Fast Facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbor, Henri Nestle.
In 1994, Chicago artist Dwight Kalb sent David Letterman a statue of Madonna made of 180 pounds of ham.
About 1 billion snails are served in restaurants annually.
On June 21, 1913, over Los Angeles, Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to parachute from an airplane.
Ernest Vincent Wright's 1939 novel "Gadsby" has 50,110 words, none of which contain the letter "E."
In 1816, Frenchman J.R. Ronden tried to stage a play that did not contain the letter "A." The Paris audience was offended, rioted and did not allow the play to finish.
Boxing became a legal sport in 1901.
More than 100 million people hold hunting licenses.
About 500 small meteorites fall to Earth every year, but most fall into the sea and in unpopulated areas.
There is no record of a person being killed by a meteorite, but animals are occasionally hit.
The Dead Sea is 365 meters (1,200 feet) below sea level.
Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar.
If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1 percent, you'll feel thirsty.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.
The National Security Agency wiretapping network collects 3 million faxes, cell phone conversations and Internet hits each minute.
Journalist Hunter S. Thompson once made a Rolling Stone writer mow his lawn before he would grant him an interview.