Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

Things you always never wanted to know

· Sir Richard Burton (1821 - 1890), the English explorer and the first westerner ever to enter the sacred Muslim city of Mecca, spoke 20 languages, almost discovered the source of the Nile, fought Indians with Kit Carson, was a close friend of Brigham Young, was one of the first white men to sail down the Amazon and wrote the first western translation of "The Arabian Nights."

· James Buchanan was the only U. S. president never to marry. During his term in office, his niece Harriet Lane played the role of first lady.

· Men laugh longer, louder, and more often than women.

· When French rulers Louis XIV and Marie-Therese were awakened in the morning, if the queen sat up after the curtains had been parted and clapped her hands, the servants knew that the king had performed his royal duty the night before: intercourse with the queen.

· Five times as many meteors can be seen after midnight as can be seen before.

· The Declaration of Independence was not signed July 4. It was signed in Philadelphia July 8, and was first read before Washington's army the following day. Nor did all the delegates sign the document in 1776. Thomas McKean of Delaware did not add his name until 1777. After its ratification, the Declaration of Independence was moved about from place to place, finding shelter in 10 different cities and five different states between 1776 and 1951. During this time, it twice escaped destruction by fire and was almost captured by the British in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Since 1952, the document has been kept in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

· Lightning puts 10 million tons of nitrogen into the earth each year.

· Snails have teeth. They are arranged in rows along the snail's tongue and are used like a file to saw or slice through the snail's food.

· Turning a clock's hands counterclockwise while setting it is not necessarily harmful. It is only damaging when the timepiece contains a chiming mechanism.