Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Things you always never wanted to know
In 14-century England, two-thirds of males were named Robert, William, Henry, John or Richard.
In ancient Greece, a boxing match began with two boxers standing face-to-face with their noses touching. Greek boxers wore leather thongs embedded with metal studs strapped on their wrists.
Some lady beetle, or ladybug, colonies have been reported to contain as many as 500 gallons of beetles. A gallon of beetles contains from 72,000 to 80,000 adults.
Singer Glen Campbell subbed for Beach Boy Brian Wilson during their 1965 tour.
In 1845, the Earl of Ross, a wealthy amateur astronomer, built the world's largest telescope on his Ireland estate. The earl's reflecting telescope had a 72-inch metal mirror and was suspended between two ivy-covered stonewalls.
On June 25, 1997, an unmanned Russian Progress supply vehicle weighing 15,000 pounds collided with the Russian Mir space station. Cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin on board Mir had to work quickly to seal a breach in the hull of Kir's Spektr module, while U.S. astronaut Michael Foale prepared Mir's Soyuz Soyuz capsule for a possible evacuation. Although loss of life was avoided, the station was left dangerously low on power and oxygen and was temporarily tumbling out of control.
On June 8, 2003, 7,000 volunteers collectively posed in the nude on a street in Barcelona for photographer Spencer Tunick.
Some bottlenose dolphins have been trained to jump as high as 26 feet from the surface of the water.