No -- In 1547, Henry died, to be succeeded by Edward VI. Edward was England's first Protestant monarch; his Parliament's Act of Uniformity prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer. The Lady Mary, desirous of maintaining the old Roman Catholic form, asked to be allowed to ...Read more

There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. A common legend states that Nobel decided against a prize in mathematics because a woman - said to be either his fiance, wife, or mistress - rejected him for or cheated on him with a famous mathematician, often claimed to be Gosta Mittag-Leffler. There is no historical evidence to support the story, and ...Read more

Nike, Inc. is a major American supplier of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment. The company took its name from Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory, after company designer Jeff Johnson presented the name to founder Phil Knight.

The steel industry in 1943 introduced the 5-day, 40-hour work week. Henry Ford adopted it in 1926.

Murphy's 1949 autobiography To Hell and Back became a national bestseller. In the book Murphy modestly describes some of his most heroic actions -- without portraying himself as a hero. Instead, he chose to praise the skills, bravery, and dedication of the other soldiers in his platoon. Murphy played himself in the inevitable 1955 ...Read more

The lungs of an average adult, unfolded and flattened out, would cover an area the size of a tennis court.

Moderate dancing burns 250 to 300 calories an hour. Twenty minutes of moderate dancing will elevate heart rate up to aerobic levels. One study found polkas, swing dancing, and waltzes to be particularly effective for weight loss.

Young cockroaches need only a crack as thin as a dime (about .5mm wide) to crawl into. Adult males can squeeze into a space of 1.6mm or the thickness of a quarter. Pregnant females need the most space to hide: 4.5mm or a space as tall as two stacked nickels.

Woodbury Soap was the first product to show a nude woman in its advertisements. The year was 1936. Edward Steichen's photograph showed a rear, full-length view of a woman sunbathing – wearing only sandals.

In Australia, the Number 1 topping for pizza is eggs. In Chile, the favorite topping is mussels and clams. In the United States, it's pepperoni.

As with boot cut hems, the trend began in Europe and spread rapidly around the world. Today both boot cut and flare leg pants remain popular both in denim and higher quality office wear. In menswear straight leg also gave way to boot cut looks, again initially in Europe, and has made it's leap into flare leg, for officewear, the same as what ...Read more

The letter "W" is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have just one syllable – it has three.

A new star is born in our galaxy is born every 18 days. About 20 new stars are born each year. For comparison, there are 100,000 million stars in our galaxy.

The bumblebee does not die when it stings it can sting again and again. In bumblebee hives, the entire colony, except for the queen, dies at the end of each summer. Each year, an entirely new colony of bees must be produced.

In Morocco's High Atlas Mountains, the shape of a single Ait Hadiddou woman's hood determines her eligibility status for marriage. A rounded hood alerts that she is available to single men only by traditional betrothal. A peaked hood is worn by a widow or divorcée. This signifies that the woman is open to a proposal of instant marriage without ...Read more

The average human eyelash lives about 150 days.

In recent years, young people have begun to use the term "preppy" as slang to describe those who appear clean-cut or strive to seem better off financially than others in a middle class environment. In most regions, especially amongst young people, this usage has virtually replaced the traditional

In Worcester, Massachusetts, the city has proclaimed itself the birthplace of the yellow smiley face, saying senior citizen-resident Harvey Ball first drew it in 1963 to help subdue the bitter aftermath of a corporate takeover.

The Sahara Desert comprises an area as large as Europe. Its total land mass is some 3,565,565 square miles.

Brazil is a land with a lot of big creatures -- it is home to the world's largest snake (the anaconda, measuring up to 35 feet in length), largest spider, largest rodent (the capybara, a sort of guinea pig the size of a police dog), and the world's largest ant.