2. The world’s first travel agencies were Cox & Kings, founded in 1758, and Thomas Cook, founded in 1850.

3. A dog was the first in space and a sheep, a duck and a rooster the first to fly in a hot air balloon.

4. Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.

5. Excavations from Egyptian tombs dating to 5,000 BC show that the ancient Egyptian kids played with toy hedgehogs .

6. Beer was the first trademarked product – British beer Bass Pale Ale received its trademark in 1876.

7. Playing-cards were known in Persia and India as far back as the 12th century. A pack then consisted of 48 instead of 52 cards.

8. Accounts from Holland and Spain suggest that during the 1500s and 1600s urine was commonly used as a tooth-cleaning agent.

9. Julius Caesar was the first to encode communications, using what has become known as the Caesar Cipher.

10. The first mention of soap was on Sumerian clay tablets dating about 2,500 BC. The soap was made of water, alkali and cassia oil.

11. The first animal in space was the female Samoyed husky named Laika, launched by the Soviets in 1957.

12. In 1958 the US sent two mice called Laska and Benjy into space.

13. In 1961 the US launched a male chimpanzee called Ham into space.

14. In 1963 the French launched a cat called Feliette into space.

15. Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps, on 1 May 1840. Hence, UK stamps are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin.

16. Napoleon’s christening name was Italian: Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born on the island of Corsica one year after it became French property. As a boy, Napoleon hated the French.

17. John Rolfe married Pocahontas the Red Indian Princess in 1613.

18. Only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still survives: the Great Pyramid of Giza.

19. The first parachute jump from an airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1912.

20. On 21 June 1913, over Los Angeles, Georgia Broadwick became the first women to parachute from an airplane.

21. The first written account of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, was made in 565AD.

22. The world’s first skyscraper was the 10-storey Home Insurance office, built in Chicago in 1885. (During Roman times buildings were up to 8 storeys high.)

23. In ancient times, it was believed that certain colours could combat the evil spirits that lingered over nurseries. Because blue was associated with the heavenly spirits, boys were clothed in that colour, boys then being considered the most valuable resource to parents. Although baby girls did not have a colour associated with them, they were mostly clothed in black. It was only in the Middle Ages when pink became associated with baby girls.

     Weird Historical Facts:

1. 3000 years ago, most Egyptians were considered old and died by the age of 30.

2. Amount American Airlines proved how economy could make us save a fortune by saving $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating just one olive from each salad served in first class.

3. Ancient Egyptians used slabs of stones as pillows.

4. In 1962, the schools in Tanganyika had to be closed because of an outbreak of contagious laughter that lasted for six months!

5. In 1980, workers in a Las Vegas hospital were suspended because they use to bet on when patients would die.

6. In ancient China, doctors could receive fees only if their patient was cured. If it deteriorated, they would have to pay the patient.

7. In ancient Egypt, people shaved eyebrows as a mourning symbol when their cats died.

8. In the 1800s, if you attempted suicide and failed, you would have to face the death penalty.

9. Niagara Falls experienced a break of half an hour in 1848, when an ice jam blocked the source river.

10. People have been wearing glasses for about 700 years.

11. Lochness Monster inhabits the fresh water lake of Scotland.

12. Spider webs were used to cure warts during the Middle Ages.

13. The custom of shaking hands with the strangers originated to show that both the parties were unarmed.

14. The number of people over hundred increased from 4,000 in 1960 to 55,000 in 1995 in US alone.