The Most Amazing Facts About History.

1. Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word "GOLF" entered into the English language.
2. In ancient China, doctors could receive fees only if their patient was cured. If it deteriorated, they would have to pay the patient.
3. It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world.
4. The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.
5. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
6. Charles Dickens always faced north while sleeping.
7. Roman coins have been dug up in America, suggesting that perhaps the Vikings or Columbus weren't the first Europeans to visit the New World. The coins were found in locations as far afield as Texas, Venezuela and Maine. One stash was found buried in a mound in Round Rock, Texas. The mound is dated to approximately 800 A.D. In the town of Heavener, Okla., a bronze tetradrachm bearing the profile of Emperor Nero was found in 1976. The coin was originally struck in Antioch, Syria, in 63 A.D.
8. In 1920 for the first time in recorded history, the average life expectancy of human beings exceeded that of goldfish. Before that year, a newborn infant could expect to live 48.4 years. For many species of wild goldfish, the projected life span was over 50.
9. Peter the Great executed his wife's lover, and forced her to keep her lover's head in a jar of alcohol in her bedroom.
10. People have been wearing glasses for about 700 years.
11. Seven of the eight US Presidents who have died in office - either through illness or assassination - were elected at precisely 20-year intervals.
12. The US federal income tax was first enacted in 1862 to support the Union's Civil War effort. It was eliminated in 1872, revived in 1894 then declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the following year. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the US tax system.
13. People drank gold powder mixed in with water in medieval Europe to relieve pain from sore limbs.
14. The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the sandstone it was built out of. After the War of 1812, during which it had been burned by Canadian troops, the outside walls were painted white to hide the smoke stains.
15. The custom of shaking hands with the strangers originated to show that both the parties were unarmed.