American 50-star flag

The American 50-star flag was designed by 17-year-old student Robert G. Heft in 1958. Heft did the flag as a high school class project and originally received a B-. After discussing the grade with his high school teacher, Stanley Pratt. It was agreed that if the flag was accepted by the United States Congress, the grade would be reconsidered. Heft's flag was chosen and his teacher honored their agreement by changing his grade to an A for the project.

Breakfast word origin

Breakfast means to break the fasting period observed through the previous night (after dinner, a person doesn't have any food till the next morning, as that is considered a period of fasting, the next meal which is in the morning is literally breaking the fast). It was not until the 15th century that the term “breakfast” came into use in written English to describe a morning meal.

Phoenix

The phoenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Phoenicians. It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites. Both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises. The new bird is destined to live as long as its old self.

Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean in a self-built raft constructed from balsa wood and other native materials. The raft was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.

Ku Klux Klan

The first Ku Klux Klan, informally known as the Klan or the "Hooded Order" was created on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee. The name was formed by combining the Greek word Kyklos (meaning "cycle", suggesting a circle or band of brothers) with the word clan. Klan members adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and targeted through night rides black or white Rebublicans. 

James Matthew Barries

In April 1929, James Matthew Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, gave the rights to his work to Great Ormond Street Hospital. It is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The earnings were and still are used to fund the hospital and its activities.

Neptune

Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation. Unexpected changes in the orbit of planet Uranus led Alexis Bouvard, a French astronomer, to deduce that an eighth planet existed in the solar system. On 23 September 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the planet Neptune. He used the calculations of Urbain Le Verrier to know where to look.