In 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested for kidnapping and rape. Miranda made a confession without previously being told of his constitutional right to remain silent and his right to have an attorney present during police questioning. At his trial, he was convicted based only on his confession. The Supreme Court ruled that Miranda was intimidated by the interrogation and that he did not understand his right not to incriminate himself or his right to counsel. On this basis, his conviction was overturned. Miranda was later convicted in a new trial, this time with witnesses testifying against him, as well as other evidence. He served eleven years in prison.

Ironically, when Ernesto Miranda was later killed in a knife fight, his murderer was read the Miranda rights, which he invoked, declining to give a statement.

Modern english defines a billion as one thousand million (1,000,000,000). Many other languages define a billion to be one million million (1,000,000,000,000).

The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any color from cyan to navy blue. However, many languages, including many east Asian and African languages, do not have separate terms for blue and green, instead using a single word for both. At the same time, some languages, like Russian, Italian, and Hebrew, have different words for what English calls light blue and dark blue. This is the same as the English distinction between red and light red (pink).

The modern day word "meloncholy" derives from "meloncholia", which comes from the latin word for black bile. Ancient and medieval medicine recognized four main fluids in the body: Yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood (the four humors). An excessive amount of black bile was said to cause depression and other mental illnesses.

The modern bikini was invented by a French designer in 1946. It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of US nuclear weapon tests a few days earlier in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the nuclear device. Between 1946 and 1958, twenty three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. One detonation on March 1, 1954, codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted and created widespread radioactive contamination.