Strange But True: World's Largest Beaver Dam

By Lucie Winborne

• Picasso was once suspected of stealing the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre. He was brought to court, where it was determined that he was indeed in possession of stolen art, but not da Vinci's masterpiece, and was let off with a warning.

• Ice from seawater melts into fresh water.

• The modern sense of the term "Black Friday" likely originated in the 1950s when Philadelphia police began using it to describe the chaotic traffic of shoppers and sports fans after Thanksgiving and before the Army-Navy football game on Saturday.

• Jimmy Carter was the first American president born in a hospital.

• Pepsi was originally called "Brad's Drink," after its creator, pharmacist Caleb Bradham, who believed it had digestive benefits.

• Volcanoes can create lightning.

• Ulysses S. Grant's middle initial doesn't stand for anything. He was christened Hiram Ulysses Grant, and the initial was added by Congressman Thomas Hamer when he nominated Grant for West Point, thinking it stood for Grant's mother's maiden name.

• Fewer than one in 10,000 people possess the gift of perfect pitch.

• The world's largest beaver dam, located in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Parkand boasting a length estimated at more than 2,600 feet, is visible from space via satellite imagery.

• Memorial Day's date was first chosen because it was when flowers would be in full bloom.

• In 2012, Susan Warren, who owned a cleaning business, broke into a house but stole nothing. Instead, she washed coffee cups, vacuumed, took out the garbage, and dusted ... then left the homeowners, who were asleep upstairs, her phone number and a bill for her services on a napkin.

Thought for the Day: "If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done." -- Peter Ustinov

(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.