The U.S. Mint was authorized to produce one-cent copper coins on April 2, 1792. Originally, there were four designs struck: the "chain" cent, the "wreathed" cent, the "flowing hair" cent, and the "liberty" cent.

One way birds learn is by trial and error. Scientists have discovered that many of their learned motor patterns are linked to appetite. For instance, young doves must learn to drink water. The pecking of domestic chicks improves about 30 hours after hatching. They snatch up a grain with increased efficiency. Simple trial-and-error learning is ...Read more

The ancient race game Snakes and Ladders originated in India it's undetermined exactly when. It's a game of morality with the bases of the ladders being located on squares representing various types of good and the more numerous snakes coming from squares representing various forms of evil. The squares of virtue on the original game are Faith ...Read more

When asked about the unexpected impact she had on the women's liberation movement with her 1970s blockbuster song "I Am Woman," singer Helen Reddy admitted, "I certainly didn't hear it as a hit. I didn't hear it as an anthem."

He did, but it's probably not the Robin you're thinking of. The editors at DC Comics had slowly had Dick Grayson's (the first Robin) character age over the years and the time came when he left Batman's side to become another hero, Nightwing. The Dark Knight took on a new sidekick, Jason Todd, a young street orphan whom he first encountered while...Read more

The Partridges had a brief resurgence in animated form which saw the family propelled into the future. The animated Partridges first appeared when the kids did a series of guest spots on Goober and the Ghost Chasers. That idea evolved into a CBS Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon in

Brazil and the Côte d'Ivoire are leaders in the cocoa bean belt, accounting for nearly half of the world's cocoa.

The modern dinner plate is a fairly recent development. Until the 15th century, it was customary to eat on a thick slice of stale bread, called a "trencher," that soaked up the juice.

Jerk barbecue can be traced to the 1600s, when Jamaican runaway slaves preserved and cooked meat in dug-out pits and basted it with native herbs, spices, and chile peppers. The name "jerk" has uncertain origins. It is believed by some culinary experts to be derived from the Spanish word "charqui," which means dried meat, or from the French term ...Read more

As recently as half a century ago, there was no clear understanding as to why the sun shines. The discovery that it is due to nuclear-fusion reactions was not made until the 1930s, by Hans Beth and Carl von Weizsacker.

Rainbow Bridge, Nature's abstract sculpture carved of solid sandstone, is the world's largest natural-rock span -- 278 feet wide and 309 feet high. Technically, it is located in Utah just north of the Arizona state line, but "Arizona Highway's Travel Arizona" book cites it as a local attraction.

If a pin was heated to the same temperature as the center of the Sun, its heat would set alight everything within 60 miles of it.

Some neutron stars spin 600 times a second, which is as fast as a dentist's drill.

The rare metal gallium melts at 86 degrees Fahrenheit. It is safe to touch; if you hold a piece of it in your hand and wait, it will melt.

John VIII (died 882) was the first Pope to be murdered – he was poisoned and then clubbed to death.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a nearly continuous spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc, with red on the outside and violet on the inside. Even though a rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of ...Read more

The name of the broken-down, partially blind old horse Ichabod Crane rode in Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow was Gunpowder.

Located about 45 miles south of San Francisco, San Jose was the first nonreligious community founded in California. Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe was settled in 1777 by enterprising farmers who wanted to make themselves and the bountiful region independent of Mexico and the network of Spanish missions for their supplies. Fruit and olive trees,...Read more

The collection of antique dog collars at the popular tourist site of Leeds Castle, four miles east of Maidstone in England, spans five centuries and is the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. The collection has more than 100 collars and related exhibits tracing the history of canine neckwear from Medieval times to the present...Read more

The hottest day ever in Canada was July 5, 1937 when the mercury soared to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in Midale and Yellowgrass, Saskatchewan. But that's downright chilly compared to the United States where the temperature hit 56.7 (135 F) degrees Celsius on July 10, 1913 at Death Valley, California, and Al'azizyah, Libya, where ...Read more