You learn something new every day

I came across this site while surfing the net, and found it extremely interesting. I've copied/pasted my favorites:

~ When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn't understand German

~ Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'

~ 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.

~ 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

~ Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups

~ 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

~ 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

~ At the age of 12, Martin Luther King became so depressed he tried committing suicide twice, by jumping out of his bedroom window

~ Peter the Great had the head of his wife's lover cut off and put into a jar of preserving alcohol, which he then ordered to be placed by her bed

~ Atilla the Hun is thought to have been a dwarf

~ On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan.

~ Some moral purists in the Middle Ages believed that women's ears ought to be covered up because the Virgin Mary had conceived a child through them

~ It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia

~ In parts of Malaya, the women keep harems of men.

~ Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.

~ It costs more to send someone to reform school than it does to send them to Eton.

~ It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. The modern term 'testimony' is derived from this tradition

~ Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marring a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again

~ A parthenophobic has a fear of virgins

~ Dublin is home of the Fairy Investigation Society

~ George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.