Interesting facts about advertising campaigns of global brands.

Today, within the framework of our section "World Brands", we decided to deviate a little from the tradition of publication topics and talk about a seemingly ordinary product - scissors, but their price starts from 1000 euros. V modern world often the origin of a thing speaks of its quality. Think, for example, a Swiss watch, a German car, Russian caviar. All these things are united not only by the high price, but also ...

Even children know that the world consists of particles. We recently had the opportunity to look at such particles with the naked eye. Moreover, now you can even touch them. The conversation will be about Lego. People spend about 5 billion hours collecting blocks every year. If this number is divided by all the inhabitants of the earth, you get about an hour for each.

There are cars that are good on their own. It is a pleasure to ride them. Such cars include cars of the famous brand "Bugatti". The French company "Bugatti" and its amazing products have left a noticeable mark in the history of the world automotive industry. Therefore, today, within the framework of our permanent heading "World Brands", we will acquaint you with the history of the creation and development of the famous Bugatti brand.

Today, in the "World Brands" section, we decided to publish the biography of one of the most secretive, but at the same time popular women in Russia. It will be about the ex-wife of Vladimir Putin - Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putin (nee Shkrebneva). In 1958, on January 2, Lyudmila Shkrebneva (Putin) was born in Kaliningrad. Lyudmila's father worked first as a postman, and then as a turner at a repair plant, and her mother worked in ...

There are many examples when young people, keen on an idea, achieved a lot in their lives. Some of them did not have a rich inheritance, while others struggled to the top of fame literally out of poverty. There are many examples of this. One of the highs was made by a poor teenager named Jason Daniels, carrying through the years the famous taste and recipe of Jack Daniels whiskey. Mr. Daniels was very devoted to his beloved ...

Today, under the heading "World Brands" Andrey Shipilov has prepared for you a publication about the largest fast food chain in the world. The future owner of thousands of restaurants around the world, Fred de Luca was born into a family of immigrants from Italy in 1948. From an early age, the boy tried to earn money on his own and his parents saw that a big man would grow out of their child. Beginning with...

In Germany (in Wiesbaden) in October 96 of the last century, shocking information about the well-known speculator of the planet - George Soros was published on the pages of the report of the bureau called the Executive Intelligence Review. Soros was accused of world scams and speculations that affected the lives of ordinary people in entire countries. Until now, a number of experts believe that he ruined the main bank of England, the leadership of which, in response ...

Bernard Arnault is the owner of LVMH, a successful French businessman. Was born on 03/05/1949 in a wealthy family. Already in his youth, Bernard Arnault began to be interested in luxurious things, he studied fashion trends, art and understood good wines. Bernard Arnault is known worldwide as the number one figure in the production of luxury goods and wealth. Arno controls at least sixty brands from the world ...

become an increasingly significant part of brand promotion policies. Sometimes in order to come up with a name for a company, brand or brand a large team of professionals gathers, multiple brainstorms are conducted, focus group surveys, market research, and all in order to generate a unique name for the brand.

Few people know that big number names of world famous brands was invented by students or based on musical tastes, wordplay, typos, puzzling abbreviations. But, despite this, brand names have become entrenched in the minds of millions of people around the world and have made companies popular and successful.

The most famous examples of the stories of the creation of naming of world brands:

The world famous search engine got this name quite by accident. Initially, the search engine was called BackRab, a little later in 1997, its founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin, decided to change the name of the search engine. The brainstorming session took place in a Stanford dormitory among students who were trying to come up with a name for a system capable of processing colossal amounts of information. Then Larry Page came up with the idea to call the system "googol" - a number with 100 zeros, among students it simply meant "an unimaginable amount." The student who entered the name made a mistake while registering the domain names, so “google.com” appeared.

Facebook

The first project of the creator of Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg, became a hooligan site that posted photos and data of students stolen from the Harvard University site that were to be evaluated by visitors, and this site was called Facemash. For this act, Zuckerberg was expelled, but he created new project... The name came to his mind quite by accident, after he came across a book that was presented to all graduates of the school that Zuckerberg graduated from - "The Photo Address Book", which the students simply called "The Facebook" - a photo album.

In contact with

The founder of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, looking for a name for his project, listened to the Echo of Moscow radio in the background, where the phrase was often repeated: “In full contact with information”. Removing unnecessary words, Durov was named the most famous social network.

Apple is the favorite fruit of Steve Jobs (the founder of the company). After three months of futile attempts to come up with a name for the company, Steve Jobs threatened his partners that if they did not come up with a better name by five o'clock, he would call the company "Apple" - "Apple."

HP(Hewlett-Packard)

This name was derived from the names of the founders of the company. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard flipped a coin to choose whose name would appear first in the title. Bill Hewlett won!

The favorite letter of the founder of the company - George Eastman - is the letter K. He searched for a long time for words that began and ended with that letter. After a long search, he settled on the word "Kodak", as he believed, this is the sound the camera makes when shooting.

The fact is that before the creation of the company, only wet copying technology existed in the world. That is why the inventor Cestor Carlson so wanted to emphasize the use of dry dye powder in copying technology. Based on this, it was decided to use the word "Xer" in the title - with Greek"dry".

Coca-cola

The most popular soft drink got its name from the fact that the original recipe for the drink looked like this: three parts of coca leaves to one part of tropical cola tree nuts.

The drink was first made by pharmacist Caleb Bradham, who derived the name Pepsi from pepsin, a digestive enzyme that helps break down proteins.

The founders of the company really wanted to choose a short and laconic name, then they came across the Latin word sonus - "sound". At that time (1950), the American word sonny was widely used in Japan, which was consonant with the word sonus. However, the word sonny spelled out in hieroglyphs read as "unprofitable", then the founders solved the problem by deleting one letter n from the name.

Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of the company, Imtaryd is the native village where Ingvar Kamprad was born and started his business.

Often, even the most avid fans of certain brands do not think about the story behind them. So, for example, holding an iPhone from Apple in our hands, the thought of the forbidden fruit is unlikely to come to us, and buying a can of Coca-Cola in a store, we will not even remember the composition of the fizzy. Therefore, we decided to compile a selection of ten famous brands, the history of the creation of which is really interesting to read.

Coca - Cola

Everyone knows the story of the pharmacist John Stith Pemberton, who literally could not live without the creation of various chemical solutions. One fine day, inspired by the idea of ​​producing a new tonic drink, he developed a composition based on coca leaves and tropical cola tree nuts. The drink, called Coca-Cola, was initially sold only through a vending machine in a city pharmacy, and now it is on the shelves of almost any store.

