Carrots were originally purple. The Dutch monarch carrot planted seeds together until the carrots grew orange to match their royal color – The House of Orange. Orange carrots were a symbol of prestige.

From its completion in 125 A.D. until 1958, the Pantheon’s domed ceiling was the largest unsupported concrete span in the world. It was surpassed only with the construction of the CNIT building in Paris.

People disappearing form cruise ships happens regularly, with about 200 incidents since 2000. The missing persons is often not reported until after luggage goes unclaimed, making the chances of finding them dismal at best.

In the Holocaust between 5.1 and 6 million of Europe’s 10 million Jews were killed. An additional 6 million ‘unwanted’ people were also executed, including more than half of Poland’s educated populace.

All of the officers in the Confederate army were given copies of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, to carry with them at all times. Robert E. Lee, among others, believed that the book symbolized their cause. Both revolts were defeated.

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.

The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.

On Dec. 10th 1901 the 1st Nobel prizes were awarded. Literature – Rene Sully-Prudhomme; Physiology – Emil von Behring; Chemistly – Jacobus van’t Hoff; Physics – Wilhelm Roentgen; Peace – Jean Henri Dunant Frederic Passy.

The Emperor Caracalla–a tyrant remembered for slaying his brother and building the extravagant Baths of Caracalla–was murdered by his own guards while he was relieving himself. That may be where the phrase “caught with your pants down” comes from.

In ancient Greece, the condemned would be locked in a hollow, bronze bull, called the brazen bull, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside roasted to death. The screams and movements inside made the device look and sound like an actual angry bull.

The Colosseum has long been known as a site of Christian martyrdom. It was converted into a shrine as early as the sixth century and still serves as the venue for the Vatican’s Good Friday services. However, there is no evidence that Christian persecutions ever took place in the Colosseum.

Britain’s present royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was changed in 1917, during WW1 because of German connotations. The name Windsor was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time the Battenberg family name of the cousins to the Windsors was changed into Mountbatten.

Napoleon took 14,000 French decrees and simplified them into a unified set of 7 laws. This was the first time in modern history that a nation’s laws applied equally to all citizens. Napoleon’s 7 laws are so impressive that by 1960 more than 70 governments had patterned their own laws after them or used them verbatim.

Martha Washington in the only woman whose portrait has ever appeared on a US currency note. Her portrait was on the face of the $1 silver certificate issues of 1886 and 1891, and on the back of the $1 silver certificate of 1896. Sacagewea and Susan B. Anthony are the only women pictured on a US coin. Both were honored on a dollar coin.

The “Spruce Goose” flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, it is the largest aircraft ever built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320 feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon, Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again.