Fun Facts - MrKaku.com

“Bloodcurdling” isn’t just an expression: Research shows that watching horror movies can increase a certain clotting protein in our bloodstreams
A banana is a berry
A double rainbow occurs when sunlight is reflected twice inside a raindrop If you look closely, you can see that the colors of the secondary rainbow appear in reverse order
A group of pugs is called a grumble
A mash-up of two words to make a new word (such as breakfast and lunch into brunch, or motel from motor and hotel) is called a portmanteau In case you’re wondering, the word “portmanteau” itself is not a portmanteau; it’s a compound word that refers to a duel-sided suitcase (merriam-webstercom)
A new baby can cost new parents hours of sleep in the first year
A reindeer’s eyes change color through the seasons They’re gold during the summer and blue in the winter
A solar eclipse helped end a six-year war in BCE When the sky suddenly darkened during a battle between the Lydians and the Medes in modern Turkey, soldiers took it as a sign to cease fighting
A teacher wrote of a young Roald Dahl on his school report card: “I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended”
According to recent research, the human nose can distinguish at least a trillion different odors (naturecom)
After an online vote in , Toyota announced that the official plural of Prius was Prii
After It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown aired, Charles Schulz was overwhelmed with candy shipments sent from kids who were concerned for Charlie, who got rocks instead of treats in his Halloween sack
After leaving office, Ronald Reagan was offered the role of Hill Valley’s mayor in Back to the Future III
After OutKast sang “Shake it like a Polaroid picture,” Polaroid released a statement: “Shaking or waving can actually damage the image”
All of an adult human’s blood vessels, if laid out end to end, would be about , miles, so they could encircle the earth four times (fiedu)
Almost all commercially grown artichokes, percent, come from California One town in particular, Castroville, is nicknamed “the Artichoke Capital of the World” (visitcaliforniacom)
Although Dr James Naismith invented basketball, he’s the only Kansas Jayhawks basketball coach with a losing record
Although no longer connected to the beer company, Guinness World Records was founded by the managing director of Guinness Brewery in the s (guinnessworldrecordscom)
Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt once sneaked out of a White House event, commandeered an airplane, and went on a joyride to Baltimore
Among lost works, this story might be even worse: Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, left a suitcase full of the author’s writing on a train When she went back to get it, it was gone “I had never seen anyone hurt by a thing other than death or unbearable suffering except Hadley when she told me about the things being gone,” Hemingway wrote in A Moveable Feast
An avocado never ripens on the tree, so farmers can use trees as storage and keep avocados fresh for up to seven months
An episode of Peppa Pig was pulled from Australian television for teaching children not to fear spiders
An estimated million dogs in the US have been named primary beneficiary in their owners’ wills
Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt was allergic to moon dust
Army ants that misinterpret the scent trails left by other ants will sometimes break from the crowd and march in circles If enough ants join, they can form massive “death spirals”
At Medieval Times dinner attractions, you eat with your hands because people didn’t use utensils in the middle ages (medievaltimescom)
At over , feet tall, Mt Everest is the highest point on Earth, but it doesn’t compare to the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, which is over , feet deep—nearly seven miles—in the Pacific Ocean
At Petrified Forest National Park, visitors sometimes break the rules (and the law) by taking rocks home with them According to rangers, they often end up returning the stolen goods in the mail—along with an apology note
At the Gettysburg reunion in , two men purchased a hatchet, walked to the site where their regiments had fought, and buried it
At the Humane Society of Missouri, kid volunteers comfort anxious shelter dogs by reading to them
At the wedding of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, President Teddy Roosevelt gave away the bride
Australia contains a number of pink lakes, but the most stunning is the Pepto Bismol-colored Lake Hillier The color may be the result of certain algae (australiacom)
Barcelona is home to hundreds of playgrounds for seniors The spaces are meant to promote fitness and combat loneliness in elderly citizens
Bats are the only mammal that can actually fly
Before Google launched Gmail, “G-Mail” was the name of a free email service offered by Garfield’s website
Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln was wrestling champion of his county He fought in nearly matches and lost only one
Before he wrote Goosebumps, RL Stine wrote the jokes for Bazooka Joe wrappers