Apple

The history of founding the most expensive brand in the world is not as simple and romantic as it might seem at first glance. Several versions have come down to us at once. So, according to one of them, the name of the brand, according to the idea, was the personification of the forbidden fruit, which you want to taste. According to another version, the founder of the company, Steve Jobs, decided to give the company just such a name, because he was on the apple diet. Another version says that in this way the company could appear in the telephone directory in the first place, overtaking the legendary game maker Atari in the list. But Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claims that everything is much more prosaic - this name was chosen due to the fact that there were many apple orchards in Jobs' home area.

Adidas

There is a version according to which, at one time, the word "addidas" was a household word and was used to refer to any sportswear. This word was mainly used in the French-speaking countries of Europe, and bypassed the English-speaking ones. It is not difficult then to guess where the name Adidas could have come from (the differences are only in one letter). Others point out that the name is taken from the first letters of the once applied slogan "All Day I Dream About Sport". However, a more famous version says that the once friendly brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler founded their own shoe factory, but after a quarrel they began to conduct business separately. As a result, Adolf founded the Adidas company (the name was chosen from the abbreviation of the name "Adi"), and Rudolph founded the Puma company.

IKEA

With the history of the emergence of the name of one of the world's largest retail chains selling furniture and household goods, everything is quite simple than in the previous three cases. IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, where the first two words are the first and last name of the company's founder, Ingar Kamprad, the third word is the name of the farm, and the fourth is the name of the suburb where he was born. Here's a cipher!

Amazon

As the founder of the largest American Internet retailer Jeff Bezos said in an interview with one of the foreign publications, the company is named after the longest river in the world. The top manager explains this decision by the fact that he wanted to make the business as huge and powerful. Actually, he practically succeeded in achieving this.

Etsy

The history of the name of the famous online store was carefully hidden for a long time, and this was done on purpose. The founder of the company, Rob Kalin, later said that the etymology of the word lies in the Italian phrase et si, which literally means "oh yes." This is how Italians express the point of expression of the highest satisfaction. Among other things, this expression can very often be heard from the lips of the heroes of Kalina's beloved film "Eight and a Half" by Federico Fellini.

Lego

Lego, for its long 84-year history, still has not lost ground and is the most recognizable brand in the world of toys. The company was founded in 1932 by the carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who himself was from a small town and until then only made stepladders and stools. Ole Kirk was able to decide on the name of the company only two years after its foundation. Then he announced a competition for the best brand name and he himself won. The company got its name from the Danish phrase “Leg godt”, which means “to play well”.

Nike

One of the most popular sports brands and a direct competitor to Adidas, its name owes its name to Nike, the winged goddess of victory. It was her, as the legend says, that Jeff Johnson, a talented manager who stood at the origins of the company, saw in a dream. Originally, Nike, founded by Phil Knight, was called Blue Ribbon Sports, but was later renamed.

Barbie

The legendary doll, which in fact is already 57 years old, is named after the daughter of the founders of Mattel (manufacturer Barbie) Ruth and Elliot Handler - Barbara. Ruth first came up with the idea for a doll when she saw her daughter playing with paper dolls, looking like adults. It was then that she decided to create a doll with the help of which children will be able to fully "play as adults."

Starbucks

The history of the founding of the famous coffee chain is quite prosaic: three friends, English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Zigal and writer Gordon Bowker just loved to drink tea and coffee and decided to open their own establishment where people could taste their best examples. The Starbucks name was coined in honor of one of the characters in the novel by Herman Melville "Moby Dick". It is about a hero named Starback, who often drank coffee and practically could not live without it. Well, the interior of the network itself also adheres to the concept of a nautical style.

Translation by Bella Kodzokova

Procter & Gamble

William Procter and Joseph Gamble became friends because they were married to twins (I mean, one for each). Actually, their father-in-law advised them to do business, whose last name has not been preserved in history.

Hennessy

The most popular French drink in the world was invented by an Irish-born Englishman Richard Hennessy in 1765.

Heinz

You must have noticed that “57 varieties” are written on each bottle of the sauce. it turned out like this. In 1896, the founder of the company, Henry John Heinz, was traveling by train to New York on some unimportant business and saw a shop on an unnamed station with a sign "21 kinds of shoes!" Heinz really liked the numerological approach to advertising. so the number appeared on the bottles. The most interesting thing is that even then, 114 years ago, 60 products were produced under the Heinz brand (today there are about 5,700 of them - give or take a couple of hundred). The fact is that the number 5 was Heinz's favorite number, and 7 was his wife's.

Starbucks

Since the company was founded in 1971 by two teachers (English and history) and one writer, don't be surprised to be named after a minor character in Melville's Moby Dick, specifically Ahab's first assistant, Starbeck. The two-tailed siren (not a mermaid!) On the logo is also borrowed from the Pequoda's bow figure. By the way, up until 1992, the Starbucks logo was brown, and until 1987, the siren sported topless.

Hewlett-Packard

Company founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard flipped a coin to determine the order of their names in the name.

Nike

This refers to Nike - the Greek goddess of victory. The Swoosh logo was painted by student Caroline Davidson in 1971 for a royal fee of $ 35.

Patek philippe

During its existence, the company has changed several names. The first was Patek, Czapek & co - in honor of the founding partners: Polish émigrés and part-time watchmakers Anthony Patek and Francis Czapek.

Nestle

Nestle today is represented by two chicks in the nest and their mother. In the 19th century, when the company was founded, there were three chicks, because that was how many children at that time it was customary to have in an average European family. Along with the traditions, the logo has also changed.

Asus

It means pegasus (pegasus). It was decided to cross out the first three letters in order to automatically get to the beginning of the alphabetical lists.

Nokia

Nokia started out as a wood-processing plant and is named after the area where one of its paper mills was built.

Сhupa Сhups

The author of the unchanged Chupa Chups logo is Salvador Dali. The Spaniard Enrique Bernart decided to contact him, who in 1958 inherited a company that produced a bunch of different things (more than 200 products). Bernart came up with the idea of ​​putting the popular at that time lollipops on a stick and from now on to produce only this type of product. By the way, Chupa Chups from Spanish means "suck a suck".

