Alaska, the biggest state in the United States, was sold for a total of $7.2 million, or roughly 2 cents per acre. In 1867, the state was bought. America made its $7.2 million investment back more than 100 times over in the 50 years that followed. Talk about a good investment.

During the Classical Period, Ancient Sparta was a colossally rich kingdom. Mostly because of their conquest and dominance over a nearby people known as the Helots. When a Spartan boy attained maturity and became a man, the Spartan state bestowed upon him a grant of public farmland. They also sent him a contingent of Helot slaves to work it. This effectively transformed every Spartan citizen into a rich member of the traditional upper class. As a result, they did not have to work for a living. Private property still existed, which is significant because...

Where the Wild Things Are was originally titled Where the Wild Horses Are, and Maurice Sendak intended to write about horses; however, the author and illustrator quickly realised he was terrible at drawing horses and decided it would be better to draw 'things' instead; thus, one of the most memorable children's stories of all time was born.

Kites were first seen in America in the mid-1700s, according to history. Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers, famously flew a kite during a thunderstorm in 1752 to demonstrate an experiment about electricity and nature. This is the first documented kite flight in American history, and Franklin demonstrated that lightning carries electricity. He would later invent the lightning rod as a result of this experiment. What a fascinating fact about kites—it aided one of the world's best inventors in making a fascinating discovery.

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...

Muammar Gaddafi took power in Libya in 1969 and reigned for 42 years. As a result, he became one of Africa's and the world's longest-serving leaders of state. Gaddafi was well-known for being a despotic ruler. He did, however, serve his country well by increasing health care to the point that it was among the finest in Africa. He also boosted Libya's literacy rate from 25 percent to 87 percent during his tenure. When he was removed from power in 2011, his reign came to an end. The militia hunted him down and murdered him in his hometown, where he had sought safety. Gaddafi's net worth was $200 billion at the time of his death.

In the United Arab Emirates, the week begins on a Sunday! Sunday in the UAE is just like any other day, with children going to school and adults going to work. Weekends are Friday and Saturday for them. Because Friday is a special religious day in Islam for afternoon prayers, many Middle Eastern countries follow this timetable.

Cocoa beans contain pathogens that are potentially harmful to humans, and raw cocoa beans do not taste like chocolate. When cocoa beans are roasted, they go through a chemical process, and proper roasting is essential for producing flavorful chocolates.

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.

Nobody knows for sure where the kites came from. Flying kites is said to have begun around 3000 years ago in China. The first person to fly a kite was Chinese General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty. Han was actually calculating the distance his army would have to travel to reach the defences.

Despite the fact that Nazi scientists tried to produce weaponized versions of illnesses such as typhoid and cholera, Hitler banned the employment of offensive biological weapons in war, probably due to his experiences with bioweapons during World War I.

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.

It wasn't Henry Ford's Model T back in 1908. The first vehicle was built in the nineteenth century by European engineers Karl Benz and Emile Levassor who were working on automobile ideas. In 1886, Benz patented the first vehicle.

It goes without saying that the ancient Babylonians were excellent mathematicians. They understood the Pythagorean theorem, for example, nearly 4,000 years ago, or more than a millennium before Pythagoras himself was born. Their mathematical prowess naturally extended to astronomy, where they routinely used arithmetic to catalogue celestial body movements and improve their astronomical predictions.

Guinness World Records certified the mixed-use hotel and office complex as the World's Farthest Leaning Manmade Tower in 2010. The lean of the Capital Gate structure is 18 degrees, which is more than four times that of Italy's famous leaning Tower of Pisa.

In Korea, age is given precedence over all other considerations. When conversing with someone of a higher rank or age, formal language must be used. Similarly, when conversing with a junior/someone younger, you can use informal language (banmal, ). Unless two people agree to use banmal at the same time, this usually remains the case. Even in a k-pop group with members who are mostly around the same age, a few months difference in birthdate can make a big difference.

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.

"The sediments underneath Earth's seas are home to roughly 2.9 x 1029 microorganisms, which survive at depths of up to 2.5 km below the seafloor." The bulk of this deep subseafloor biosphere develops incredibly slowly in comparison to life on the top, with cell division estimated to occur once every 10-1000 years or so. Scientists are discovering new microscopic life sources further and deeper beneath the ocean than ever before. In March, a team of scientists announced that they had discovered remnants of bacteria (about 10 billion bacterial cells) in rocks 400 feet below the bottom, which was the deepest ever discovered.

Most people are unaware of how biodiverse Papua New Guinea is; the magnificent wildlife underwater has made it one of the world's best scuba diving destinations. Despite having only 1% of the Earth's total surface area, Papua New Guinea includes 20,000 plant species, 800 coral species, and over 650 fish species. Do you have your PADI scuba diving certification? If you don't have one, you should obtain one before going to Papua New Guinea to make the most of this unique underwater world.

Though it was not the first film ever made, "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) was the first to tell a story and is widely regarded as the first narrative fiction film. It was produced by Thomas Edison's Edison Studios and was only about 12 minutes long. The filming took place in New Jersey. 

In the year 1,000 AD, half a millennium before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, Greenlandic Viking chief Leif Eriksson arrived on the island of Newfoundland. Leif Eriksson's Vikings inhabited Newfoundland, as well as finding and populating Labrador further north in Canada.

Just One Letter Long Ten villages in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have names that are only one letter long. The city name, which means "little brook or river" in the Scandinavian languages, appears nine times in the nations. Sweden has the word, which meaning "island."

Edison was, without a doubt, one of the world's most renowned intellectual property thieves. He stole nearly all of the 1,093 things he smashed a patent on from real geniuses like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Rontgen, and Joseph Swan – the latter of whom invented the lightbulb!