60 Unique Facts about Gifts Given By People

Each person who becomes 100 years old receives a congratulatory letter signed by the President with a gift cheque of €2,540 in Ireland. This custom is called the "Centenarian Bounty" and also applies to foreign national residents of the country.

52. There is a monument to Nikola Tesla on the American side of Niagara Falls. The statue was a gift from Yugoslavia and commemorates the inspiration Tesla felt from viewing the falls as he went on to be part of the team that invented the first alternating-current hydroelectric power plant.

53. Jennifer Aniston personally owned Pat the Dog, the white, ceramic dog statue in Joey and Chandler's apartment. It was a gift to her on the first day of filming and the producers of Friends wanted to use it.

54. Herbert C. Brown's wife bought him the book "The Hydrides of Boron and Silicon" by Alfred Stock as a graduation gift. The book was chosen...because - at $2 - it was the cheapest in the University of Chicago bookstore." In 1979, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with Boron.

55. While training for his role in "Django Unchained", Christoph Waltz fell off a horse and broke his pelvis. When he returned to the shoot, Jamie Foxx gave him a gift to make him feel secure: a saddle with a seatbelt.

The land for Blenheim Palace in England was a gift to the Duke of Marlborough for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim against the French. It is still owned by the English Monarch, and for rent, the Duke has to pay one French royal flag on the anniversary of the battle.

57. In 1876, Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of Turkey gave marijuana to the United States as a gift. By 1880, Turkish smoking parlors were opened all over the northeastern U.S.

58. Instead of the traditional gifts of a watch and pair of long pants, rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun's mother gave him a telescope for his Lutheran confirmation, sparking his passion for astronomy.

59. It is custom in Indian culture to give gifts in amounts like 101 and 501 rupees, especially at weddings. This is to support the idea that, like the gift, the couple is indivisible.

60. George Clooney once gave 14 of his close friends $1 million each as a surprise gift.