Hugo boss

The tailor of the same name of his company has twice started a clothing business. The first time was in 1924. The company existed for 6 years and went bankrupt during the German financial crisis. Hugo Boss (this is how his name is pronounced in the original) was so upset that in 1931 he joined the NSDAP, and a couple of years later received an order to sew uniforms for the SS (by the way, the design was done by an outsider - Walter Heck). In 1945, after the defeat of the Nazis, Boss began to be strangled with fines. Hugo could not stand all this leapfrog and died in 1948, but his work lives on.

Disney

Walt Disney's real signature has nothing to do with his company logo.

Ikea

The name is composed of the initials of its founder Ingvar Kamprad and the first letters of the names of his family farm Elmtard and the neighboring village of Agunnarid.

Сoca-Сola

We would be happy to please you with the vile story that the very first Coca-Cola recipe contained the purest cocaine, but this is not true. There was indeed an invigorating extract of the leaves of the coca plant, but it had nothing to do with cocaine as it is today. But the first version of the drink contained alcohol and was sold in pharmacies as a cure for insomnia and neuralgia. True, shortly after the start of sales in America, there was a dry law, and the founder of the company, John Pemberton, had to come up with a non-alcoholic version, the modern version of which many drink to this day.

Snickers

Snickers was the name of the beloved horse of the Mars family, the owners of the chocolate empire.

Barbie

Designer Jack Ryan, who invented Barbie for Mattel, took as a model the German doll Lily, the heroine of shameful comics published in the 50s newspaper Bild. By occupation, the doll was a highly paid prostitute, completely devoid of disgust and moral principles. All Ryan did was smoothen her nipples and, how can I put it mildly, wiped her lips.

Land rover

The Land Rover logo, according to one version, was created from the outline of a can of sardines, which one of the engineers forgot among the drawings, but the designers were right there.

Windows 95

The melody that plays when the operating system starts up was written by Brian Eno. It's officially called the Microsoft sound.

Fedex

Remember the famous Fedex arrow? And it is there - formed by the spaces between e and x. designer Lyndon Leader assures that this is how the logo gradually affects the subconscious, hinting at the company's swiftness and perseverance.

Marlboro

Initially, Marlboros were advertised as soft female cigarettes that (attention!) Do not smudge the lipstick. After the failure of this venture, the brand reoriented itself to cowboys and sympathizers. In this capacity, he lives and thrives to this day.

Zara

They say it only takes a brand a couple of weeks to start producing and selling a new line of clothing, while most other brands take half a year. Zara designers develop about 10 thousand new models per year! True, they are often inspired by other people's ideas.

Procter & Gamble

There is a myth that P & G should be thanked for being able to wear anything to work, not suits. The company, in promoting its laundry detergents, has done research and has proven that employees in plain clothes are more useful. Suits were no longer worn and dry-cleaned, and powder sales increased.

Brands that have become household names

• scuba - aqua-lung
• aspirin - aspirin
• petroleum jelly - vaseline
• heroin - heroin
• Jacuzzi - jacuzzi
• jeep
• voice recorder - dictaphone
• diplomat - diplomat
• dichlorvos - dichlorvos
• yo-yo - yo-yo
• sneakers - keds
• cognac - cognac
• copier - xerox
• tape recorder - magnetophon
• diapers - pampers
• scotch tape - scotch
• thermos - thermos
• teflon - teflon
• toilet bowl - unitas
• popsicle - eskimo

The most expensive Russian brands (according to mpp consulting agency)

• Beeline - $ 7552 million
• Mts - $ 6,115 million
• Baltika - $ 2560 million
• Green Mark - $ 1,188 million
• Lukoil - $ 1,040 million
• Prostokvashino - $ 790 million
• Klinskoe - $ 680 million
• Rastishka - $ 550 million
• Putinka - $ 540 million
• Megaphone - $ 512 million

Brands that will soon be gone (according to businessinsider.com)

Motorola. The company, which three years ago ranked second in the global list of mobile phone manufacturers, today boasts a total debt of almost $ 4 billion. according to some reports, the brand will soon be bought by one of the Asian tech giants and will dissolve in itself without a trace.

Palm. Apparently, in the world of smartphones, where the iPhone and Blackberry rule with an iron fist, there is no third place.

Kodak. The company never really recovered from the death of film photography. Kodak's entry into the digital printing market was delayed for so long that it ended up being useless.

Canon. This is a westernized adaptation of the original brand: originally it meant Kwanon, the thousand-armed Buddhist bodhisattva of kindness and mercy.

M & M`S. The candy casing for chocolates was invented during the Second World War: M & M's were included in the soldiers' diet. Melting in the mouth, and not in the hands, was then a matter of life and death: fingers smeared with chocolate could prevent you from grabbing a machine gun or putting on a helmet in time.

International brand mutations

You may be aware that the launch of the Blue Water mineral water failed in Russia (say it out loud and you will immediately understand what the matter is), and the Visit condoms were renamed Vizit. This also happens in other countries.

Spain: Mitsubishi Pajero in Mitsubishi Montero. Pajero literally means birdie in Spanish, but it is widely used to mean passive homosexual.

UK: Nuts at Topic. "Nuts" in English means, I'm sorry, "eggs", and not in the gastronomic sense.

Russia, Poland, Ukraine: Сrest in Blend-a-med. Admit it, a toothpaste called "cross" not sold in a church shop would look strange.

Russia: Daewoo Kalos in the Chevrolet Aveo. the original name of the model was somehow more honest, or something.

Europe: VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" in Lada. The word "Zhiguli" was too consonant with the international "Gigolo".

Russia: Mr. Clean at Mr. Proper. Obviously, marketers were wary of unnecessary connotations with the words "jammed" and "wedged".

English speaking countries: Ax in the Lynx. Because it would be strange to use the "ax" after a shower.