Before settling on the Seven Dwarfs we know today, Disney considered Chesty, Tubby, Burpy, Deafy, Hickey, Wheezy, and Awful
Before the Nazis invaded Paris, HA and Margret Rey fled on bicycles They were carrying the manuscript for Curious George
Bela Lugosi was buried in full Dracula costume—cape and all
Ben & Jerry learned how to make ice cream by taking a $ correspondence course offered by Penn State (They decided to split one course)
Blood donors in Sweden receive a thank you text when their blood is used
Bones found at Seymour Island indicate that at one time, to million years ago, penguins stood at a formidable feet tall and weighed pounds
Boring, Oregon and Dull, Scotland have been sister cities since In , they added Bland Shire, Australia to their “League of Extraordinary Communities”
Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July , —exactly years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence
Bubbles keep your bath water warmer longer
Buckingham Palace in London, England, has rooms, including bathrooms (royaluk)
But you could ice skate on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, which is covered in ice An Axel jump would take you feet in the air! (nasagov)
Canada is south of Detroit (just look at a map)
Canned pumpkin isn’t actually pumpkin Even purees that advertise as ” percent pumpkin” are actually made of a range of different winter squashes
Carly Simon’s dad is the Simon of Simon and Schuster He co-founded the company
Cartoonist Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, came up with names for the things we often see in comics and cartoons: “briffit” is the dust cloud a character makes when he runs away quickly; “plewds” are the beads of sweat when a character is under duress; and “grawlix” are symbols such as “#@*%” that stand in for curse words (merriam-webstercom)
Central Park’s lampposts contain a set of four numbers that can help you navigate The first two tell you the nearest street, and the next two tell you whether you’re closer to the east or west side of the park (even numbers signal east, odd signals west)
China owns all of the pandas in the world They rent them out for about $ million a year
Coca-Cola actually sells soup in a can Bistrone is a nourishing meal on the go, available in two flavors in Japan (worldofcoca-colacom)
Continental plates drift as fast as fingernails grow
Contrary to popular belief, it’s really, really hard to see the Great Wall of China from space, particularly with the naked eye (nasagov)
Cookie Monster is not changing his name In a episode he said, “We’ve got to stop this Veggie Monster rumor before me reputation ruined”
Count von Count’s love of numbers isn’t just a quirky character trait—in traditional vampire folklore, the bloodsuckers have arithmomania, a compulsion to count
Cows don’t actually have four stomachs; they have one stomach with four compartments (fdagov)
Crayola means “oily chalk” The name combines craie (French for “chalk”) and ola (short for “oleaginous,” or “oily”)
Days on Venus are longer than years Due to its slow axis rotation, it takes Earth days to spin once; but it only takes Earth days to go around the sun (nasagov)
Dogs are capable of understanding up to words and gestures The average dog is as intelligent as a two-year-old child
Dr Seuss said he expected to spend “a week or so” writing The Cat in the Hat It actually took a year and a half
Due to the restaurant’s reputation for staying open in extreme weather, the so-called “Waffle House Index” is informally used by FEMA to gauge storm severity
During Prohibition, moonshiners would wear “cow shoes” The fancy footwear left hoofprints instead of footprints, helping distillers and smugglers evade police
During World War I, a Canadian soldier made a black bear his pet and named her Winnipeg “Winnie” was later a resident of the London Zoological Gardens where she was an adored attraction, especially to a boy named Christopher Robin, son of author AA Milne The boy even named his teddy bear after her
Each year million thunderstorms happen around the world, and at any given moment, there are about , thunderstorms in progress (nsslnoaagov)
Elephants can’t jump (smithsonianmagcom)
Elvis Presley’s manager sold “I Hate Elvis” badges as a way to make money off of people who weren’t buying his merchandise
Experiments in universities have actually been carried out to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, both with machine and human lickers (because this is important scientific knowledge!) The results ranged from to (tootsiecom)
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were developed by a janitor at Frito-Lay, Richard Montanez, who got the idea after putting chili powder on some reject Cheetos and then pitched it to the CEO He’s now a successful executive and motivational speaker, and a movie is in the works about his life (cnbccom)
Flamingoes are only pink because of chemicals called carotenoids in the algae and fish (which also eat the algae) they eat; their feathers are grayish white when they’re born
