Cleaning Out The Trivial Stuff Files Again

Being too lazy to write anything of my own, it seemed the perfect time to clean out some more of the 'trivial junk files'. Have fun!!

~Born 4 January 1838, General Tom Thumb's growth slowed at the age of 6 months, at 5 years he was signed to the circus by P.T. Barnum, and at adulthood reached a height of only 1 meter.
~Because they had no proper rubbish disposal system, the streets of ancient Mesopotamia became literally knee-deep in rubbish.
~The Toltecs, Seventh-century native Mexicans, went into battle with wooden swords so as not to kill their enemies.
~China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.
~The Amayra guides of Bolivia are said to be able to keep pace with a trotting horse for a distance of 100 kilometres.
~Sliced bread was patented by a jeweller, Otto Rohwedder, in 1928. He had been working on it for 16 years, having started in 1912.
~Before it was stopped by the British, it was the not uncommon for women in some areas of India to choose to be burnt alive on their husband's funeral pyre.
~Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'.
~Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.
~An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of its own missiles.
~The Anglo-Saxons believed Friday to be such an unlucky day that they ritually slaughtered any child unfortunate enough to be born on that day.
~During the eighteenth century, laws had to be brought in to curb the seemingly insatiable appetite for gin amongst the poor in England. Their annual intake was as much as five million gallons.
~Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups.
~The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.
~The cost of the first pay-toilets installed in England was tuppence.
~Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.
~In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.
~Mao Tse-Tung, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, was born 26 December 1893. Before his rise to power, he occupied the humble position of Assistant Librarian at the University of Peking.
~Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petroleum.
~King George III was declared violently insane in 1811, 9 years before he died.
~In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man.
~For Roman Catholics, 5 January is St Simeon Stylites' Day. He was a fifth-century hermit who showed his devotion to God by spending literally years sitting on top of a huge flagpole.
~When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
~The richest 10 per cent of the French people are approximately fifty times better off than the poorest 10 per cent.
~Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle.
~During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army.
~Richard II died aged 33 in 1400. A hole was left in the side of his tomb so people could touch his royal head, but 376 years later some took advantage of this and stole his jawbone.
~The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
~The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols, judging them to be out of keeping with the true spirit of Christmas.
~Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems.
~Uri Geller, the professional psychic was born on December 20 1946. As to the origin of his alleged powers, Mr Geller maintains that they come from the distant planet of Hoova.
~Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20th of February.
~John D. Rockefeller gave away over US $500,000,000 during his lifetime.
~Only 1 child in 20 is born on the day predicted by the doctor.
~In the 1970's, the Rhode Island Legislature in the US entertained a proposal that there be a $2 tax on every act of sexual intercourse in the State.
~Widows in equatorial Africa actually wear sackcloth and ashes when attending a funeral.
~The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years.
~The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.

Now you can impress your friends(or bore them to tears). Until the mood to write strikes again, take care.