The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour.
Elvis Presley’s family was very poor. While he was growing up, during a one-week period, they only had turnip greens to eat.
The word “scofflaw” was coined in 1924 (during Prohibition) to mean a person who drinks illegally. The word came about as a result of a nationwide contest held by the Boston Herald. The winning prize of $200 was split between Henry Irving Dale and Kate L. Butler, who both came up with the same word, a compound of the words scoff and law.
In March 1980, nurses at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas were caught betting amongst themselves on how long critically ill patients would live. In some cases, the odds may have been stacked against patients to alter the betting outcome.
When dingoes first came to Australia about 4,000 years ago with Southeast Asian seamen, they caused the extinction of many other mammals, including the mainland’s population of Tasmanian devils.
This article appears in June 10 • 2016.