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Fast facts:
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The sun is considered an average-size star in the range of star sizes, yet most stars in our galaxy are smaller. Only five percent of the stars in the Milky Way are larger than the sun.
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The sun is 330,330 times larger than Earth.
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A bucket filled with earth would weigh about five times more than the same bucket filled with the substance of the sun. However, the force of gravity is so much greater on the Sun that a man weighing 150 pounds on our planet would weigh 2 tons on the sun.
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A meteor struck a dog dead in Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature known to have been killed by a meteor.
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A pulsar is a small star made up of neutrons so densely packed together that if one the size of a silver dollar landed on Earth, it would weigh approximately 100 million tons.
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A typical nova explosion releases about as much energy as the sun emits in 10,000 years, or as much as in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 nuclear bombs.
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On this date:
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In 1792, the United States authorized $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle and $2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins. It also authorized silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime and half-dime coins.
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In 1931, a teenage girl struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tenn.
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In 1954, plans to build Disneyland were first announced.
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In 1958, a tornado reached wind speeds in excess of 450 kilometers per hour in Wichita Falls, Texas - a record at that time.
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In 1970, Qatar gained independence from Great Britain.
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In 1978, the TV show "Dallas" premiered on CBS as a five-week miniseries.
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In 1992, mafia man John Gotti was found guilty for the death of Paul Castallanos.
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Quotable...
"There will never be peace so long as there is terror, and all of us must fight terror. I'd like to see Chairman Arafat denounce the terrorist activities that are taking place, the constant attacks."
- President Bush during a meeting with New York's governor and New York City's mayor.
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