Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

the 3d ACR is the last heavy cavalry unit in active combat duty in the army.

The first stamp, the Penny Black, put on sale on 1 May, was valid from 6 May, 1840.

Benjamin Franklin invented the flexible urinary catheter.

Smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated, from humans.

The U.S. military receives $711 billion per year in funding, constituting approximately 50% of military expenditure in the world.

BBC Radio 2 is the most popular radio station in the UK.

The pillory was formally abolished as a form of punishment in England and Wales in 1837 but the stocks remained in use, albeit extremely infrequently, until 1872.

Coffee was first consumed in the 9th century, when it was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia.

Oregon ranks 4th nationally in craft breweries per capita.

Westminster Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, as it is a place of worship that falls directly under the jurisdiction of the British monarch, rather than a diocese.

Texas the highest percentage of people with a religious affiliation in the United States.

Karl Marx's is buried at Highgate Cemetery London

With the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths every year since 1901 in England.

Bell-bottoms are trousers that become wider from the knees downwards.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Oregon ranks 4th nationally in craft breweries per capita.

and, as has been posted earlier has more of those breweries per capita than Germany gotta love how my home state drinks

of course, we, along with Washington (the state) has among the highest suicide rates in the country.

reds8n wrote: One of the "heroes" of the infamous "Black Hawk Down" is a convicted child molester.

In the film the character of John "Stebby" Stebbins had his name changed to Ranger Danny Grimes. He was played by Ewan McGregor. The military asked the author to change the name in the screenplay as it was felt it might be embarassing as Stebbins was sentenced to 30 yeras in the year 2000 for the rape and sodomy of a child under 12.

lovely.

Both Armadas expeditions, The Spanish Armada of 1588 and the English Counter Armada of 1589, ended up in disaster for the attacking country.

M.

Goats have horizontal slit-shaped pupils, an adaptation which increases peripheral depth perception.

The Thylacine was one of only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes (the other is the Water Opossum).

Cinderella Castle at Disneyworld it’s 189 feet tall, which is more than twice the size of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland (77 feet tall)

M.

Yummy!

Technically, green peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatos are fruits. But per the 1893 case Nix vs. Hedden, the US Supreme Court decided tomatos were veggetables and therefore subject to the vegetable tariff. The Supreme Court’s reasoning was that tomatos have to be vegetables because they’re usually served with dinner, not dessert.

M.

Lord Bingo wrote:The reason that the british drive on the left hand side of the road goes back to the 18th century. The reason was so that passing horseman could easily swipe there swords at each other as most people at this time were right handed.

If my history serves me correctly, the majority of traffic across the world was on the right side of the road. The reason being nobles on horse would clash swords (commonly on the left hand side of their body) if they were to travel on the right hand side of the road. When Napolean took control of France, due to his hate for the nobles, he declared that France switch to travel on the other side of the road. As he invaded the rest of Europe, he brought this practice into other countries he conqured (although this story isn't 100% confirmed).

The shift happened in America due to larger carts. The carts hand no driver seat so a guy would sit on the left horses to make sure they would keep clear of oncomming wagons, forcing them to travel on the right.

Other growing economies bought in cars from Europe and America which were already right hand drive making the natural progression for their country to drive on the right.

Macau, based on revenues and profits, is the Gambling Capitol of the World.

The russian word Gulag did not originally mean prison as everybody thinks, it´s the acronym of The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies the government agency that managed the camps.

M.

Infamous British Comedian extrodanaire, Spike Milligan has a Gaelic inscribed Gravestone, which when translated is intended to read 'I told you I was ill'

It would have been in English, but the local Parish objected. The reason I say it is intended to read thusly, is that no one in his family can read write or speak Gaelic, so it was done largely on trust!

On average annually work kills more people than war.

Before becoming Pope Pius II, AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini was a poet, scholar, rake and an author. His most successful work was in fact an eroctic or bawdy tale.

In 1996 The House of Representatives Permanent Select Commitee on Intelligence released a report entitled "Ic21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st century". Listed in part of this report is the fact that the CIA routinely commits over 100,000 serious crimes each year that " not only risk political embarassment to the US but also endanger the freedom if not lives of the participating foreign nationals and, more than occassionally, of the clandestine officer himself".

Under phylogenetic taxonomy, dinosaurs are usually defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops and modern birds.

The euro is the official currency of sixteen member states of the European Union.

The federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed a federation when the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901.

Caffè espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing steam or hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.