The best slogans of the century (according to adme.ru)

• Sony - Like.no.other (like no other)
• Nokia - Connecting people
• Motorola - Hello moto
• Apple - Think different
• Hsbc - The world`s local bank ( local world bank)
• Nike - Just do it (just do it)
• McDonald`s - I`m lovin` it (that's what I love)
• Whiskas - Your pussy would buy "whiskas" (Russian creative)
• Mazda - Zoom-zoom (dryn-dygydyn)

• The magic of candles

  Candle rituals are best done in dark time days, any day of the week, except Sunday. Concentrate on your desire and look directly at the fire. Let the candles burn completely. A prematurely extinguished candle means abandonment of the plan.
• Renowned Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch collects used chewing gum. According to him, "it resembles a human brain."
• In Great Britain, it is customary to decorate the house with mistletoe branches. According to the custom of the British, once a year, at New Year, a man can kiss any girl who stops under a sprig of mistletoe.
• In addition to the well-known holidays in the world, there are many more of which we have heard almost nothing, but they are no less interesting. For example, the festival of colors in New Delhi.
• 32% of Muscovites are convinced that vegetarianism is some kind of religion, about the same that it is a fashionable diet. The rest are divided into people who consider vegetarians to be mentally ill, and those who consider themselves to be them.
• The term "flying saucer" also originated from Kenneth Arnold. He compared the nature of the movement of the objects he saw with a saucer thrown on the surface of the water.
• The moon was worshiped as a deity in many ancient cultures. The Greeks and Romans even had three moon goddesses: Artemis (Diana) embodied new moon, Selena - the Moon in full phase, and Hecate personified reverse side of this heavenly body.
• There are about 1500 volcanoes on Earth, which can be activated at any moment. Magma streams can remain underground for hundreds of years and then burst abruptly to the surface.
• Now horoscopes not only predict the future for different periods of time, but also give rather detailed characteristics to individual types of people or are made to order for one person.
• People who are in a difficult situation are coloring the cells in a checkerboard pattern, perhaps they are trying to develop a strategy to get out of it.
• In the 9th century, an Arab traveler who visited China was shocked. "The Chinese do not care about cleanliness at all," he wrote. "They do not use water, they only wipe themselves off with paper."
• In 2001, an Englishman filled 600 balloons with helium and rose more than 3 thousand meters. There, the balls burst, and he had to use a fallback, that is, a parachute. If you also want to rise into the air, remember that one balloon can lift about three grams.
• Grapes were cultivated 5-7 thousand years ago in Central and Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Various methods of making and filtering wines have been known.
• The first diamonds were discovered in India over 3000 BC. NS. Some of the large diamonds found in India are notorious. The Koh-i-Nur diamond is especially famous in this respect.
• The longest marriage was noted with Lazarus Rose and Molly Weber from the USA. They married in 1743. After 86 years life together their marriage broke up for a reason beyond their control - in 1829, the husband died.
• In some countries, there is generally complete freedom in choosing names. In Brazil, parents sometimes label their children with numbers in French. Competitions for unusual names are held annually in the country.
• The whole new year's eve Korea is supposed to be awake. An old belief says: "If you sleep on New Year's Eve, your eyebrows will turn gray." The girls are guessing: they take turns jumping up from the board placed on the log - whoever jumps higher will get married faster.
• Modern sport stimulates research and development. High achievements the athlete depends not only on physical form, but also on how he is equipped. An athlete may not know how much know-how has been invested in his victory.
• Most goods in this country cannot be sold on Sundays, with the exception of carrots, and women in foggy Albion are also prohibited from eating chocolate on public transport.
• The joyful anticipation of the New Year is always associated with gifts. The palm in choosing the most expensive New Year's surprises belongs to wealthy Russians.
• In the UK, where tradition is most prized, the queen's short speech is an indispensable feature of Christmas, which she gives right after Christmas dinner.
• The tradition of decorating spruce on New Year's Eve came to us from Germany. In the 16th century, on the eve of Christmas and New Year, the guilds of German cities began to install a "Christmas tree" in the squares.
• On the first day of the New Year, the Roman emperor Caligula went out to the square in front of the palace and accepted offerings from his subjects, while recording who and what gave them.
• Sharon Stone does not turn on the TV if she is alone in the room. It seems to her that he could explode at any moment.
• Kisses, in addition to pleasure, also bring a lot of benefits to lovers. Experts from a wide variety of fields confirm the beneficial effects of a gentle and passionate kiss on the body.
• There are about 20,000 types of beer in the world, and it is brewed in 180 ways: from ales, light, strong beer to bitter and frozen beer.
• Moles, it turns out, can tell a lot about a person. It was not for nothing that in the old days, ladies specially pasted flies in order to hint to the gentlemen about those character traits that were not even in sight.
• One of the first mentions of astrological weather forecasting is contained in the book of Claudius Ptolemy "Tetrabiblos".
• Some US laws are quite unusual.
• True, the Rooster - the owner of 2017 - is not suitable for flight. But in the New Year, any miracles happen!
• The dog will bring sweet bones to those who deserve it - hardworking, sympathetic, fair people.

• Clay

  Clay can be eaten. In Italy at the beginning of the last century there was a dish called "alipa", which consisted of clay and wheat.

• Funny laws

  In Joliet, Illinois, a woman can be arrested for trying on more than six dresses at a time in a store.

• According to law

  In Indiana, you cannot open cans with firearms. Residents of the state are prohibited from going to the theater or cinema, or riding the tram for four hours after eating garlic.

• Interesting laws

  In Russia, all color printers must be registered with the police in connection with the spread of counterfeit money.

• Ignorance of the law ...

  Posting a postage stamp upside down on the envelope with the portrait of the British monarch is an act of treason.

• Elections

  In the state of New Mexico, there is a law: if two candidates for a certain post have received the same number votes, the result is determined by some game.

• New Year - the beginning of the year

  The beginning of the year in France until 755 was considered December 25, then March 1, in the XII century - the day of Easter, and from 1564 by decree of King Charles IX - January 1. In Germany, they began to celebrate the New Year on January 1 from XV! century, and in England - from the XVIII century.

• New Year

  In Ireland, on the evening of New Year's Eve, the doors of houses are thrown wide open. Anyone who wishes can enter any house and become a welcome guest there, he will be seated in a place of honor and fed.

• Such a different New Year.

  Colombians make dolls depicting old year... They are carried on sticks, funny "wills" are read. Then they throw the dolls away from themselves, and at midnight the charges and gunpowder hidden in the dolls begin to explode.

• New Year traditions

  In Spain, at midnight, at each stroke of the clock, you have to have time to eat one grape, each of which symbolizes one of the coming months. If you manage to eat them all, this guarantees the fulfillment of your cherished desire.

• Easter

  Australian Easter is a four-day holiday that starts on Good Friday and ends on Monday. The symbol of Easter is not the Easter bunny, but the local animal Bilby. This is due to the fact that rabbits are a real disaster for farmers.

• Pancake week.

