Country Facts

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

China is the source of 70% of the worlds pirated goods.

In France, there's a place called Y.

The University of Alaska stretches over 4 time zones.

Denmark has twice as many pigs as there are people.

The Statue of Liberty has US women's shoe size 879.

Singapore means "Lion city".

Argentina's capital Buenos Aires means "Good air".

Afghanistan's capital Kabul means "hump backed".

Thailand's capital Bangkok means "city of angels".

Spain's capital Madrid means "place of abundant water".

France's capital Paris means "the working people".

Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur means "Muddy River"

Korea's capital Seoul means "Capital".

China's capital Beijing means "Gate".

Japan's capital Tokyo means "Eastern Capital".

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

Saint Augustine, Florida, is the oldest European settlement in North America.

Singapore has only one train station.

Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland!

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it's known as Tennessee!

Three Mile Island is only 2 1/2 miles long.

The Zip Code 12345 is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, New York.

The state of Wyoming is named after a valley in Pennsylvania.

The Pacific island of Nauru's economy is almost entirely based on bird droppings.

The Canary Islands were not named after a bird called the canary. They were named after a breed of dogs!

Manhattan Island of New York City was purchased for $24 from the Algonquian Indians in 1624!

Wyoming Fun Facts

   1. Wyoming's license plates feature a man on a bucking bronco.

   2. Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote.

   3. Yellowstone is the first official National Park (1872)

   4. Devils Tower was designated as the first National Monument (1906)

   5. The city of Gillette has the largest High School in the state (Campbell County High School)

   6. The first coal mine in Wyoming was in Carbon in 1867

   7. The largest coal mine in the USA is Black Thunder located near Wright.

   8. Wyoming leads the country in coal production in 1994 with 3 million tons per week

   9. The JCPenney stores were started in Kemmerer.

  10. The first Dude Ranch in Wyoming was the Eaton Ranch, near Wolf. The Eaton's also came up with the term "dude"

  11. The Horse on the Wyoming license plate has a name, "Old Steamboat". It is named after a bronc that could not be ridden back in the oughts or the teens.

  12. Wyoming has the lowest population of all 50 United States.

  13. Cody Wyoming is named after William "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

  14. The majority of Yellowstone Park lies within the boundaries of Wyoming.

  15. The Red Desert in south central Wyoming drains neither to the east nor to the west. The continental divide splits and goes around the desert on all sides leaving the basin without normal drainage.

  16. The Wind River actually changes its name in the middle of the stream becoming the Big Horn River at a site at the north end of the Wind River Canyon, where each year the Native Americans hold a ceremony depicting the "Wedding of the Waters."

Weird Laws

In Quitman, Georgia, US, it is illegal for a chicken to cross the road.

In France, it is legal to marry a dead person!

In Natoma, Kansas, it's illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits.

Moscow weathermen can be fined for inaccurate weather forecasting!

In Utah, it is illegal to swear in front of a dead person.

You can't plow a cotton field with an elephant in North Carolina.

It is illegal to mispronounce 'Arkansas' while in the state of Arkansas!

It is illegal NOT to smile in Pocatello, Idaho!

Fun Facts

Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice.

Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark!

Elvis had a twin.

Steve Jobs was half Arab.

Prince William's nickname in college was "P-Willy".

The Queen and her husband are both great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

When Prince William becomes king, he will be the forty-fourth monarch since William the Conqueror who was crowned in 1066.

One year, Elvis Presley paid 91% of his annual income to the IRS.

The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.

When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.

Virgina Woolf wrote all her books standing.

President Bush and Saddam Hussein both had their shoes made by the same Italian shoemaker!

No one knows where Mozart is buried.

Martha Stewart became a billionaire while in prison.

Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors.

King George I could not speak English!

During his lifetime, artist Vincent Van Gogh only sold one of his paintings.

Cleopatras real name was Auletes!

Geographical Facts

The water of the Antarctica is so cold that nothing can rot there.

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

If Antarctica's ice sheets melted, the worlds oceans would rise by 60 to 65 metres (200 - 210ft) - everywhere.

The warmest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was 3 degrees F.

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply.

There's a lake under Antarctica that is 25 million years old called Lake Vostok.

The Caspian Sea is also classed as the world's largest lake.

The Sahara desert expands at about 1km per month.

The North Atlantic gets 2.5 centimetres (1in) wider every year.

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%. The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year!

The state with the longest coastline in the Continental U.S. is Michigan.

The state of Florida is bigger than England!

The Niagara Falls moves upstream at an average rate of about 295ft a century!

The longest cave in the world is the 'Mammoth Cave System' in the USA at 560,000 mtrs deep!

The Dallas/Ft. Worth airport is larger than New York City's Manhattan Island.

The city of Houston, Texas is built on a swamp and is slowly sinking!

One cubic mile of seawater contains about 50 pounds of gold.

Mexico City is built on top of an underground resevoir!

Louisiana is the only state that grows in land area every year (Due to alluvial deposits from the Mississippi River).

Israel's Dead Sea is 1,312 feet below sea level.

If Manhattan had the same population density as Alaska, there would only be 15 people living there.

Every year, Alaska has about 5,000 earthquakes.

Check your map! Virginia extends farther west than West Virginia.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is 1,250 miles long!