Approximately 25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal, and approximately 20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever.
14
Napoleon Bonaparte thought torture should be abolished because the information obtained from it is worthless.
25
The first bomb dropped by the Allies on berlin in WW2 killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
-53
India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
59
Tablecloths were originally meant to serve as towels with which guests could wipe their hands and faces after dinner.
78
Beethoven, was told by a music teacher that he had no talent for music. In fact, this teacher once remarked, “As a composer he is hopeless.”
184
In 1799, a boy found a 17lb. rock in a creek in North Carolina and used it as a doorstop. It was actually gold.
34
After Germany surrendered in WW2, people in Moscow partied until the entire city actually ran out of vodka.
66