Fastfacts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
Though the six-year War of Independence ranged and raged over most of the 13 colonies, George Washington's Continental Army never consisted of more than 22,000 troops at any one time.
When the Sultan died during the French siege of Cairo in 1250, his wife, Shajar-al-Durr, kept his death a secret. Pretending that he was merely ill in the palace, she gave orders in his name and devised the strategy of cutting the crusader supply lines. The Egyptians won the battle and captured King Louis IX.
The number of atoms in a pound of iron is nearly 5 trillion trillion.
Not until Herbert Hoover was president in 1929 did the chief executive have a private telephone in his office. The telephone had been invented 52 years earlier.
Until 1826, Caucasians in the United States were sold as indentured servants who were freed after a certain period of time. Andrew Johnson, who became president in 1865, was a runaway white slave - advertisements appeared in newspapers in an attempt to get him back.
A Baptist church in Hammond, Ind., reported a record attendance of 12,350 worshipers in December 1972. Its advertised program for "Heaven Sunday" included Carl McIntire, an organist without arms or legs, a karate expert, a former Hollywood stunt cowboy, an ex-football hero, a rodeo star, Santa Claus and a ventriloquist.
Each year, 9 million tons of salt, more than 10 percent of all the salt produced in the world, is applied to American highways for road deicing. The cost of buying and applying the salt adds up to $200 million.