King Idris I was the first and last ruler of Libya. Born into the Senussi order, he was both a political and religious leader. Before becoming King of Libya in 1951 with the end of colonial control, King Idris I served as the Emir of Cyrenaica. Because of his conservatism, the king's rule was unpopular. Colonel Gaddafi, who eventually replaced King Idris I, was toppled in a coup orchestrated by Colonel Gaddafi in 1969.

The smallest kite in the world that actually flies is 5mm high; the largest kite in the world is 55 x 22 metres in size (630sq meters). The world's longest kite is 1034 metres (3394 feet). A kite's fastest recorded speed is more than 120 mph (193 km/h).

Malaysia is home to the world's biggest cave chamber. The Sarawak Chamber at Gunung Mulu National Park is enormous, with enough capacity for 40-50 Boeing 747s. It's another matter if you could actually park these jets in the Sarawak Chamber...

Few odours are as appealing as "new car smell," and it's not just because it's nice to be in a brand new car. However, while the scent may be strangely satisfying, it is actually a combination of 50+ chemicals (known as "volatile organic compounds") that are released into the car and decay quickly over time. The concentrations found in a typical new car are not dangerous, but VOCs found in nail polish, auto fuel, and petroleum contribute significantly to the new car smell.

USA's present 50-star flag was created by 17-year-old Robert Heff as part of a high school project. It was 1958, and there were only 48 states at the moment, but Heft had a feeling Hawaii and Alaska would get statehood shortly. His teacher gave him a B- but later raised the mark to an A after Heft submitted his design to the White House, resulting in a call from President Eisenhower announcing that it had been chosen as the official U.S. flag.

Humans have celebrated the start of each new year with parties, festivals, and religious ceremonies for millennia. However, we haven't always agreed on the beginning of the year. Four thousand years ago, the first new moon after the Vernal Equinox was regarded as the dividing line between the previous year and the new one in ancient Babylon. After Julius Caesar made major changes to the Roman calendar in 45 BCE, January 1 became the start of the new year for the first time. Ancient Romans commemorated the day with sacrifices to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings (after whom the month of January is named), as well as gift exchanges and large parties.

A local winery erected a fountain in the northern Italian town of Caldari di Ortona that splashes red wine instead of water 24 hours a day. The fountain is intended for pilgrims walking the Cammino di San Tommaso, a 196-mile journey from Rome to Ortona in the footsteps of St. Thomas the Apostle. Wine is a pleasant way to celebrate after such a long hike.

Dubai claims to have the world's largest picture frame. The 492-foot-tall Dubai Frame soars above the city's skyline and is a popular tourist attraction.

The most impressive artificial paradise, with a length of 1,000 yards, an area of 20 acres, and a maximum depth of 115 feet, can be found in Algarrobo city on the Pacific coast. It was named by the Guinness Book of Records as the World's largest swimming pool, with a length of 1,000 yards, an area of 20 acres, and a maximum depth of 115 feet. It can contain nearly 66 million gallons of crystal clean saltwater. The pool opened in December 2006 after five years of building work at a cost of about one billion dollars ($US) and an annual maintenance cost of roughly two million.

Although yellow is widely regarded as a mood-enhancing colour, it is not recommended as a primary colour scheme. According to studies, rooms with too much yellow may cause people to lose their tempers more easily.

Human settlers first arrived in Madagascar very recently, probably as late as 500AD, some 300,000 years after Homo sapiens originally appeared in Africa.

Yes, truly. Nintendo rented a warehouse in Tukwila, Washington, in 1981 to serve as its American headquarters. According to NPR, when a guy called Mario Segale went into his Nintendo tenants' offices demanding late rent, he created an impression. Even Segale's preference for overalls and short stature appear to have influenced Mario's design over time.

Hot chocolate was not something we were served in restaurants these days. Cocoa was brewed in both Aztec and Mexican cultures, but it was nothing like the hot chocolate we have today. It was primarily a bitter concoction that was frequently consumed at weddings and other special occasions. Many people used it as a medicine or as a base for other medications.

Ecologists estimate that treating one ton of ore yields 1–2 grams of gold. The same quantity of precious metal may be obtained by processing all gold-bearing components from 41 mobile phones. A tonne of electronics includes almost 300 grams of gold. However, the cost of the devices is prohibitively expensive for this gold-mining method to be profitable.

Algeria is the continent's biggest country, spanning more than 2 million square kilometres and borders Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania. This places it above Libya, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is about five times the size of Spain.

The origins of this strange-sounding celebration may be traced back hundreds of years, beginning in the early 1900s. People did not have refrigerators in the 1900s, so they hung a piece of cloth in their larders. It is thought that doing so provided the home good fortune, tranquilly, and wealth. The tradition evolved to accommodate the contemporary kitchen throughout time. Every year on May 29th, families throughout the world place a pillow on top of their refrigerator.

Santa Claus parades are held in a variety of places, and each one is unique in its own way. The parade in Peoria, Illinois, on the other hand, is the oldest of its sort in the United States. It's been going on every Christmas season since 1888—that's well over a century of festive pleasure!

Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, having conquered and established the world's biggest land-based empire. It spanned the Balkans to Pakistan. Alexander became sick in 323 BC and appeared to die after 12 days of intense torment. His corpse, on the other hand, showed no indications of decay or decomposition for a whole six days. Alexander was thought to have suffered from the neurological illness Guillain-Barré Syndrome, according to modern experts. They believe he was just paralysed and intellectually aware when he "died." In other words, he was horrifyingly buried alive!

These bizarre facts may cause you to alter your eating habits. Those fresh apples, on the other hand, aren't all that fresh. They're typically picked between August and November, waxed, hot-air dried, and shipped to cold storage. They finally appear on grocery store shelves after six to twelve months. These apple might not keep the doctor away....

Christian Dior technically invented designer sunglasses when, in the early 1960s, they licenced their brand to be used to produce luxury sunglasses for discerning fashionistas. Using Optyl, his own lightweight thermo-hardening material, he converted expensive sunglasses into more wearable everyday items. The properties of this material also allowed for a wider choice of models, from broad and original lines to previously discovered hues and delicate degradé of translucent, brown, green, and grey colours that still mark Dior's beautiful and refined style.

Fischer was charged in 1992 with violating economic sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia. He came out of retirement to earn $5 million in a rematch against his old nemesis, Boris Spassky. Fischer never returned to the United States and eventually settled (and died) in Reykjavik after renunciating his American citizenship.

Hüseyin Kalkan, the mayor of Batman (a town in southern Turkey), sought to sue Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan in 2008 for exploiting the town's name without authorization. Despite saying that there was only one Batman in the world, there was no true news about it after that. Batman originally debuted in a comic book in 1939. The issue is, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In Greek mythology, Zeus had a passionate love affair with Europa, a Phoenician princess. To entice her away, he disguised himself as a bull and carried her off to sea on his back, transporting her to the island of Crete. The famous 1747 painting "The Rape of Phoenicia" by Francois Boucher sits at Paris' Louvre.

It's true: the fourth-smallest country in Europe has no airports. In fact, the Principality of Liechtenstein lacks both a harbour and a shoreline, making it a doubly landlocked country. That is, it is landlocked, and the nations bordering it are also landlocked. The nearest airport is St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport in Switzerland, however there are other options for getting to Vaduz, including train, bus, and vehicle.