26USPS and Santa's Letters
The USPS used to burn letters sent to "Santa." Now, nonprofit organizations respond to children's letters on behalf of Santa.
27. Giraffes used to be called "camelopards" because medieval Europeans believed them to be mythical hybrid creatures born from the union of a leopard and a camel. As such, giraffes are still called "camelopards" in European heraldry.
28. There used to be a government agency in the United States whose only responsibility was tasting imported tea.
29. A color named Tyrian purple used to be worth its weight in gold, as it took 250,000 snails to make one ounce of this dye.
30. France used to be on the same time zone as Britain, but during the German occupation of France, its time zone was changed to Central European Time, and it has since remained unchanged.
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31Moai Statues' Coral Eyes
The eye sockets of the Moai statues on Easter Island used to have eyes made of coral.
32. The word 'apron' used to be 'napron,' but people so frequently misheard 'a napron' as 'an apron' that it changed.
33. The "nut" in "Honey Nut Cheerios" used to be ground almonds in the recipe, but it is now made from natural almond flavoring, typically manufactured not from almonds but from peach pits.
34. Plane hijackings used to be common in the US among Cuban-Americans wanting to return to Cuba. In a 7-year span from 1968 to 1974, 130 planes were hijacked.
35. There used to be 4 billion American chestnut trees in the USA, but they all disappeared because of a fungus that killed them as saplings.
36London to Calcutta Bus
In the 1950s, there used to be a bus route from London in England to Calcutta in India. It took about 50 days for the bus to reach Calcutta from London.
37. Hotmail used to be written as HoTMaiL because it was designed to include the letters HTML.
38. People used to grind human bones into flour to make 'bone bread.'
39. Town planning was once an Olympic event, as were several other architectural disciplines. The Olympics were to be about the arts as much as sport, and contestants could compete in literature, music, and several other non-sporting pursuits.
40. In 1800s America, popcorn was used as a breakfast food, with it being mixed with milk and a sweetener similar to cereal.