  The tradition of celebrating Maslenitsa appeared in Russia back in pagan times and is associated with parting with winter and meeting spring. It was believed that whoever refused to celebrate would live in trouble.

• March 8

  The Feast of Women existed in ancient Rome. On this day, free women received gifts from their husbands, and slaves were given a day off.

• AND interesting facts about cinema

  The oldest actress to appear on screen is Jeanne Louise Kalman. At 114, she played herself in the Canadian film Vincent and Me. After this film debut, she lived for another 8 years.

• Space

  Neutron stars have a very thin crust and a liquid core. The weight of one spoonful of the substance of which their nuclei are composed is equal to 150 million tons.

• Planets

  Astronauts sleep less well. 16 sunrises per day are the main cause of their circadian rhythm disturbance. The most difficult thing for those who have been in orbit for a long time is to adapt again to life on Earth: to the fact that when you let go of objects, they still fall.

• Cyclones

  Cyclones are huge atmospheric vortices that can range in diameter from several hundred to several thousand kilometers. In the center, the cyclone has a reduced pressure and moves counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern.

• Solar eclipse

  Scientists have calculated that in 600 million years the Moon will move away from the Earth so that it will not be enough to "close" the Sun, therefore solar eclipses stop.

• Tornado

  Air in tornadoes and tornadoes usually moves counterclockwise, but sometimes also clockwise. In this case, in some areas the air rises in a spiral, and in others it falls, as a result of which a closed column is formed.

• Snow

  The largest snowflake was recorded on January 28, 1887 during a snowfall at Fort Keough (Montana, USA). It had a diameter of about 38 cm. Usually, snowflakes are about 5 mm in diameter.

• Rain

  About one in a hundred million people are allergic to rain. Any exposure to water on the skin causes redness, swelling, and such people can die from exposure to rain.

• Rivers and lakes

  Rivers annually carry away 16 billion tons of solid materials - stones, debris and other substances to the seas and oceans. If all this is loaded into boxcars, then you can make up a train that will wrap the globe around the equator three times.

• Hurricanes

  However, not all hurricanes are honored to bear their own name, but only those in which the funnel rotates counterclockwise, and the wind speed inside the hurricane is at least 63 kilometers per hour.

• Deserts

  The Sahara is the leader in the number of observed mirages, there is even a map of the Sahara with marks of places where mirages are observed more than 100 thousand times a year.

• Museums

  About 2000 works are kept in the largest non-state Museum of Contemporary Art in Russia Erarta. The museum has been open to the public for exactly one year.

• Books

  The heaviest book in the world weighs 50 kg and tells the story of the development of rugby in New Zealand. And the smallest is the edition of the fairy tale "Old King Cole". Its size is one square millimeter... It was published in 1985 with a circulation of 85 copies.

• Watch

  The very first clocks on Earth are sundials. A timeline was drawn around the stick stuck in the ground, along which the shadow moved. Later, such clocks were made of wood or stone and installed on the walls of public buildings.

• Car wipers

  Initially, cleaning tape was made of rather tough rubber, but in the 21st century, rubber, silicone, or a mixture of similar materials began to be used to make it.

• Art

  In show business, the term "Golden Disc" means that a million dollar copies of the disc have been sold, and "Platinum Disc" means that a million copies of the disc have been sold.

• Dancing

  The cha-cha-cha dance is called the "dance of the coquette" because it is characterized primarily by expressive movements of the hips.

• Music

  Spiders, if you play the violin in front of them, crawl out of their hiding places. Although, of course, not in order to listen to music: the cobweb vibrates from the sounds of the violin, so the spider thinks that prey has been caught in the net.

• Carnivals

  Nowadays, the Venice Carnival lasts 10 days. Each year, a new carnival theme is chosen, according to which the costumes are sewn. Theater troupes perform on the squares and streets of the city, fancy dress contests, ceremonial processions and festive shows are held.

• Airships

  Jean Baptiste Marie Charles Meunier is considered to be the inventor of the airship. The Meunier airship was to be made in the form of an ellipsoid. Controllability was to be carried out using three propellers, manually rotated by the efforts of 80 people.

• Radio

  Radio communication was first successfully used during the rescue operation of passengers of the steamer "Masens" (Mathens), which crashed on March 3, 1899.

• Flags

  The US flag changes every time new states are accepted into the state - new stars are added. The last time the flag was changed was in the late 1950s, when state status was granted to Hawaii and Alaska.

• Helicopters

  In the manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci, there is a drawing of a machine with a screw on a vertical axis, set in motion by the muscular force of a person flying on it. It is believed that this was the prototype of the helicopter.

• Computer games

  The most expensive game to develop is called ShenMue. It was created for the Sega Dreamcast and cost the developers $ 20 million.

• Sport

  Sport appeared already in ancient times and was very popular in ancient China and Egypt, but it was especially diverse in Ancient Greece, where competitions in wrestling, running, throwing discs and chariot battles took place.

• Soap

  The Celts and ancient Romans used soap in the form of hair pomade and as a cure for skin conditions.

• Cars

  The three-pointed star in the Mercedes-Benz logo, developed in 1909, symbolizes the brand's success on land, in water and in the air. This is due to the fact that the owner of the brand, the Daimler company, produced in addition to cars, marine and aircraft engines.

• Forks

  The first fork appeared at the end of the 11th century and even has an exact date and place of birth. This happened in 1072 in Constantinople, in the imperial palace. It was made in one copy of gold, and its handle is inlaid with mother-of-pearl on ivory.

• Matches

  The world's first match appeared in 1826 thanks to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. He mixed the chemicals with a stick, and a dried drop formed at the end. To remove it, Walker struck the floor with a stick, and suddenly a fire broke out.

• Schools

  The word "school" comes from the ancient Greek "skole", which means "leisure" in translation. In ancient times, philosophers and their followers met somewhere on the seashore and discussed sports, world order, and other topics suitable for demagoguery.

• Aircraft

  One plane lands in the world every 3 seconds. Air Transport is the safest form of transport. According to statistics, car accidents happen 62 times more often than plane crashes.

• The photo

  The term photography appeared in 1839, and two astronomers - the Englishman William Herschel and the German Johann von Medler - used it simultaneously and independently of each other.

• "Formula 1"

  In 1975, Italian Lella Lombardi managed to score points in one of the Grand Prix. Not a single woman was able to repeat this success.

