Col
d Facts: 10 Fascinating Pieces of Trivia You Probably Didn't Know
1. The shortest war in history lasted only 38 minutes. In 1896, the British Empire declared war against the tiny African kingdom of Zanzibar. The British forces opened fire on the palace of the Sultan of Zanzibar, destroying it in less than 40 minutes. The war ended with no British casualties and only 500 Zanzibarans dead.
2. The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss. In his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo," Dr. Seuss introduced a creature he called a "nerd". It wasn't until the 1970s that the term became associated with smart, socially awkward individuals.
3. The shortest scheduled flight in the world is only 90 seconds long. The flight from Westray to Papa Westray in Scotland covers a distance of just
2.7km and takes only 90 seconds to complete. The record for the shortest ever flight is held by Loganair, which operated a one-minute flight between Westray and Papa Westray in 201
6.
4. The world's first recorded computer program was created by a woman. Ada Lovelace, a mathematician and writer in the 19th century, is credited with writing the world's first computer program. She was working on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer, and wrote a series of notes that included an algorithm designed to be processed by the machine.
5. The tallest mountain in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons, located on Mars, is 22km high and has a diameter of 600km. It is three times larger than Mount Everest and is the tallest mountain in the solar system.
6. The inventor of the Frisbee was turned into a Frisbee after he died. Walter Fredrick Morrison, the inventor of the Frisbee, requested that his ashes be turned into Frisbees to be distributed to his friends and family after he passed away in 20
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7. The shortest war without a single casualty was between Denmark and the British Virgin Islands. In 1985, Denmark declared war on the British Virgin Islands after a dispute over fishing rights. The conflict was resolved peacefully just three days later, without a single casualty.
8. The first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel did it on her 63rd birthday. Annie Edson Taylor was a schoolteacher who decided to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 190
1. She survived the stunt, becoming the first person to do so, and was celebrated on her 63rd birthday.
9. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. The Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Australia, is made up of billions of tiny creatures called coral polyps. It is the only living structure on Earth visible from space and is over 2,300km long.
10 The world's first traffic light only had two colors: red and green. The traffic light was invented in 1868 by J.P. Knight, a railway engineer in England. It had only two colors because the third, yellow, was added later to warn drivers to slow down before the light turned red.