Everyone loves to amaze their friends. Learning simple trivia can give you an edge in games, but they are also good ice breakers for meeting new people and can kill time on a hot summer day. Here are some for you to try out. They originally appeared on MarthaStewart.com and Braingle.com

The hottest city in the United States is Lake Havasu City, AZ. In June of 1994, they reached a boiling 128 degrees!

Arizona. The state's Lake Havasu City reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit in June of 1994.

Houston, TX had 100 days of heat over 100° in 1980.

Summer is a big time for grilling burgers out in the yard. Every year, Americans eat 14 BILLION burgers!

We’re all grateful for air conditioning, especially during hot summers! The first theater to install AC was the Folies-Bergere Theater in New York City. Believe it or not, that happened in 1911! It didn’t take long for other theaters in the country to follow suit. In fact, within 20 years, nearly all US ‘movie-houses’ were air-conditioned. So stretching out in a comfortable theater seat, cooling down and watching a great show is probably about as old as your great-grandparents!

Strawberry shortcake is a fun and yummy summer dessert. But where did it come from? Native Americans! They created the ancestor of our modern-day strawberry shortcake using strawberries and sweetened cornbread-type bread.

In North America, summer begins on June 20. In Iceland, however, it starts on May 1.

The creator of the Popsicle was 11-yea-old Frank Epperson. He originally called it the Epsicle.

Everyone loves the Slip ‘n Slide! They made their first appearance in 1961.

If your future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades, check this out. Shades are a summer fashion statement, but sometimes we spend more than we plan on them. The most expensive pair? Try the Dolce & Gabanna DG2027B. They’ll cost you a cool $383,609!

We all love swimming! Rest assured, it’s been around for a while. The first known man-made pool was built at Mohenjo-Daro, and was referred to as the ‘Great Bath’. According to Wikipedia, it is 12 x 7 meters (or about 13 x 7.5 yards) and dates back 3,000 years! To keep water in, the folks who built it lined it with bricks and coated them with a tar-based sealer. Pretty clever! Oh, the idea of an indoor, heated pool isn’t super new, either. Try the first century BC by Gaius Maecenas, a wealthy Roman lord.
*Just a side note: Mohenjo-Daro means ‘mount of the dead’ and is located in a province in Pakistan. I don’t know about you, but I have pictures of skeletal swimming parties in my head!

And speaking of swimming … nude swimming (or public bathing) was the norm until just a couple of centuries ago. While women were banned from swimming in the buff in the mid-1600s, men were allowed to go birthday-suiting until the mid-1800s.

Ice cream may be hailed as ‘The Great American Dessert’, but it’s a little older than that. Nero, a Roman emperor who lived from 37-68 BC, craved ice from the mountains and topped it with fruit. And, according to about.com, King Tang of Shang, China (618-97 AD) got even closer to right. He found a way to cream ice and milk together. Over the centuries, people started adding milk, sugar and different flavors until ice cream became the great treat we have today.

Have any more summer trivia? Amaze us! Visit the News for Kids forum and let us know about it!