Did You Know...…

• Before the year 1000, the word “she” did not exist in the English language. The singular female reference was the word “heo”, which also was the plural of all genders. The word “she” appeared only in the 12th century, about 400 years after English began to take form. “She” probably derived from the Old English feminine “seo”, the Viking word for feminine reference. • There are no letters assigned to the numbers 1 and 0 on a phone keypad. These numbers remain unassigned because they are so-called “flag” numbers, kept for special purposes such as emergency or operator services. • After the French Revolution of 1789 selling sour wine was considered against national interest and the merchant was promptly executed. • For 3000 years, until 1883, hemp was the world’s largest agricultural crop, from which the majority of fabric, soap, paper, medicines, and oils were produced. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. The US Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. • The word malaria comes from the words mal and aria, which means bad air. This derives from the old days when it was thought that all diseases are caused by bad or dirty air. • The oldest inhabited city is Damascus, in Syria. • The names of all the continents end with the letter they start with. On every continent there is a city called Rome. • The first city in the world to have a population of more than one million was Rome (Italy). • Tokyo was once known as Edo. • The US flag displays 13 stripes – for the original 13 states. • The pleasant feeling of eating chocolate is caused by a chemical called anadamide, a neurotransmitter which also is produced naturally in the brain. • Due to earth’s gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 metres. • US citizens watch the most TV. By age 65, an American would have watched the equivalent of 9 years uninterrupted screening, viewing more than 20,000 TV commercials per year. • Sound travels through water 3 times faster than through air. • Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated. • In a desert, a mirage is caused when air near the ground is hotter than air higher up. As light from the sun passes from cooler to warmer air, it speeds up and is refracted upward, creating the image of water. Quote: A youth with a single aim in life arrives early at the harvest. With GOD everything is possible.