Japanese children start out by memorizing 80 brush-stroke characters by second grade, going all the way to 2,000 characters to allow them to read a newspaper in high school. Still, only 16.3 percent of test takers pass a national kanji (writing Chinese characters) exam that requires mastering about 2,000 characters. These days, more Japanese children are choosing computers over calligraphy. Even teachers are losing the knack of writing Japanese characters.
Until the 1970s, Jessica was a very unusual name. William Shakespeare, who may even have made up the name, called Shylock’s lovely daughter Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, but it was not until recently that large numbers of people began choosing this name for their daughters.
The first foreign monarch to patent an invention in the U.S. was King Hassan II of Morocco. He was issued a patent for an invention that combined videotape and an electrocardiogram to study heart performance.
Queen Victoria's mother was the daughter of a German duke. Though she ruled England for 64 years, she was never able to speak English perfectly.
Most people who keep track of the entertainment world know that John Ritter is the son of Tex Ritter, that Lorenzo Lamas is the son of Fernando Lamas and Arlene Dahl, and that Isabella Rossellini is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. But it's not common knowledge that actor Campbell Scott is the son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst.
Jean Lafitte was a pirate and friend of Lafayette who, along with his men, assisted Andrew Jackson in his victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.
Upon her death in 1967, writer Dorothy Parker left most of her estate to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She left her ashes to writer Lillian Hellman, who reportedly never claimed them.
The first heavy-drinking U.S. president, as well as the first presidential college dropout, James Monroe – like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson before him – died on Independence Day, the last president to date to bear that trivia distinction.
Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz.
Mozart once composed a piano piece that required a player to use two hands and a nose in order to hit all the correct notes.
Jean Marie Butler was the first woman graduate from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1980. She also was the first woman to graduate from any U.S. service academy.
Usually Bushmen hunt with poison arrows. The poison is extracted from the pupae of beetles found in the soil beneath infested marula trees. A few drops of the poison squeezed onto an arrow are enough to kill an antelope; one drop of it can kill a human if it enters the bloodstream. For safety, arrowhead tips are not treated – the poisonous juice is rubbed behind the arrowhead.
The first person killed in an airplane accident was Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge. On September 17, 1908, Selfridge was a passenger with Orville Wright, in a demonstration flight at Fort Myer, Virginia, when the crash occurred. Wright survived the crash. The first pilot of a powered airplane to be killed was Eugène Lefèbvre in France, on September 7, 1909.
RARE AIR is the immodest two-word statement on basketball great Michael Jordan's Illinois vanity license plate.
Mr. P.J. Tierney, father of the modern diner, died of indigestion in 1917 after eating at a diner.
Joan Collins was 50 years old when she posed semi-nude for "Playboy" in 1983. The issue sold out.
Van Gogh started to draw at the age of twenty-seven.
The first person known to have died of radiation poisoning was scientist Marie Curie. She and her husband were the discoverers of radium.
Murderer John Horwood was hanged on April 13, 1821. His skin was used to bind a book describing the dissection of his body by surgeon Richard Smith.
Joe Namath, one-time New York Jets quarterback, donated pantyhose to Planet Hollywood. He wore the pantyhose on the football playing field on chilly days.
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