are there free data sources i could use to populate my db initially?

[liveaday]

i need to know whether there are any free, ready-made dbs containing common data such as countries,cities, etc. if not in db form then at least in text form that i could import into my website instead of having to populate my db manually row by row. if yes where/how do i look for them?

thanks

[Sxooter]

http://geography.usgs.gov/products.html#digital_data