Dame Judith Anderson received two Emmys, one in 1954 and the other in 1961, for Best Actress in a Single Performance for Macbeth, becoming the first person in TV history to win the trophy twice for the same role in two different feature productions.

The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs

L. Frank Baum, the author of the "The Wizard of Oz," couldn't swim. He always smoked a cigar when he was wading in the water so he could tell when he was getting in too deep.

In 1769 the British designer Edward Beran enclosed wooden slats in a frame to adjust the amount of light let into a room. These became known as venetian blinds from their early use over Italianate windows.

Green turtles may breed for the first time when they are between 25 to 50 years old. This figure varies, depending upon the creature's range and the diet of the maturing turtle.

The Statue of Liberty measures 35 feet in diameter at the waist. The robe forms the outer shell of the statue, and there is no "torso" underneath.

Because its tongue is too short for its beak, the toucan must juggle its food before swallowing it.

An earl is a British nobleman of a rank below that of a marquis and above that of a viscount. An earl was called a count for a time after the Norman Conquest. The wife of an earl is a countess.

Karl Marx was targeted for assassination when he met with two Prussian officers in his house in Cologne in 1848. Marx had friends among the German labor unions, and he was considered a threat to the autocrats. Dressed in his bathrobe, he forced the officers out at the point of a revolver, which,

The name of the Pilgrim's second ship that was to accompany the Mayflower to the New World was the Speedwell. It had to turn back because it wasn't seaworthy.

The optimum depth of water in a birdbath, says the Audubon Society of America, is two and a half inches. Less water makes it difficult for birds to take a bath; more makes them afraid.

All the planets in our solar system could be placed inside the planet Jupiter.

Glamorous sex kitten during the 1950s, starring in movies such as Trapeze and Solomon and Sheba, Gina Lollobridgida retired from films in the 1970s to become a professional photographer.

Since the 1980s, Birkenstock footwear has become popular among medical professionals (e.g. dentists, nurses) and others who work on their feet. In Germany, the sandals are most often used as houseslippers, but in the United States they have become a part of everyday clothing from professionals to blue collar workers, even to the entertainment ...Read more

The English-language alphabet originally had only 24 letters. One missing letter was "J," which was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. The other latecomer to the alphabet was "U."

While, certainly, the vote on July 2 was the decisive act, July 4 is the date on the Declaration itself. Jefferson's stirring prose, as edited by the Congress, was first adopted by the vote of the 4th. It was also the first day Philadelphians heard the official news of independence from the Continental Congress, as opposed to rumors in the ...Read more

The point of a samurai sword is called a Kissaki. This is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge and to hand create a quality one would require an extremely skilful artisan. The value of a sword is determined largely by the quality of the point.

In 1843, mathematician Ada Byron published the first computer programs. She based them on Jacquard's punch-card idea. Her programs were for the first general-purpose mechanical digital computer that had just been invented by Charles Babbage.

Held since 1785, the Bristol Fourth of July Parade in Bristol, Rhode Island is the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States.

In Bangkok, Thailand in 1996, police searched the men's room of Thailand's Parliament after an anonymous bomb threat was phoned in. They got a surprise. They found a box they feared contained a bomb, but discovered the contents were an abandoned monitor lizard. "Monitor lizard fails to explode in MPs' toilet," the Bangkok Post reported in its ...Read more