• Transport

  In 1640, public transport was divided into 3 classes: the richest class traveled in a carriage, the middle class traveled on the back bench, and the poor sat right on the roof.

• Cities

  The capital of Peru, Lima, is located by the ocean, but at the same time it is located in an arid desert. The city knows almost no rain. His houses do not have drainpipes, and the annual rainfall in Lima is only 37 mm.

• About silver

  In the family of Count G.G. Orlov, one of the favorites of Catherine II, a service was in use, consisting of 3275 silver items, the manufacture of which took more than 2 tons of silver.

• Umbrella

  The invention of the umbrella dates back to the 11th century BC. Some scientists consider China to be the homeland of this habitual thing in everyday life, others - Egypt. In both countries, the umbrella was the privilege of kings and nobles.

• Do you know?

  The sound "f" first entered the Russian language along with the borrowed words of the Greek language: Fedor, Thomas, Philip, lantern and others.

• Is it a joke ..?

  Many securities can not only be sold, given, stored, but also thrown away!

• The greats said ...

  “We need to study at school, but much more must be learned after leaving school, and this second teaching is immeasurably more important than the first in its consequences, in its influence on a person and society” (D. Rockefeller).

• Can you hear well?

  Not all animals have ears on the head. For example, in grasshoppers, the organ of hearing is on the front legs under the "knees", and in night moths - under the wings.

• Do you understand me?

  In America, when they meet, they ask: "How are you?" (they usually answer: "Good"), and in Malaysia it is customary to ask: "Where are you going?" But since this is not a question, but a greeting, they usually answer: "Just take a walk."

• Nanotechnology - to life!

  Nanotechnology makes it possible to create material that will speed up the transmission of data on the Internet a hundred times. It is a polymer glued to a set of carbon buckyball molecules (spherical structures made up of several dozen carbon atoms).

• Puzzles.

  Japan is the historical homeland of many inventions - in recent times became one of the world leaders in the production of mechanical puzzles, as well as in the number of inventors of these puzzles.

• Miscellaneous about games

  In the charter of an Australian golf club, it is written that if the ball hits the kangaroo, then it is necessary to continue playing as if nothing happened.

• Short stories

  Mark Twain is the author of the shortest article in the newspaper. The article was titled "Football Match" and consisted of just a few words: "It was raining and the match did not take place."

• About everything in the world

  In the US state of Alabama, it is forbidden to wear mustache uniforms that can cause laughter in the church.

• Believe it or not, ...

  American Airlines saved $ 40,000 by removing just one olive from their first-class salads.

• Did you know that ...?

  Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, through training, achieved that the next foreign language learned in 6-8 weeks.
• Because of the length of the neck, the giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal known to us. It is approximately three times higher than the blood pressure of a healthy person.

• Words and idioms

  In Indonesia, the so-called "styrax tree" grows, from the resin of which in 1833 the German chemist E. Micherlich isolated a new substance and called it ... gasoline. Now this substance is called benzene.

• You probably didn't know that ...

  The number of simultaneously memorized digits for most people lies between 5 and 9. Therefore, most telephone numbers, without city or country codes, contain no more than 7 digits.
• Even the most notorious pessimists believe that a meeting with aliens on our Earth is, in principle, possible.

• Historical facts

  The inventor of rubber, Charles Goodyear, was so in love with his brainchild that he dressed only in all rubber - a coat, hat, raincoat and boots.

• Why do we say that?

  Colloquial "shabby look" means "everyday, unadorned". Shabby, that is, made from shabby (motley). Zatrapez - the name of the cheap coarse fabric from which work clothes, mattresses were sewn, came from the surname of the merchant Zatrapeznikov, to whom Peter I transferred the pestryadin factory.

• Let there be light!

  The very first candles were made from reeds, dipped in melted bacon. They were also used as a clock, calculating how quickly a candle burns out in an hour: people put appropriate marks on it.
• The world's largest private collection of meteorites belongs to the American Robert Haag - it contains two tons of celestial stones. Haag began collecting meteorites when he was 12 years old.

• Everything You Didn't Know About Books

  Every police officer in the Mexican capital is required to read at least one book a month. Anyone who disobeys orders is at risk of promotion problems.

• Origin of words

  Plombier owes its name to the French city of Plombier, where this type of ice cream was first made.
• The Mulhouse Automobile Museum (France) is the most prestigious in the world. The collection contains more than 500 cars of 102 brands, all periods of French production are demonstrated, from 1878 to the present day.

• Kings Can Do Anything

  First wedding ring with a diamond was presented in 1477 by the Austrian Archduke Maximilian to his bride Mary of Burgundy. He ordered his jeweler for a ring set with diamonds in the shape of the letter "M".
• Not far from Luxor there are two huge statues - the "colossi of Memnon". Sphinxes, which now adorn the embankment of the Neva near the Academy of Arts, “lived” next to them for many years.

• These eccentric writers ...

  Cooper loved to chew honey cakes while working on the work. Byron was inspired by the smell of truffles, which always filled his pockets. Théophile Gaultier preferred the smell of smoking candles. And Charles Baudelaire loved perfume.
• The monetary unit of Greece, the drachma, has depreciated almost completely during the Second World War; this was the reason for the monetary reform, as a result of which 1 new drachma became equal to 50 billion old drachmas.

• Inventions and patents

  During the war with Caesar, the Gauls transmitted information about the advancement of his army with the help of screamers placed in a chain. Information, the transmission of which took the messengers a month, they "shouted" over the day.

• Pirates and islands

  According to legend, on Cocos Island, located in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, the famous pirates William Dampier, Benito Bonito and others unloaded the plundered gold.

• A kaleidoscope of facts

  At a passenger plane speed of 1000 km / h, the plane's length becomes one atom shorter than its actual length.

• The numbers inside us

  500 eggs - a girl is born with such a "set". So a woman could potentially be the mother of 500 children.
• Andorra has a small army, in which all fit men must serve, but they do not receive monetary rewards or uniforms. The Andorran army is notable for the fact that it consists exclusively of officers and has not fought since the beginning of the 13th century.

• Famous fortresses

  The Benacantil rock (height 166 m) towering over the Spanish city of Alicante is crowned with the medieval castle of Santa Barbara. Carthaginian generals in the III century. BC NS. built a fortress on this place

• Origin of scientific terms

  The word "algebra" comes from the second word of the composition "Kitab al-jabr almukabala", published by Muhammad al Khorezmi at the beginning of the 9th century. The great mathematician meant by this word "connection of parts of the equation."

