Things you've always never wanted to know

· Queen Isabella of Castile, who dispatched Christopher Columbus to find the Americas, boasted that she had only two baths in her life ÷ at her birth and before she got married.

· In 1870 there were more Irish living in London than in Dublin.

· In 1870 there were more Catholics living in London than in Rome.

· Picasso could draw before he could walk, and his first word was the Spanish word for pencil.

· The shortest stage play is Samuel Beckett's "Breath" ÷ 35 seconds of screams and heavy breathing.

· For 3,000 years, until 1883, hemp was the world's largest agricultural crop, from which the majority of fabric, soap, paper, medicines, and oils were produced.

· George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper.

· The U.S. Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

· The sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

· Carrots have zero fat content.

· Lightning strikes men about seven times more often than it does women.

· A dog was the first animal in space. A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first animals to fly in a hot air balloon.

· The 17th-century French Cardinal Mazarin never traveled without his personal chocolate-maker.

· The candidate who ran the most times for president was Norman Thomas. He ran six times ÷ in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948. He never won.

· TIP is the acronym for "To Insure Promptness."

· The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.