1956 in response to the atheist communist government of the Soviet Union.

The city of Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city in 1980.

Pepsi, Inc. paid $0.00 in income tax in 1999.

Michigan is the state with the longest coastline in the Continental U.S.

Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox.

Las Vegas is further West than San Diego.

The term "the Big Apple" came into common usage in the 1930s when touring jazz musicians referred to a town or city as an apple, making New York the Big Apple.

The average life span of an American dollar bill is eighteen months.

Americans did not commonly use forks until after the Civil War.

New York City was briefly the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790.

The first American celebration of St. Patrick’s Day was at Boston in 1737.

St. Patrick explained the Holy Trinity to King Laoghaire, using the shamrock to illustrate the trinity.

The "Star Spangled Banner" became the national anthem in 1931.

The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901.

The U.S. Secret Service was established in 1865 for the specific purpose to combat the counterfeiting of money.

There have been about 200 coups and counter-coups in the country of Bolivia.

Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote.

Great Britain was the first country to issue postage stamps in 1840.

Hitler was voted Time Magazine's man of the year in 1938.

Jeans are banned in North Korea because they are a “symbol of American Imperialism.”

Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

Twelve men have landed on the moon.

The United States bought Alaska in 1867 for $7.2 million from Russia.

The word America comes from the European explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Toronto was the first city in the world with a computerized traffic signal system.

One percent of Greenland's population lives in one single apartment building.

The Red Cross is called the Red Crescent in Arab countries.

The city of Seoul has been the capital city of Korea for more than 600 years.

It would take 29 million years for a car traveling 100 miles per hour to reach the nearest star.

The word Thailand means "land of the free."

The city of Tokyo was originally called Edo.

The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It is located in Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

There are over one hundred billion galaxies with each galaxy having billions of stars.

The Angel Falls in Venezuela were named after an American pilot, Jimmy Angel, whose plane got stuck on top of the mountain while searching for gold.

Persia changed its name to Iran in 1935.

Pakistan has the world's largest canal based irrigation system.

Indonesia consists of 13,667 islands.

The only city in the world located on two continents is Istanbul, Turkey.

Norway's total coastline is longer than the United States but it is 27 times smaller.

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

There was once a country called Prussia. After World War II, it was divided among Poland, Germany, and the USSR.

China has more English speakers than the United States.

The Russian government makes 10 percent of its income from the sale of vodka.

Lake Ontario was originally named Lake St. Louis.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.