For comparison, an elephant’s heart weighs around pounds And a human heart? A mere ounces
For one day in , Topeka, Kansas, renamed itself “ToPikachu” to mark Pokemon’s US debut
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare side effect of brain trauma Patients speak their native language in a foreign accent
Frank Sinatra has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for film, one for music, and one for television
Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can When he passed away in , his ashes were buried in one
Freelancers originally referred to self-employed, sword-wielding mercenaries: literally “free lancers” (merriam-webstercom)
Fried chicken was brought to America by Scottish immigrants
George Washington served an eggnog-like drink to visitors at Mount Vernon His recipe included rye whiskey, rum, and sherry
German chocolate cake doesn’t come from Germany It was named for a person, Sam German, who created a type of baking chocolate for Baker’s in (nprorg)
Goats have rectangular pupils
Google’s founders were willing to sell to Excite for under $ million in —but Excite turned them down
Guinness estimates that , liters of beer are lost in facial hair each year in the UK alone
Hawaiian pizza was created in Ontario, Canada, by Greek immigrant Sam Panopoulos in (cbcca)
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know But on average, a Licking Machine made at Purdue needed
Humans could never “land” on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they are made of gas and have no solid surface (natgeokidscom)
If drivers adhere to the mph speed limit on a stretch of Route in New Mexico, the road’s rumble strips will play a rendition of “America the Beautiful”
If you have the feeling you’ve experienced an event before in real life, call it déjà vu If you feel like you’ve previously experienced an event in a dream instead, there’s a different term for it: déjà rêvé
In , a Dallas man named Mariano Martinez invented the frozen margarita machine The -year-old was inspired by the Slurpee machine at -Eleven
In , a rogue bloodhound named Ludvine joined a half-marathon in Alabama She ran the entire miles and finished in th place
In , a Senate subcommittee predicted that by , Americans would only be working hours a week with seven weeks vacation
In , Boston owner Walter Brown chose the nickname Celtics over Whirlwinds, Olympians, and Unicorns
In , the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published a paper titled “The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of ‘Writer’s Block'” It contained a total of zero words
In , the Nigerian Civil War ground to a halt for two days because both sides wanted to watch Pelé play in an exhibition soccer match
In , the US Army tried developing a telepathic ray gun “where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person’s head”
In , the US government paid the Zapruder family $ million for the film of JFK’s assassination
In , Tinder made its first match on the continent of Antarctica Not surprisingly, both parties involved were research scientists
In a Louisville woman left actor Charles Bronson all of her money in a handwritten will—a total of about $ , She’d never met him; she was just a fan
In colonial America, lobster wasn’t exactly a delicacy It was so cheap and plentiful it was often served to prisoners
In curling, good sportsmanship and politeness are essential Congratulating opponents and abstaining from trash talk are part of what’s known as the “Spirit of Curling”
In Great Britain and Japan, black cats are perceived as auspicious In the English Midlands, new brides are given black cats to bless their marriage, and the Japanese believe that black cats are good luck—particularly for single women
In Japan, letting a sumo wrestler make your baby cry is considered good luck
In season two of The Joy of Painting, Bob Ross created a monochromatic landscape for a viewer who was worried that his color blindness would prevent him from being able to paint
In Switzerland, it’s illegal to own only one guinea pig
In the ‘ s, Marilyn Monroe promised nightclub owner Charlie Morrison she’d be in the front row every night if he booked Ella Fitzgerald He agreed, and she was true to her word “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again,” Fitzgerald said “She was an unusual woman—a little ahead of her times And she didn’t know it”
In The Empire Strikes Back, an extra can be seen running with what appears to be an ice cream maker The character became legendary among fans, and was eventually given a name (Willrow Hood) and a backstory
In the s, a retired schoolteacher came up with Candyland to entertain children who were hospitalized from polio Because its color system required no reading, young kids could easily play (toyhalloffameorg)
It takes gallons to paint the exterior of the White House (whitehousegov)
It’s illegal for supermarkets in France to waste food Supermarkets must either compost it or donate unsold or nearly expired goods to charity
It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose (just try it!)
