Upon signing the Declaration of Independence, William Whipple freed his slave.

William Whipple Jr. represented New Hampshire in the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He had a slave by the name of Prince Whipple. Prince Whipple accompanied William Whipple during the American Revolutionary War.

According to legend, he is the black man fending off ice with an oar at Washington’s knee in the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware (can you spot him?) William Whipple set Prince free on February 22nd 1781, his wedding day. William said that he could not fight for and believe in liberty while owning a slave. Good call, Mr. Whipple, good call.

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Iran didn’t know their largest airport had a Star of David on its roof until Google Earth took a satellite picture of it!

Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the largely Islamic Iran hired engineers from the largely Jewish to build the Tehran airport. It also scheduled regular flights between the two countries. Since then however, the two countries have become estranged.

Thirty years after the creation of the airport, a Google Earth satellite image revealed that a Star of David (a symbol for Judaism) was emblazoned atop the roof of the airport. According to Arabic news outlets, national leaders called for the immediate removal of the symbol.

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The Air Defense Command’s annual Santa Tracker was the result of Sears giving out their number as Santa’s by accident!

On December 24 1955, the Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper which told children that they could telephone Santa Clause and gave them his telephone number. However, instead of “Santa’ s” number, they printed the number of the Colorado Spring’s Continental Air Defense Center.

Colonel Shoup was on duty that night and decided that he did not want to tear down the dreams of little children. He told his staff to give all the children who called in “the current location for Santa Clause.” On that day, a tradition was born. It was picked up by the North American Aerospace Defense Command when it replaced Colorado Spring’s Continental Air Defense in 1958.

Today, the annual program is called NORAD Tracks Santa. Every year on Christmas Eve, NORAD Tracks Santa tracks Santa’s route as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents across the world. Today, this program relies heavily on volunteers.

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Diseases from dirty water kill more people than war each year.

A third of the world’s population lack sufficient access to safe drinking water and sanitation to meet their basic needs. This means that a third of the world’s population is at high risk for arsenicosis, cholera, fluorosis, malaria, and a plethora of other diseases.

Dirty water causes the death of over 170 million people each year. This can be compared to 10 jumbo jets crashing each year. This death toll is greater than that of all forms of violence, including wars. In fact, unclean water and poor sanitation are the second largest cause of death for children. For more information, check out the source!

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If you run out of fuel on a German Autobahn you could go to jail for up to 5 years!

The German autobahns form the nationally coordinated motorway system in the country. They have no official speed limit, but it is advised that you drive at around 130 kilometers per hour. This doesn’t mean however, that you can just drive around willy nilly. There are some serious laws to be followed when driving on German autobahns.

For one thing, running out of fuel on an autobahn may result in fines and/or a driving license removal for up to 6 months. In some cases (e.g. when a life is endangered as a result), it is even considered a crime and the driver may face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

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