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Illustration by Holly Randall
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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Things you always never wanted to know
In 1555, Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of St. Basil's Church in Moscow. He was so pleased with this piece of work by the two architects, Postnik and Barma, that he had them blinded so they would never be able to design anything more beautiful.
A skin disease became a capital crime under the rule of France's King Philip V, around 1320, when he accused a particularly helpless minority, the lepers, of conspiring against the government. He put many to death.
Three years before the potato famine of 1848, the population of Ireland was 8.25 million. Three years after the famine, it was 6.5 million. About 1 million people died, and a million had emigrated. The population of Ireland right now is only a little over half the 1848 figure.
During the next minute, 100 people will die and 240 will be born. The world's population problem increases by 140 people per minute.
In 1824, when George Byron's poem "The Corsair" was published, 30,000 copies were sold in a single day.
Astrologer in China, during Marco Polo's visit (1271-95), would tell relatives how a dead person must be taken from the house to ward off bad luck. It wasn't always through the door. The family sometimes would have to break through a wall.
A scientist at Michigan State University has calculated that the production of a single hen egg requires about 120 gallons of water, a loaf of bread requires 300 gallons and a pound of beef, 3,500.
By the time he was killed, by enemy fire, on the quarterdeck of his flagship Victory at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (5'2'') had already lost his health to malaria, the sight in one eye while fighting in Corsica, and his right arm in battle at Tenerife.
Icelanders read more books per capita than any other people in the world.
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