Or so history would have us believe...

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Sunday, 29 June 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• Crude oil was drilled for in ancient China. In the 6th century it was recorded that hollow bamboo rods were driven into the ground in search of brine to provide salt for cattle. In the process, they also came across natural gas and flammable petroleum, which they used themselves or sold for fuel.
• In the great fire of London in 1666, half of London was burned down but only six people were injured.
• All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.
• The United States have never lost a was in which mules were used.
• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• The roads on the island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no sand. The sand on the beaches is actually ground coral. When concrete is mixed, the coral sand is used instead of importing regular sand from thousands of kilometres away.
• In the Dutch province of Twente, people live on average half a year shorter than in the rest of the Netherlands.
• Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river.
• A person born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), had there birthplace listed as a post office box in Albuquerque.
• Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe's first modeling agency.
• City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California, says that it is a misdemeanour to kill or threaten a butterfly.
• Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital.
• South Africa is the only country with three official capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.
• Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time.
• On the morning of 10 August 1813, residents of Saint Michaels, Maryland, having been forewarned of a British attack, hoisted lanterns to the masts of ships and in the tops of the trees. The height of light caused cannons to overshoot the town. This first known blackout was effective and only one house was struck and is now known as the "Cannonball House".
• Although you sometimes hear that Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to go around the world, he never did. He led the historic voyage that left Spain in 1519 with five ships under his command, but Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines by islanders in 1521. One of his ships completed the around-the-world trip, arriving in Spain in 1522 with a crew of 18 - but without Magellan.
• A dog was killed by a meteor at Nakhla, Egypt in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature known to have been killed by a meteor.