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.

An ultra-luxurious lodge has been opened on Nosy Ankao, the biggest of five islands off Madagascar's northeast coast. Miavana (only accessible by helicopter) is a destination for "blue safaris," which include opportunities to see turtles, whales, and dolphins, as well as scuba diving and fishing. There's also a fantastic spa. But start saving now - doubles start at £3,220 per night.

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. 

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.

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....

Korean popular music can be traced back to 1885, when an American missionary named Henry Appenzeller started teaching American and British folk songs at a school. These songs were usually based on a popular Western melody and were sung in Korean.

Despite being surrounded by poverty, wealthy inhabitants of Soroca have turned to flaunting their riches by constructing flashy residences inspired by monuments such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Bolshoi Theatre. As a result, the settlement, called Gypsy Hill, has become something of a tourist attraction, with visitors arriving to marvel at the bizarre buildings.

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.

The lone resident of Monowi, Nebraska, is 83 years old. She is the mayor, librarian, and bartender of the city. Elsie Eiler is her name, she pays her own taxes, and she considers individuals who live 40 miles away to be her neighbours.

"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.

While Assassin's Creed is already a household brand, it almost became something quite different. The original crusade-era period game was inspired by a Prince of Persia game called Prince of Persia: Assassin, which had a prince's bodyguard as the protagonist. Unhappy with the thought of a Prince of Persia game not being about a prince (which, interestingly, Nintendo doesn't see as an issue with when it comes to Zelda), Ubisoft's upper brass insisted on a new brand, and Assassin's Creed was created.

The entire ban was based on the discovery of a picture of a swastika-adorned Pooh owned by a single person known for supporting the Nazi party. That was apparently enough to get Winnie banned for good.

Since 1995, Charles Martinet has provided voices for Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and other Mushroom Kingdom characters. It's all thanks to a friend who urged him to attend an audition at a tradeshow in Las Vegas to which he had not been invited. When Martinet arrived, the audition team had already begun to pack up their belongings. Fortunately, they still let him audition for the part.

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.

Anthropologists have discovered evidence that pre-Olmec cultures in Mexico produced chocolate around 1900 B.C. Chocolate's origins can be traced back to Mesoamerica. The Aztecs (a Mesoamerican civilization) traded cocoa beans with the Mayans because they believed they were a gift from Quetzalcoatl, the God of Wisdom. When the Aztecs took over Mesoamerica, they had a strong desire for cocoa beans, which could not be grown in the heart of their civilization. As a result, they were forced to rely on the Mayans and trade cocoa seeds with them. These were known to be so valuable that they were used as currency.

If you look closely at your zipper, you'll notice the letters YKK, which stand for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha. This business, founded in Tokyo in 1934, is believed to create 7 billion zippers every year.

Texas is where German chocolate cake was invented. The "German" in German chocolate cake is the work of an American man, not a European country. It is named after Sam German, who created the formula for a mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker's Chocolate Company in 1852, which was later renamed Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate. Let's go back to June 13, 1957. According to What's Cooking America, the Dallas Morning Star published the recipe for the cake, which was invented and submitted by a reader identified as Mrs. George Clay.

The Nazis pondered releasing an army of potato bugs on their adversaries, which they felt might be dumped on England to ruin its crops and bring severe starvation. However, experts recognised that almost 40 million insects would be required for the operation if it was to be successful—though several million had been hoarded by the time the war ended.

Libyan tea is thick because it is made with a lot of tea leaves and a lot of sugar. It is mostly made by women. The tea boils for 20 to 30 minutes after the two components are combined and a suitable amount of water is added. When the tea is done, it's served in little pyrex glasses with sumak and khobza, two popular Libyan snacks.

It is clear in Ukraine that the majority of the population speaks both Russian and Ukrainian. However, if you truly want to be a local, Ukrainian, which is also the official language, would be preferable. And, much to your dismay, English is not generally spoken here.

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?

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.

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...

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.