Illustration by Cody Angell

· The oldest goldfish, "Tish," lived for 43 years. Tish the fish was won at a fairground in 1956.

· Armando Matillana ate 550 chilies in three minutes, a world record, at the Magayon Festival in the Philippines in May 2000.

· The world's largest puzzle measured 51,484 feet and consisted of 43,924 pieces. It was constructed in Marseilles, France, in July 1992.

· In his early days, Picasso kept warm by burning his own drawings.

· Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest Americans in history, seemed to become allergic to money as he grew richer and richer. He said he was offended by the sight and touch of it. Carnegie never carried money with him, and was once thrown off a London tram for not paying the fare.

· The dinner plate is a fairly modern invention. Until dinner plates were widely used, people often ate off a "trencher," or large, stale piece of bread.

· Paul Revere, in addition to being a silversmith, was also a dentist in colonial Boston.

· Sigmund Freud never learned how to read a railway timetable. He was always accompanied on journeys.

· Joseph Priestly is an immortal chemist, widely known for his discovery of oxygen, in 1774. He also discovered soda water and gave the name "rubber" to the bouncy stuff used to rub out pencil marks.

· The typical tree or plant only receives 10 percent of its nutrition from the soil. The rest comes from the atmosphere.

· In many countries, urine is used as a detergent for washing. One of its major components, ammonia, is used in cleaning products.