• All about bees

  In the air, bees achieve amazing results. An airplane, for example, lifts less than its own weight. And some types of bees can fly with a load several times greater than the weight of the bee itself.

• All about reptiles

  The longest reliably measured reptile is the reticulated python (10 m). It is considered to be the largest reptiles of the anacondas. But among them, not a single specimen longer than 9 meters has yet been found.

• All about spiders

  Almost all spiders live on land. These are nocturnal animals, only a few of them are active during the day. Along with mobile, running spiders that do not build permanent nests and shelters, there are sedentary ones that live on snares or in burrows and dens.

• These funny animals

  The hummingbird is not only the smallest member of the feathered family, but also the only bird that can fly backwards.

• About a human

  A fresh human fingerprint is made up of water, fats, proteins and salts produced by the skin. It weighs about one millionth of a gram.

• What you didn't know about yourself

  There are about 5 million hairs on the surface of our body. The scalp contains up to 40 chemical elements. Copper and zinc predominate among people engaged in mental work.

• Crystal

  The Indian Maharajah, on the offer of the British government to give him what he wanted, asked to be delivered to his palace the trading hall of the crystal store on Rue Paradise in Paris, which was done.

• Calligraphy

  In some Arab countries, the ability to write in a calligraphic way is an indicator of a person's education and spiritual perfection. This is not surprising, because any example of medieval Arabic calligraphy is a work of an artist, mathematician and sophisticated stylist all rolled into one.

• About bees and honey

  The bee's closest relative, the furry bumblebee, is a real paradox. After researching its aerodynamic qualities and body weight, American scientists came to the conclusion that it could not fly, but still flies.

• For food lovers

  Today there are about 1000 types of cheese in the world. The oldest cheese recipe that has come down to us is two thousand years old, and its homeland is Persia.

• Plants and music

  In America, one of the flower growers regularly broadcast classical music concerts for his wards - flowers. Plants not only bloomed more abundantly than their "unvoiced" counterparts, but also differed in richness of color and did not fall off longer.

• Something about football

  The national team of Botswana has not won a single international match in its twenty-eight years of existence. The team has replaced more than fifty head coaches, four of whom were former Soviet athletes.

• Difficult insects

  In the mouth of a garden snail, there can be up to 14 thousand teeth. They grow in rows on the surface of a ribbon-like tongue called a grater. Acting like a file, mollusks peel off and eat plant tissues.

• You didn't know this about yourself

  Numerous measurements have shown that a man swallows an average of 21 milliliters of liquid in one gulp, while a woman swallows 14 milliliters.

• Music life

  If the French horn is a wind musical instrument- unwind in the opposite direction, it will stretch to the length of the whole bus. And the usual, without any bells and whistles, bassoon with the same manipulation has a length of about 3 meters.

• The best of the best

  British residents Percy Arrowsmis and his wife Florence, who are 105 and 100 years old respectively, hit the Guinness Book of Records because they celebrated their eightieth wedding anniversary on June 1, 2005.

• The first aeronauts

  The first model of a balloon filled with warm air, was demonstrated by Joseph Montgolfier and was a silk sack that rose to the ceiling of furnished rooms in Avignon (France) in November 1782.

• Fencing

  Fencing as a spectacular art received wide use in ancient Greece - there were special schools where they taught to fight with swords, spears, daggers, rapiers.

• Poets and Writers

  Hesiod (late 8th century BC - 1st half of the 7th century BC), author of the poems "Works and Days" and "Theogony", is the first historically reliable poet not only of Ancient Greece, but also all over Europe.

• Sports achivments

  In the United States, only two days a year there are no games in any of the professional American sports leagues - this is the day before and the day after the all-star baseball match.

• Nobel Prize

  The youngest of the laureates Nobel Prize in physics - William Lawrence Bragg - received an award at the age of 25 (1915) together with his father William Henry Bragg for his major contribution to the study of crystal structure using X-rays.

• Steam locomotive and steamboat

  When in 1873 A.N. Lodygin turned to the mayor of St. Petersburg with a proposal to replace gas lamps with brighter and cheaper lamps invented by him, the answer was short and categorical: "To refuse as unnecessary."

• Christmas traditions

  The tradition of decorating a tree goes back to myths. Ancient people believed that the souls of ancestors were hidden in the lower branches, and the top of the tree touched the stars. It was believed that with the birth of a person, a new star is lit up in the sky, and with death, it goes out. Hence the custom to decorate the top of the tree with a star.

• Amazing numbers

  1961 is the most recent of those, the record of which is read in the same way in usual form, and upside down. The next such year will be 6009.

• Cars: stars, emblems and safety

  According to Israeli doctors, an indicator of the risk of an accident is music in the car. Drivers who prefer quiet, slow tracks are half as likely to break the rules and put themselves and others in danger less than those who like something loud and dynamic.
• Bernard Shaw often found stories for his plays ... in markets and other busy places, where he specially went with a notebook.

• How did the dancing begin

  Medieval ladies and gentlemen danced ballroom dances separately - strict moral norms allowed only occasionally touching each other with their fingertips.

• Taxes in the old days and today

  In the summer of 1996, the authorities of the Chinese city of Tianjin introduced a "tax on sin", according to which cohabitation without a marriage certificate cost violators 1,000 yuan.

• Clock and time

  A clock with two hour hands "runs" on ferries between Finland and Sweden. One hour hand (the flag of Finland is depicted on it) shows Finnish time, and the other, respectively, Swedish.

• From the history of football

  In 1888 the first professional championship was held in England. And in 1914, King George V personally attended the FA Cup final for the first time in the history of football.
• The oldest pocket watch (portable chronometer) was made from iron around 1504 by Peter Henlein in Nuremberg, Germany.

• Snow and ice

  The height of icebergs above the water surface reaches 70 m in the Arctic and 100 m in the Antarctic. The life expectancy of these ice mountains in the Arctic is up to 4 years, in the Antarctic - up to 10 years or more.

• All about chairs

  The chair has long been the privilege of the powers that be. In Russia before Peter the Great, everyone, with the exception of the tsar, sat on benches. In Western Europe, during receptions, only important persons could sit on chairs, the rest stood respectfully.

