Art & Culture Facts

Beethoven premiered his Ninth Symphony after he had gone completely deaf.

The Eiffel Tower grows about six inches taller in summer.

'Happy Birthday to You' was under copyright for nearly a century before a court ruled it wasn't.

Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling standing up, not lying on his back.

The Mona Lisa has no visible eyebrows or eyelashes.

The oldest known musical instruments are flutes carved from bird bone and mammoth ivory around 40,000 years ago.

The Statue of Liberty was originally the color of a shiny new penny.

Every curved shell of the Sydney Opera House roof is a section cut from the same imaginary sphere.

Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime.

The Wizard of Oz starts in black and white and switches to color once Dorothy reaches Oz.