Nelson Mandela was South Africa's first black president.

To become a liquid, hydrogen must be cooled to a temperature of -423 Fahrenheit.

Rockets were first invented in the early 1200s by the Chinese as their "fire-arrows."

Louis Braille got the idea for Braille from night-writing, a form of code for soldiers, invented by Charles Barbier.

When air confined to a cylinder is suddenly compressed, its temperature rises.

In an internal-combustion engine, a mist of liquid fuel is mixed with oxygen and burned to release chemical energy.

The first practical steam engine was invented in 1712.

Nearly 1 third of Tanzania is set aside for national parks and game preserves.

The capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, was formerly named Leopoldville.

Egypt was the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel.

Chemical energy is stored in the bonds that hold molecules and chemical compounds together.

Most deserts receive less than 10 inches of rainfall per year.

To find out what your weight would be on the moon, divide your own weight by 6.

Your body has 100 oil glands and 700 sweat glands per square inch of skin.

Samuel Crowther was the first black bishop of the Church of England.

Dr. David Livingstone named the Victoria Falls in Africa after Queen Victoria.

Oil spills are sometimes broken up using detergent.

The Ethiopian eunuch mentioned in Acts is the first recorded African Christian.

The word "pinniped" means wing-footed, and is applied to walruses, seals, and other aquatic mammals of that variety.

The stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world.

To eat, starfish push their stomachs outside their bodies.

The Rosetta Stone was discovered near Rosetta, Egypt, in the year 1799, by a French army officer.

The Bay of Fundy in Canada can have incoming tides that rise to as much as 50 feet.

Queen Hatshepsut was the only woman pharaoh of Egypt.

Porcupines have around 30,000 quills on their bodies.

Ancient Egypt had three seasons: the Flood season, the Planting season, and the Harvest season.

A bee must eat 7 pounds of honey for it to make 1 pound of wax.

The French composer Claude Debussy had horns!

Greenland is the largest island on Earth.

About 85 percent of Japan's land is mountainous.

The Mongol Empire was the largest empire in history.

The term "radiation" was coined by Marie Curie.

The ruby is the rarest of all gemstones.

The first people to invent the hot-air balloon were Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier.

The first real paper was made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree by the Chinese.

Sandstone which contains quartz is used to make glass.

Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and Latin America on November 1-2.

The deepest hole in the world is in Russia, where it is 7 1/2 miles deep and 392 Fahrenheit.

The purple dye that colored Roman emperors' robes came from a gastropod.

Dolphins are known as the only animals that love man just because, instead of because they get food and care from man.

The Volga is the longest river in Europe.

Some animals have a tapetum behind their retina that allows them to see in the dark.

Each of a fly's compound eyes have 4,000 lenses.

Nehru was India's first prime minister.

The Mauryan Dynasty ruled India at the time of Christ.

Hans Lippershey invented the first telescope.

The civilization of India began around the Indus River.

The Nile is the longest river in the world, but the Amazon is largest in the volume of water it carries.

Light travels 186,000 miles per second.

The glass-winged butterfly has transparent wings. (Big surprise.)

Istanbul is Turkey's largest city. (Originally, Istanbul was called Constantinople.)

The British controlled the country of Jordan from 1921 to 1946.

The modern nation of Israel was founded in 1948.

The Pony Express began April 3, 1860.

The Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.

Horses have padded cushions on the bottom of their feet called frogs.

Fully-grown male hippopotamuses can grow up to be 12 feet long.

The Israelites were released from Babylon by Cyrus the Great.

The giant panda's diet is 99% bamboo (it eats only a small amount of meat.)

Cats are the second most popular pet.

The American Kennel Club recognizes 140 breeds of purebred dogs.

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on the earth's land surface.

The poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb," is believed by most to be written by Sarah Hale, while others believe that a man named John Roulstone wrote it.

The aggressive red squirrel is often called the chickaree.

In the 1300s through the 1600s, the bubonic plague swept through Europe, killing over 60 million people.

Platypuses and echidnas are the only mammals that lay eggs.

Blue whales are approximately 100 feet long.

Hiram Maxim, the American who invented the machine gun, also created a steam-powered flying machine. However, unlike the machine gun, the flying machine was a failure.

King Ur-Nammu ruled in Ur, Sumer, in the year 2100 B.C.

While some think that goldenrod causes hay fever, the true culprit is ragweed.

The Sumerians invented the wheel and writing.

The Tigris River in the Fertile Crescent is believed by some to be the Hiddekel River mentioned in Genesis.

Beetles make up 1 quarter of all the animals in the world.

The coldest desert in the world (besides Antarctica) is the Gobi Desert.

The Caspian Sea is the largest landlocked body of water in the world.

Christian Konrad Sprengel was the first to discover pollination.

Flowers have both male parts (stamens) and female parts (pistils).

The diameter of the earth is 8,000 miles, and the circumference is 25,000 miles.

Male swans are called cobs.