Wilson Emma - The utterly, completely, and totally useless history fact-o-pedia: a startling collection of historical trivia youll never need to know

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A

Acrobatics

Initially referred only to tightrope walking, acrobatics is a blanket term for nearly any performance or sport which involves full-body activityespecially in short, highly controlled bursts.

Generally, a wire over 20 ft high will be regarded as a high-wire act.

Stephen Peer, a seasoned tightrope walker, died on June 22, 1887 when he fell into Niagara Falls after drinking with some friends.

In China, approximately 100,000 students are currently studying at schools dedicated to the art of acrobatics. High honor is conferred upon those skilled enough to become acrobats because of the unusual and difficult nature of the feats involved.

Seeking a career in the performing arts, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Lalibert toured Europe as a folk musician and street performer after quitting college. By the time he returned back home to Canada in 1979, he had learned the art of fire breathing and by 1983, the Quebec government granted him 1.5 million Canadian dollars to host the first Cirque du Soleil production.

Airplane

In February 1992, Israeli air force reserve major Ishmael Yitzhaki was convicted of stealing a WWII Mustang fighter plane and flying it to Sweden, where he sold it for $331,000. How did he manage it? He removed the plane from the air force museum by saying it needed painting.

In a 2008 interview on The Today Show , Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed that he was once asked on a European flight to sit in the cockpit during takeoff just so the crew could say they flew with his character Roger Murdoch from the film, Airplane .

A Boeing 747 has six million parts and half of them are fasteners.