The first crash tests were performed with cadavers.

142 857 is the only cyclic number.

The motto of the former British Empire (England / United Kingdom) is in French, not in English!

Peyo invented the word “schtroumpf” (later translated as “smurf” in English) meaning “salt”, as he was asking Franquin to pass it.

The first magnetic audio recording dates from 1898.

Mir (Мир) means “peace” and “world” in russian.

The Eiffel Tower should have been dismantled after the Universal Exposition of 1889 for which it had been built; the Eiffel Tower has especially been saved by telegraphy.

HP founders tossed a coin to decide whether they would call their company Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

The eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain.

The full name of the city of Los Angeles is “El pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula”.

The hippopotamus can, when he has no choice, eat meat.

Matches were invented after the lighter.

Iran comes second in number of gender reassignment surgery (first is Thailand).

Plague is not eradicated actually: the WHO took a census of 2118 cases in 2003, among which 182 were fatal.

Chiropters (commonly known as bats), are the only mammals capable of flying.

In a fruit, the highest proportion of vitamins is contained in the peel.

This is a useless DYK and that is a good reason to like it.

Papa Smurf is 542 years old.

During the American Civil War, the general Lee's Southern troops called themselves “Lee's Miserables”, as a tribute to Victor Hugo's book, Les Misérables.

The well-known Pandora's box is actually a jar.