Traf’s Trivianarium (0000091-0000100) Series 10

TRIVIA 0000091:

Did you know that Harriet, Charles Darwin's pet tortoise, died in 2006 at an age of 176 years old, yet its owner died more than 120 years earlier?

TRIVIA 0000092:

Did you know that a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times in a minute?

Human's normal resting heart rate for an adult ranges from 60-100 beats per minute.

TRIVIA 0000093:

Did you know that in 1535 during the reign of Henry VIII, there was a tax imposed on men's beards?

Growing a beard has been a status symbol, the more beard you have, the more you gain respect in the society. But Russian Emperor Peter the Great already imposed taxes on growing beards earlier at the end of 17th century.

Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII, also continued her father's law to impose taxes on growing beards. Under her reign, she mandated that any beard with over two weeks worth of growth had to be taxed.

TRIVIA 0000094:

Did you know that some of the velociraptor noises used in the 1992 Jurassic Park film were the sounds of a pair of tortoise mating?

TRIVIA 0000095:

Did you know that the father with the most children in one wife was a peasant man from Shuya, Russia, named Feodor Vassilyev?

He had 69 children, including 16 twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets on his first wife.

On his second wife, he had 18 children, including 6 pairs of twins and 2 sets of triplets, making him again the man with the most children, with 87 in total.

TRIVIA 0000096:

Did you know that everything weighs less than 1% at the equator? 

Earth has a bulge at the equator created by the planet’s rotation. The planet exerts less pull on you when you are at the equator since you are further away from the bulk of Earth's mass than at the poles. Say for example, in Brazil, objects there weigh a mere 0.5% less than the poles --- less than a pound for anyone under 200 pounds.

TRIVIA 0000097:

Did you know that newborn dolphins and killer whales don't sleep for a whole month after birth? 

Their mothers neither sleep too, to keep track on their offsprings. The newborn whales and dolphins were continually active, surfacing for air every 3 to 30 seconds. They also kept at least one eye open to track their mothers too.

TRIVIA 0000098:

Did you know that in 1927, the Oscar's Best Actor award should go to the dog named Rin Tin Tin? 

The Academy refused to give an award to a dog, as for the reason that human actors should be deserved for an award instead.

TRIVIA 0000099:

Did you know that a Mexican general named Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1794-1896) had a state funeral for his amputated leg? 

He was also the 8th president of Mexico.

TRIVIA 0000100:

Did you know that William James Sidis (1898-1944) is considered to be one of the smartest men in history to have ever lived? 

At age 4, he taught himself Greek and Latin language and read the book of Julius Caesar (Gallic Wars) and Homer's Iliad. He also wrote 4 books between age 4-8 (which are now lost). At age 6, he learned Aristotelian logic, and languages like Russian German, French, Hebrew, Turkish and Armenian. He was also fascinated and learned to read calendars and could calculate what day of the week any date in history would fall on. At age 7, he passed the anatomy exam for Harvard Medical School. At age 8, he was better in Mathematics than his genius psychologist father. 

He had also a photographic memory of all he had read. At age 8, he passed the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) entrance exam. At age 11, he entered Harvard University and became an expert in Applied Mathematics. At age 16, he graduated Medicine. Until his death, he can speak over 200 languages. His IQ was estimated between 285-300 points (where 90-100 is for a normal person). He was one of the most famous child prodigies in his generation, a child who knows too much.