The oldest stone tools found are dated from 2.7 - 2.9 million years ago. The species that made these tools is unknown.
13
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
140
There is a persistent storm in Venezuela that produces lightning 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour and has been going since at least the 16th century.
25
The University of Oxford (teaching since 1096) predates the Aztec empire (1428 - 1521).
14
Scientists have revived a flowering plant from a fruit stored away in permafrost by Arctic ground squirrel 32,000 years ago.
16
Iceland has been so culturally isolated through history since the Vikings, that compared to other Scandinavian counties, people who speak Icelandic can still read the old Norsk sagas.
4