Interesting Facts - Page 56

Graham crackers were inspired by the preaching of Sylvester Graham, a 19th century American preacher. Graham believed that eating a bland vegetarian diet would reduce people's dangerous sexual desires.

The Secret Service that protects the U.S. President used to be part of the Department of the the Treasury. Their original mission was to stop the spread of counterfeit money, a function which they still serve today.

From the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, England experienced "survival of the richest". Wealthier families had more surviving children than poor families. Over time, the upper classes gradually replaced the lower ones. If your ancestors were born in England, it's likely that most of your DNA comes from people who were wealthy in the year 1200.

Just before the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba went into effect in 1962, John F. Kennedy asked his Press Secretary Pierre Salinger to get him 1,000 Cuban cigars.

In 1894, there were 50,000 horses in London collectively dropping about 1 million pounds of manure a day. The Times looked at the growth rate and projected that by 1944 London would be covered in 9 feet of manure.