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Samurai held viewing parties to watch cherry blossom fall.

According to CNN, in 2007, around the globe, at any moment there were 28,258 Internet users who were viewing pornography.

Koalas almost never need to drink water, getting sufficient water from the leaves they eat.

Abraham Lincoln was arrested for defecating in public at the age of 17. The charge was later dismissed and his record sealed.

Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, named many of the characters after his own family such as: Homer (his dad), Margaret (his mom), Maggie and Lisa (his sisters), and Abe (his grandfather). His brother Mark was the inspiration for Bart.  He chose to name the character “Bart”, though, because it was an anagram for “Brat”.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

Historical Rhetoric Twitter Style

What if Twitter had existed for over two centuries? Mankind might not have experienced the beautiful prose, witty quips and moving rhetoric produced by some of the world’s foremost speech writers. Here are some examples of the most famous English speeches of the past two hundred years as they would have been written on Twitter.

“Less is more.” – Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto

Abraham Lincoln
“The Gettysburg Address”
19th of November 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States

Tweet
This nation is conceived in liberty. All men are created equal. Government of/by/for the people shall not perish from the earth. #Gettysburg

Winston Churchill
“We Shall Fight on the Beaches”
4th of June 1940; House of Commons, London, Great Britain

Tweet
We shall defend our Island whatever the cost may be! We shall fight on the beaches, landing grounds, fields, streets, hills. #neversurrender

John F. Kennedy
“Ich Bin Ein Berliner”
26th of June, 1963; Rathaus Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany

Tweet
Freedom is indivisible. When one man is enslaved, all are not free. Free men, wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin. #IchbineinBerliner

Martin Luther King Jr.
“I Have a Dream”
28th of August 1963; Washington, D.C., United States

Tweet
I have a dream that black&white boys&girls join hands as sisters and brothers. My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. #freedom_ring

Barack Obama
“Yes We Can”
4th of November 2008; Grant Park, Illinois, United States

Tweet
Hope of a better day. Change has come to America. We’ve never been a collection of red&blue states. We are&always will be the USA. #YesWeCan

Niles: What happened to the concept of “less is more”?
Frasier:  Ah, but if “less is more,” just think of how much more “more” will be.
– Frasier (1999) Season 7, Ep. 13; “They’re Playing Our Song” [No. 157]

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In 1915, the British lock millionaire Cecil Chubb bought his wife Stonehenge. She didn’t like it, so in 1918 he gave it to the nation.

Pablo Picasso created some of his greatest works while wearing nothing but an apron and his favourite sandals.

Abraham Lincoln had a dog called Fido who was also murdered.

Harry Houdini’s real name was actually Erik Weisz.

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, the 63 letter German word meaning ‘a law on the delegation of supervising the labelling of beef’, is to be removed from the dictionary because it was not used often enough. Up until now, it was the longest word in the language. The 36 letter word Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung, meaning ‘motor-vehicle liability insurance’ will probably take over first place.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

Simile‏

From the Latin similis meaning ‘similar’. In English, a simile is a figure of speech that uses resembling words like is, than, like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar.

A simile differs from a metaphor in that the latter compares two unlike things by saying that the one thing is the other thing. Here are some famous examples of simile:

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
– Cicero

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
– Albert Einstein

“A house without books is like a room without windows.”
– Horace Mann

“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.”
– Abraham Lincoln

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”
– Frank Zappa

On Emancipation

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”

– Timothy Leary

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was first celebrated in early colonial times in New England. The actual origin, however, is probably the harvest festivals that are traditional in many parts of the world. After the first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists in 1621, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighbouring Native Americans. In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers.

The First Thanksgiving

Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same.

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving, and since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, generally designating the fourth Thursday of November as a holiday.

Certain kinds of food are traditionally served at Thanksgiving meals: first and foremost, turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table – so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as Turkey Day.