useless trivia

The word 'denim' comes from 'de Nimes', Nimes being the town the fabric was originally produced.

The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth

Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died.

China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.

Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.

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.

Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.

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.


The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.

Queen Elizabeth I passed a law which forced everyone except for the rich to wear a flat cap on Sundays.

Sir Winston Churchill rationed himself to 15 cigars a day.

The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards.

The active ingredient in Chinese Bird's nest soup is saliva.

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.

The study of stupidity is called 'monology'.

Princess Ann was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.

Due to staggering inflation in the 1920's, 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 German marks were worth 1 US dollar.