• Vikings

  The Vikings are not at all a nationality and not all inhabitants of Ancient Scandinavia, but only sea robbers who left their homeland, who embraced not only all of Europe, but also North America with conquest campaigns and trade routes!

• Formidable volcanoes

  From northwest Sumatra to Halmahera Island inclusively, over a distance of about 5000 km, there are up to 400 volcanoes, including about 80 active ones. There are especially many volcanoes on the Java island (over 100 volcanoes).

• Funny monuments

  In the center of Berdyansk there is a monument to a plumber, it depicts a tired man climbing out of a sewer manhole.

• Animation

  For the first time, the drawing moved and came to life in the laboratory of the Belgian physicist J. Plateau in 1832. It was a drawn little man who ran, waving his arms vigorously.

• Something from astronomy

  The unique globe was built by Archimedes: with the help of complex mechanical devices, it was even possible to reproduce the movement of the stars.

• Heat and cold

  On the island of Fernandudi Noronha off the coast of Brazil for a fifty-year period from 1911 to 1966. the lowest temperature was +18.6 ° С, and the highest was +32 ° С.

• Amazing buildings

  The building of the Butyrsky prison castle is an architectural monument built by the famous Moscow architect M. Kazakov. The name comes from the village of Butyrkino. "Butyrki" means the outskirts, a village on the outskirts. Today it is the center of Moscow.

• From the history of chess

  Alexander Alekhine, the fourth world chess champion, had a living mascot - his beloved Siamese cat Chese (in English "chess"), which sat in the hall on his wife's lap during matches.

• All around the water

  The Dead Sea is at its lowest point on the globe- 395 m below sea level and is also the saltiest.

• Famous statues

  The Statue of Liberty by the sculptor Bartholdi was donated by France to the United States and was first executed in Paris. She was taken to New York by steamer in 214 wooden boxes and restored on Liberty Island.

• Women's holidays

  In accordance with the decree of the President Russian Federation of January 30, 1998, Mother's Day is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of November in the Russian Federation.

• The power of the gaze

  Since ancient times, contemplation of the sun (indirectly and not at noon) and the moon have been recommended to improve vision, which was much more effective on the eyes than simply observing the horizon.

• Keys and locks

  One of the oldest surviving keys is the 6th century key. BC NS. from the Temple of Artemis in Arcadia, about 50 cm long, which is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA.

• From the life of great composers

  Gioacchino Rossini at the age of 18 in a few days wrote one of his first operas - "A Promissory Note for Marriage." The opera was a resounding success, and at the age of 19, young Rossini could already support his parents.

• Ruble and dollar

  Eight million "green" banknotes, issued annually, could encircle the globe at the equator more than 30 times. The weight of one banknote, regardless of its denomination, is approximately 1 gram.
• Kigelia, a sausage tree from Africa, has very original fruits, they look like large (up to 60 cm long) liver sausages hanging from branches on long legs.

• From the life of great writers

  Alan Alexander Milne, author of the tale of the teddy bear Winnie the Pooh and his friends, never read stories about Pooh to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer Pelam Woodhouse.

• From the life of the constellations

  They tried to rename the constellation Orion in honor of Napoleon, but astronomers did not support this proposal. The names of European monarchs - George II and George III, Charles II and Louis XIV - did not make it to heaven.

• Musical instruments

  The saxophone is one of the woodwind instruments, although it is made of metal - silver or a special alloy. This instrument got its name from the name of the inventor - Sax (Sax) and the Greek word phone - sound.

• Heat and cold

  The air of the deserts is unusually dry, so clouds in the desert are a rare occurrence, and rain falls even less often. And when that happens, you can see it raining, stand under it and stay completely dry.

• Football awards

  In 1928, by order of FIFA, the Parisian jeweler A. Lefler made the Golden Goddess Prize - an 1800-gram gold statuette of the goddess of victory Nike.

• About milk

  In Nicaragua, there is a tree called the "wooden cow". If you make an incision in its bark, a white liquid is released that tastes very much like milk.

• How the newspaper began

  For the first time, the words "to be continued ..." were published by the editors of the "Revue de Paris" magazine. And the circulation of the magazine has doubled!

• From the life of great artists

  Towards the end of his life, when Henri Matisse could no longer paint, he began to make cutouts from colored paper and glue them on canvas. Now teachers primary schools children all over the world are forced to do the same.

• Coca Cola

  The active ingredient in Coca-Cola is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. In four days, it can dissolve human nails.

• The circus

  The "man-core" was not fired from a cannon with gunpowder, but was pushed out by a powerful catapult. Flash, smoke and shot sound were added using a fireworks system.

• Cartoons

  In 2005 and 2002, Scrooge McDuck was ranked sixth and fourth, respectively, in the list of fifteen richest fictional characters (according to Forbes magazine). In 2007, he topped this list.

• Chocolate

  According to scientists, chocolate is very beneficial to health. The flavonoids included in its composition increase immunity.

• Golf

  Average wage a professional golfer is 80,000 dollars a year, and the prize pool for a good championship is estimated at tens of millions of dollars.

• For World Football Day

  The longest football match was played on 1-3 August 1981 by the Irish teams of the Callinafersey Football Club in Kerry. The winner was revealed only after ... 65 hours and 1 minute.

• Collectors and collections

  The collection of playing cards of the Russian Lieutenant General D.P. Ivkov includes more than 2 thousand decks. It is currently kept in the State Hermitage Museum.

• From the history of cinema

  The Lumière brothers did not believe in the future of cinema. Moreover, they were sure that the movie would never go beyond showing scenes from life, and believed that interest in it would quickly wither away.

• From the history of the fire department

  One of the first professional fire brigades was created under Peter I. During his reign, the first fire station was created under the Admiralty.

• About mushrooms

  Unusual names of mushrooms in Russian are striking in their expressiveness: Judas ear, trumpet of the dead, reindeer fiddle, talker, rustling, ram mushroom and even swollen rubber mushroom.

• Porcelain cup

  Attempts to organize the production of porcelain or faience in Russia began even under Peter I. On the instructions of the emperor, the Russian agent Yuri Kologrivy tried to find out the secret of porcelain production in Meissen, but failed.

• our planet

  Death Valley, the driest and hottest place on earth, is home to over 15 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, 44 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians, 13 species of fish and 545 species of plants.

• Military secrets

  One Siamese king, retreating, ordered to fire the enemy from cannons not with cannonballs, but with silver coins, which disorganized the enemy and won the battle.