ON THIS DAY

Sir Isaac Newton was born on this date in 1643. He was the guy who came up with the law of gravity.

On this date in 1754, Columbia University opened.

Jacob Grimm was born in 1785. Despite a Grim future, he had a fairytale life.

On this date in 1790, President George Washington gave our country's first "State of the Union" address.

Woodrow Wilson, our 28th president, was born on this date in 1865.

In 1887, the first around-the-world bicycle trip ended.

33 years ago today (1975, for those who flunked math), President Nixon refused to turn over his White House tapes to the Senate Investigating Committee.

Dyan Cannon is 73, and Legendary Miami Dolphins football coach Don Shula turns 80 today.

National Trivia Day -- So here's some totally useless information:

• Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the U.S. Treasury.
• Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
• Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
• There's a 50% chance that an American lives within 50 miles of where they grew up.
• Hong Kong is the city with the most Rolls Royce's.
• Alaska has the highest percentage of people who walk to wor.
• 28% of Africa that is wilderness. 38% of North America is wilderness.
• 44% of American adults who go on diet each year.
• The average West German goes without washing his underwear for 7 days.
• Hallmark makes cards for 105 different family relationships.
• It costs about $6400 to raise a medium-size dog to the age of eleven.
• The average number of people airborne over the U.S. any given hour is 61,000.
• 70% of Americans who have visited Disneyland or Disney World.
• The average life span of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.
• One third of potatoes sold are french fried.
• 7% of Americans eat at McDonald's every day.
• James Buchanon was the only U.S. president to remain a bachelor.
• Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.
• The pig is the only animal besides human that can get sunburned.
• Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• Mark Twain didn't complete elementary school.
• Proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses.
• Jupiter is bigger than all the other planets in our solar system combined.
• Hot water is heavier than cold.
• Cream does not weigh as much as milk.
• Iceland consumes more Coca-cola per capita than any other nation.
• Heinz catsup leaving the bottle travels at 25 miles per year.
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
• Men get hiccups more often than women.

THIS WEEK IS

Lose Weight/Feel Great Week -- January 4-10. Want a terrific workout that tones up your body, makes you happy, gives you spotless skin and healthy teeth and helps you lose weight at the same time? Try sex. A good roll in the hay can do all those things and a lot more, according to experts. They say regular sex with a loving partner is a sure cure for what ails you, and they provide a list of the benefits of lovemaking. Here are just a few:

• Sex is terrific exercise: Going to bed with your lover works out your heart and just about every muscle in your body. What's more, lovers stretch and tone as they enjoy themselves, leading to greater flexibility.
• Sex boosts your sex appeal: Regular lovemaking increases your levels of pheromones, the sexy chemicals your body gives off that drive members of the opposite sex mad with desire. The more you have sex, the greater your passion perfume.
• Sex makes you beautiful: Researchers have found that sex causes women to produce higher levels of estrogen, the female hormone. The extra hormone makes skin smoother and hair shinier.
• Sex banishes depression: Satisfying lovemaking results in the release of endorphins in the body, which elevates the mood and produces a sense of well-being. The endorphins can dispel mild depression, making you more energetic and optimistic.
• Sex is great for the skin: The glow of perspiration that results from a passionate encounter actually helps cleanse pores. And studies have shown tender embraces lead to lower incidences of skin rashes, dermatitis and even zits.
• Sex relieves allergies: Passionate squeezes relieve the sneezes and wheezes of hay fever and asthma, acting as a sort of natural antihistamine. And sex helps unblock stuff noses, too.
• Sex is a terrific tranquilizer: Lovemaking is 10 times more effective than tranquilizers in bringing on relaxation and lowering anxiety levels. What's more, it's completely safe and natural.
• Sex burns calories: A good energetic sex session will help you cancel out the calories you piled on during a romantic dinner.
• Sex is good for your teeth: the exchange of saliva during kissing helps clear food from the teeth and lowering the levels of acid that lead to plaque buildup and tooth decay.
• Sex cures headaches: Rather than saying, "Not tonight, dear -- I have a headache," try heading for the bedroom when your head hurts. Lovemaking actually helps get rid of tensions that can restrict blood vessels in the brain and cause pounding headaches.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A new Israeli study shows that taking too much vitamin E may actually do more harm than good.
• Regis Philbin returns to work today. He'll be back with Kelly Ripa for the first time since his hip replacement surgery.
• Fresh from her Alex Rodriguez experience, Kate Hudson has been trying to reconnect with previous ex, Owen Wilson.
• Make that Sir Patrick Stewart. The Queen is giving him that honored sir-name. While in New Zealand, director Peter Jackson has been made an official knight.
• Rosie O'Donnell, who split from her last girlfriend two years ago, but didn't announce it until this past fall, has a new girlfriend: Tracy Kachtick-Anders.
• Jon Gosselin's apartment was ransacked during Christmas and he's blaming ex-girlfriend Hailey. Her attorney says "she was just removing her things."
• It's over: Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner are now officially ex's.
• Speaking of breakups, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have gone their separate ways after 23 years of living together.
• Simon Cowell's brother says that this next season of "American Idol" will be his last with the show. By the way, that all begins next week on Tuesday, January 12.
• Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart are expecting a girl.
• Erik Gates, who made occasional appearances on "MythBusters" as its "Amateur Rocket Expert," has died. He was 47. Fell 30 feet while working on a skylight.

A mind-boggling 85% of women admit they wear dirty clothes, including their underwear, according to a new Glamour poll. Who knew your underwear could be so revealing -- about your personality, that is! So how dirty are you?

• 43% admitted they sometimes skip brushing their teeth before bedtime.
• Almost one third admit not taking a shower every day.
• 75% confess they have they have peed in the shower. However, that might not be all bad. Since urine is sterile and nontoxic, some think it can treat athlete's foot.

The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen its word of the year "unfriend." But unless you're up to date with the latest technical terms, you've probably never heard of it. Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year," says Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program. Other finalists include "deleb" meaning a dead celebrity and "tramp stamp" meaning tattoo on a woman's lower back.

The perfect wife is someone who is both younger and smarter than her husband. Researchers from England's Bath University have determined that the secret to a happy marriage is for men to marry a woman who is at least five years younger and more educated. Couples that fit these characteristics are far more likely to have a long and happy marriage than other couples.

• Couples in which the wife was five or more years older than her husband were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.
• When the woman was at least five years younger than the man, the odds of marital happiness were much higher.
• When the wife was more educated than the man, the chance of marriage success was even greater.

Study leader Dr. Emmanuel Fragniere told the BBC he realizes men and women choose partners "on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes and shared values," but using objective factors, such as age, education and cultural origin "may help reduce divorce." The study findings were published in the European Journal of Operational Research.

When it comes to fanatical Star Trek fans, d'Armond Speers is the most dedicated Trekkie on the planet. For the first three years of his son's life, Speers communicated only in Klingon with the child. Klingons, if you didn't know, are a fictional race of aggressive aliens inctroduced in the Star Trek television series. Speers, a linguist and software consultant, says he conversed in Klingon with his son in order to discover how children are able to learn languages. "He was definitely starting to learn it," says Speers. Meanwhile, Speers' wife spoke only English whit her son. Now 15 and in high school, he doesn't speak a word of alien. (Sun)