The gardens, number of slabs of marble, engravings of flowers, even the number of leaves carved and laden with emeralds on each side are perfectly symmetrical. The Queen's tomb is laid exactly in the centre.

The ONLY non-symmetrical part of the Taj Mahal is the King's tomb, as it was not planned to be placed there, but in a replica of the Taj to be built in black marble across the river. Since the Prince arrested his father, the plan to build the second Taj was cancelled, and the King was buried next to the Queen's tomb, thereby breaking the symmetry of the Taj. Still considered the most amazing of the seven wonders, the Taj has half the verses of the Quran inscripted on it; the other half were to be in the second monument.

The ancient Greek term "gymnos" means nude, and the original olympic games were in the nude in Athens. Hence the term "gymnasium"...

Well in 1792, France (home of the metric system or "SI") established a much better system: 100 seconds in a minute. 100 minutes in an hour. 10 hours in a day. (These "seconds" were .864 of our "seconds" but that's not too important). 10 days in a week. 3 weeks in a month.

Just like the metric system ("1000mL=1L" instead of "2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, 4 quarts in a gallon"), this time system makes so much sense. However, just 13 years later, Napoleon took over and returned France to the Gregorian system to please the Pope.

In both elections, partisan Florida Republicans gave the state's electoral votes to the Republic candidate, and the Democrats challenged the result. Both challenges were decided by a single vote cast by a Republican Supreme Court justice in favor of the Republicans.

It took the ship Titanic approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes to sink. Titanic, the film, runs 3 hours, 14 minutes.

The ship took 3 years to build, approximately the same amount of time it took to make the film.

Throughout WWII, Hitler was administered daily injections of methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant commonly known today as speed.

Other prominent folks who did the same include Queen Victoria and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The early plates only displayed the owner's initials.

After beating the British, we adopted the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781 -- forming a new country. John Hanson was chosen by Congress to be the first President of the United States. During his term, Hanson established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Hanson also declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day - still true today!

The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one-year term, so there were 7 other Presidents before the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789... making George Washington the 8th President.

It was even the German Martin Luther that thought of adding lighted candles to the tree: "Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles," according to the History Channel.

He was also the largest US President at 350 pounds and 6 feet. On several occasions he got stuck in his bathtub, prompting the installation of a new bathtub that could fit all the men that installed it.

In the 1920s, radio was booming, and broadcasters wanted to include advertisers to increase their station's profits. Soon, all the networks had serials aimed at women, and companies selling cleaners and food products rushed to sponsor the shows. For example, Proctor & Gamble's Oxydol soap powder sponsored a popular serial drama in 1933. By 1939 the press started calling the shows "soap operas" because so many were sponsored by soap manufacturers.

The original Thugs were bands of roving criminals in India who strangled and robbed travellers. Originally these gangs committed murder following precise religious rites to honor Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction.

Roosevelt, 42 years and 322 days at swearing in, took over the presidential office upon the assassination of WIlliam McKinley in 1901. Kennedy was already 43 years and 236 days when he began his term.

In 1582, the Church changed the calendar and those who continued using April 1 as the date of the new year were referred to as "April Fools."

Turns out there is no recorded date of Christ's birth. In AD 320, Pope Julius I chose December 25 in an effort to absorb the customs of the pagan festival Saturnalia, a holiday marking the winter solstice on Dec 22nd every year.

According to the World Association of Newspapers, documentation has arisen that shows a newspaper entitled "Relation" began printing in 1605 in Strasbourg, France.

Today more than a billion people read a daily newspaper in print.

When apple juice is left to ferment in a barrel for a few weeks, you get a hard cider, about half the strength of wine.

Better yet, the cider could be distilled into brandy or frozen into applejack (about 66 proof -- what a name for a kids' cereal, huh?). In rural areas, cider took the place not only of wine and beer but also of coffee, juice, even water. Now that's what makes a good folk hero!

On July 14, 1944, Irene Morgan boarded a bus from Gloucester, Virginia, to Baltimore and was passing through Richmond when she was told she was defying Virginia's 1930 law segregating seating by rows. She refused to move and was ejected. A state court rejected her argument, but in 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–1 that Virginia had no right to impose segregation beyond its borders.

It took Rosa Parks's similar refusal in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 to extend the same principle to bus travel within a state.

"Robot" comes from the Czech word "robotnik" which means slave.

Once, he got so carried away with the game that he gambled away a set of presidential china from Benjamin Harrison's administration.

The plains of Megiddo are perhaps one of the bloodiest places on earth having battles fought there by, among many others, Egypt, Persia, Assyria, the British Empire, and Napoleon. In fact, the earliest known recorded battle took place at Megiddo.

When Hitler proclaimed the coming of the "Third Reich", he meant that there was:

(1) Imperial Rome
(2) the Holy Roman Empire
(3) his conquests.

"Arena" is Latin for "sand". (The Coliseum floor was covered with sand)

The word "amphitheater" derives from having 2 ("amphi-") of the Greek style round semi-circle theaters with stadium seating connected together to make a full circle.