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That famous "hole in the ground" is the subway.

England is the home of the subway. The first system, called the London Transport Executive, began to operate in 1863, while the United States was deeply involved in the Civil War.

The Longest Subway System In The World is the The London Tube, with 408 km of tracks.

Thirty-five years passed before Boston opened the first American underground system in 1898. Read more »

Until the early 1960's, headhunting was a common practice among the Ilonget tribesmen who live deep in the jungles of the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

For a young man of this tribe, the taking of a human head was the way he demonstrated that he was brave and grown up. When he returned home with his prize, he was greeted with great joy and celebration.

Of course, for the person whose head he had taken, there was no such party. These victims were generally members of less fierce and warlike tribes living in surrrounding areas. Read more »

Every joint in your body is slicker than a skate on ice.

As a matter of fact, your body is so well lubricated at its joints that they have only one-third the friction of a sharp skate slicing its way over a hard-frozen pond. The human body is truly amazing.

Did you know that a strand of your hair is stronger than an equal-size strand of copper or nylon?

Did you know that if you are trained, and it does take some training, your eye can pick out 17,000 different shades of color, all the way from one end of the color spectrum to the other? Read more »

Delivering fresh milk was a problem in the days before refrigeration.

In small towns and cities around the world, a farmer often delivered milk to his customers in the freshest way he knew. He brought the cow with him.

The customer bought what he or she needed. The cow delivered the milk right into the customer's own pail. The farmer then went to the next house down the road to make another delivery, his cow walking beside him. Read more »

The Indians of the Southwest and Mexico live in a hot, dry region. It is the kind of land where few plants can grow.

Corn won't grow there, but these original Americans had "popcorn." They had no rubber trees, but by chewing the ends of a short plant until the sap came out and then working the sap with their hands, they formed "rubber" balls.

The "popcorn" and "rubber" came from two of the many forgotten Indian plants, plants that recently have been "found" by non-Indian Americans. Read more »

Recent scientific studies have proven that there is nothing as good for people as the light of the sun.

That doesn't mean sunburn, just plenty of natural light. The natural light of the sun produces certain hormones in our bodies, and these hormones tend to keep us from becoming sick.

Our skin produces Vitamin D when exposed to the sun.

These are the body's protection against colds, influenza and infections. They are like built-in antibiotics. They form what scientists call our immune system. The artificial light used in homes and offices is not like the light of the sun. Read more »

Many people believe that Harry Houdini was the greatest escape artist of all time. And perhaps he was.

He performed escapes all over the world while tied, chained, and weighted. He managed to escape from nearly every type of container.

Many of his most exciting performances were escapes made while he was imprisoned underwater. Houdini spent a lot of time underwater struggling to free himself before running out of air and drowning. Read more »

If birds and flowers can have inner clocks that tell them when to fly south or when to bloom, why can't humans? Why can't all animals?

Scientists at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts are certain that they have found this special clock in the human brain. It tells us when to sleep and when to wake.

Without it, we would be waking and sleeping all during the day. That is what happened to some laboratory test animals when the scientists interfered with the operation of their clocks. Read more »

SmokeJumpers jump just where you'd guess they might, into smoke. The name smoke jumper is given to a very special group of 350 forest firefighters.

These man are trained to parachute from low-flying planes into parts of the forest that are hard to reach. Their job is to try to stop a forest fire before it gets so large it will be difficult to handle.

At the first sign of trouble, smoke jumpers are rushed into action. They have special clothing that protects them from the extreme heat. Their helmets, glasses, and gloves are all specially made for the job. Read more »

Two of the most famous sharpshooters of all time were Annie Oakley and Daniel Boone.

Annie toured with Bufffalo Bill's Wild West show for 17 years during the late 1800's. She was such a crack shot that the emperor of Germany performed in her act when the show came to his country.

He would put a cigarette in his mouth, and Annie, standing 100 feet away on the other side of the big tent, would shoot the ash off his cigarette. That was a great shot and a cool emperor. Read more »