Trivia facts




Barbie was introduced at the New York Toy Fair on 9 March 1959; her real name is Barbie Millicent Roberts and her parents are Ruth and Elliot Handler. Barbie has four sisters: Skipper (1964), Stacie (1992), Kelly (1995) and Krissy (1995).

Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, debuted in 1961. Unfortunately, they split up on Valentine’s Day 2004.

World’s first travel agencies:  Cox & Kings, founded in 1758, and Thomas Cook, founded in 1860.

A fathom is 6 feet (1,8 metres).

There are more TV sets in the US than there are people in the UK.

Before the year 1000, the word “she” did not exist in the English language. The singular female reference was the word “heo”, which also was the plural of all genders. The word “she” appeared only in the 12th century, about 400 years after English began to take form. “She” probably derived from the Old English feminine “seo”, the Viking word for feminine reference.

There are no letters assigned to the numbers 1 and 0 on a phone keypad. These numbers remain unassigned because they are so-called “flag” numbers, kept for special purposes such as emergency or operator services.

After the French Revolution of 1789 selling sour wine was considered against national interest and the merchant was
promptly executed.

For 3000 years, until 1883, hemp was the world’s largest agricultural crop, from which the majority of fabric, soap, paper, medicines, and oils were produced.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. The US Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

The word malaria comes from the words mal and aria, which means bad air. This derives from the old days when it was thought that all diseases are caused by bad, or dirty air.

The names of all the continents end with the letter they start with.

On every continent there is a city called Rome.

The oldest inhabited city is Damascus, Syria.



Tokyo was once known as Edo.

The pin that holds a hinge together is called a pintle.

The Vatican is the world’s smallest country, at 0,16 square miles (0,44 square km).

The US flag displays 13 stripes – for the original 13 states.

To most Americans, the orient is China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam; to Europeans it is the area of India and Pakistan.

Some 160 billion emails are sent daily – more than 2 million per second – by 1,2 billion email senders. 97% of it is spam.

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.

MasterCard was originally called MasterCharge. More at credit cards

Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.



Women make up 49% of the world population.

About 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. This is called propinquity.


From the Middle Ages until the 18th century the local barber’s duties included dentistry, blood letting, minor operations and bone-setting. The barber’s striped red pole originates from when patients would grip the pole during an operation.

The US nickname Uncle Sam was derived from Uncle Sam Wilson, a meat inspector in Troy, New York.

The living does not outnumber the dead: since the creation about 60 billion people have died.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.


Midday refers to the moment the sun crosses the local meridian.

Due to earth’s gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 49 000 feet (15,000 metres).

It is not true that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that can be viewed from space – many man-made objects, including the Dutch polders, can be viewed from space.


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