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Illustration by Holly Randall
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, February 27, 2004
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Things you always never wanted to know
In ancient Egypt, hamadryas baboons were believed to be companions and oracles of Thoth. They were given the honor of being mummified when they died.
Only one person walked with Mozart's coffin from the church to the cemetery for its burial in an unmarked pauper's grave.
Because of their acute hearing, parrots were kept on the Eiffel Tower during World War I. They warned of approaching aircraft long before the planes were heard or seen by human spotters.
Alexander Hamilton, a major mover in the call for the Constitutional Convention, wanted to make the nation "the United State of America," doing without individual states altogether.
The Puritans, considering buttons a vanity, used hooks and eyes.
A ryegrass plant, grown as part of a scientific experiment, put out roots totaling 378 miles in a single four-month period.
Victoria Woodhull, a feminist who ran for the presidency in 1872, feared she would die if she went to bed in her old age. She spent the last four years of her life sitting in a chair, dying at the age of 89.
The French philosopher RenŽ Descartes (1596-1650) speculated that monkeys and apes have the ability to speak but maintain their peace to avoid being put to work.
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