Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
The kilogram is the only System International base unit of measurement based on a physical prototype. The world's most accurate kilogram is a cylinder of platinum and iridium that was made in 1889. It is maintained at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures at Sevres near Paris.
The largest penciled drawing by one artist, titled "One World, One Song," has an overall surface area of 2,002 square feet and was completed by art teacher T.J. Johnson Aug. 2, 2002.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which opened Oct. 18, 1997, has 450 feet of gallery space.
"Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage" in Las Vegas, starring the German illusionists Siegfried Fishbacher and Roy Horn, cost more than $28 million to stage when it opened Feb. 1, 1990. The show, which featured dozens of wild animals, including an elephant, a giant fire-breathing mechanical dragon and a cast of 60, closed after its 5,750th performance October 2003 after Horn was seriously injured by Montecore, a white tiger.
Hawaiian-born Chad Rowan, alias Akebono, became the first foreign rikishi to be promoted to the top rank of yokozuna in January 1993. At 6-foot-8 and 501 pounds, he is the tallest and the heaviest yokozuna in sumo history.
The record number of tornadoes in a 24-hour period is 148. They swept through the southern and midwestern states of the United States April 3-4, 1974. This region of America is often referred to as "Tornado Alley."