Gargoyles

Contrary to popular belief, gargoyles were added to churches and buildings to serve as drain pipes, not to keep evil spirits away.

[Note: I apologize for this confusing and ill-written post.]

Lost Days

Great Britain and its colonies only had 354 days in 1752. This was because it adopted the Gregorian calendar this year.

Colors

In Winkelmann und sein Jahrhundert, Goethe states that the workers of mosaics in Rome use about 15,000 varieties of color. Furthermore, they can use 50 shades of each variety meaning that they roughly have 750,000 various colors at their disposal. Even so, the workers say this is not enough to create all the designs they want.

The Sand Reckoner

In the second century BC Archimedes of Syracuse estimated that it would take 10⁶³ grains of sand to completely fill up the known universe.

McDonald's Theory of War

In a 1996 New York Times article economist Thomas L. Friedman first stated the following popular fact: "no two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other."

This is not true. The following pairs of countries both have a McDonald's and have gone to war, thus breaking this theory: Georgia and Russia and Israel and Lebanon. There might be more.

Ancient Egypt

In Ancient Egypt both men and women wore make up. The colors varied but two of the more common ones were green (copper based) and black (lead based). The make up was primarily used as protection from the sun, but many believed that it had healing powers.

Some pyramid builders left behind graffiti on the pyramids they built. They wrote such things as "Friends of Kufu" and "Drunkards of Menkaure."

Some more facts can be found here.

Lethal Irony

In 19th century England, anyone who attempted suicide and failed faced the death penalty.

Tomato!

An 1893 United States Supreme Court decision (Nix v. Hedden) declared the tomato a vegetable. However, this only applies when dealing with US tariffs. For all other purposes the tomato is a fruit.

PR Purposes

Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Nazi's rise to power:

• The abbreviation for the top commander of the United States fleet was CINCUS (Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet), which was pronounced "Sink Us"
  
• Adolf Hitler's Special Train was named Amerika
• The 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army had a shoulder sleeve insignia that featured a swastika

All three were changed soon thereafter.