Fastfacts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
Giraffes, zebras and chimpanzees have exhibited homosexual behavior.
The system of writing checks predates the use of coinage. A full millennium before the world's first coins were struck, checks inscribed on clay tablets were used as currency in ancient Babylon.
The albatross has the largest wingspread, anywhere from 10 feet to 12 feet, of all the creatures flying today. This bird has adapted so well to life in the winds of the Atlantic Ocean that once the young albatross leaves the island of its birth, it may not touch any land again for two years.
The giant squid continues to grow as long as it lives. Some recovered specimens reach 50 feet from the tips of its tentacles to the point of its head.
The head of the adult sperm whale represents a quarter of the animal's length and a third of its total weight.
French archivists claim that the first French soldier who was wounded in the Franco-Prussian War was also the last to be killed, six months later, in 1871.
The Battle of New Orleans, which made Andrew Jackson a national hero, was fought two weeks after the War of 1812 ended and more than a month before news of the war's end reached Louisiana.
Johann Sebastian Bach walked the 230 miles from Arnstadt to LŸbeck, Germany, in order to hear the organist Dietrich Buxtehude. On another occasion, he walked 25 miles to Halle in the hope of meeting George Frideric Handel, arriving just after Handel had left the town, by coach.