Japan records the most earthquakes of any country in the world; but the most earthquakes actually occurs in Indonesia (usgsgov)
Jim Cummings is the voice of Winnie the Pooh He calls sick kids in hospitals and chats with them in character
JK Simmons has been the voice of the Yellow Peanut M&M since the late s
LEGO has a temperature-controlled underground vault in Denmark with nearly every set they’ve ever made
Lincoln Logs were created by John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in the s They were named after Abraham Lincoln, who grew up in a log cabin (npsgov)
Long before rap battles, there was “flyting”: the exchange of witty, insulting verses The verbal throwdowns were popular in England and Scotland from the th to th centuries
Marie Curie remains the only person to earn Nobel prizes in two different sciences
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she , during a ghost story competition while staying in Switzerland with writers Percy Shelley (her lover) and Lord Byron (penguinrandomhousecom)
Maya Angelou was the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco
Melbourne gave some of its trees email addresses so residents could report problems Instead, the trees received love letters
Michelin stars are highly coveted by elite and upscale restaurants the world over—but they’re actually given out by the Michelin tire company, the same one whose mascot is the marshmallow-like Michelin Man If you want to get fancy, pronounce it in the original French, “mich-LEH” (michelincom)
Mister Rogers always mentioned out loud that he was feeding his fish because a young blind viewer once asked him to do so She wanted to know the fish were OK
More people visit France than any other country (Spain is second; the US third) (e-unwtoorg)
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal in the world: They kill more people than any other creature, due to the diseases they carry (cdcgov)
Neil Armstrong’s astronaut application arrived a week past the deadline A friend slipped the tardy form in with the others
Octopuses have three hearts
One April day in , the BBC reported, “There is no news” Instead they played piano music
One of the most famous movie lines in history was never said We often quote, “Play it again, Sam,” from Casablanca; but the real line is, “Play it, Sam Play ‘As Time Goes By’”
One of the world’s largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons—a US Navy base near Seattle—is partially defended by trained dolphins
Only two people have ever swum the entire length of the , -mile Mississippi River: Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel in and American former Navy SEAL Chris Ring in Strel swam for days in a row; Ring took one day off a week, taking days (strel-swimmingcom)
Our modern interpretation of Santa Claus with a red outfit and white beard is due in large part to holiday Coca-Cola ads that began in (coca-colacom)
People started wearing pajamas, originally spelled “pyjamas,” instead of nightgowns so they’d be prepared to run outside in public during World War I air raids in England (bbccouk)
Peter Durand patented the tin can in Ezra Warner patented a can opener in In between, people used chisels and hammers
Play-Doh started out as a wallpaper cleaner before the head of the struggling company realized the non-toxic material made a good modeling clay for children and rebranded it (museumofplayorg)
Polar bears have black skin And actually, their fur isn’t white—it’s see-through, so it appears white as it reflects light
Portland was named by a coin flip Had the coin landed the other way, the city would be Boston, Oregon
Pound cake got its name because the original recipe required a pound each of butter, flour, sugar and eggs That’s a lot of cake—but it was meant to last for a long time
Preserves are like jam but made with more whole fruit Marmalade is preserves made from citrus fruit
Psycho was the first movie to show a toilet flushing (nprcom)
Queen Elizabeth II has had over corgis in her lifetime
Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic
Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, wasn’t the first to introduce Christmas trees to Britain from his native Germany—Queen Charlotte did that in the late s But, Victoria and Albert are credited with popularizing the custom in the mid- s (royaluk)
Ravens in captivity can learn to talk better than parrots
Relative to their bodies, Chihuahuas have the biggest brain in the dog world
Russian cosmonauts used to pack a shotgun in case they landed in Siberia and had to fend off bears
Salvador Dali avoided paying restaurant tabs by using checks He would draw on the back as the waiter watched, knowing no one would ever cash the art
Scientists have found evidence of take-out restaurants in the remains of Pompeii
Since founding the Imagination Library in , Dolly Parton has donated million books to children
Skin is the body’s largest organ
Sleep literally cleans your brain During slumber, more cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away harmful proteins and toxins that build up during the day
Sliced bread was first manufactured by machine and sold in the s by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri It was the greatest thing since…unsliced bread? (chllicothenewscom)
Some cats are allergic to humans
Space has a distinct smell: a bouquet of diesel fumes, gunpowder, and barbecue The aroma is mostly produced by dying stars
Susan B Anthony was fined $ for voting in the election She never paid the fine
Sweden has , islands, the most of any country in the world
The “mystery” flavor of Dum Dums is a combination of the end of one batch of candy and the beginning of another
The ampersand symbol is formed from the letters in et—the Latin word for “and”
The annual number of worldwide shark bites is times less than the number of people bitten by other people in New York
The Barbie doll’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, from Willows, Wisconsin Her birthday is March , , when she was first displayed at the New York Toy Fair (barbiemediacom)
The bend in a flamingo’s leg isn’t a knee—it’s an ankle
The biggest pizza ever created was , square feet, made in Rome, Italy, in The pizza was gluten-free and named “Ottavia” after a roman emperor (guinnessworldrecordscom)
The coldest temperature ever recorded occurred in Antarctica, – Fahrenheit, as reported by researchers in a scientific journal in
The difference between jam and jelly is that jam is made with mashed up fruit while jelly is made with fruit juice (bonapetitcom)
The different colors of Froot Loops cereal all taste the same—they’re not individual flavors (timecom)
The dog ate John Steinbeck’s homework—literally The author’s pup chewed up an early version of Of Mice and Men “I was pretty mad, but the poor fellow may have been acting critically,” he wrote
The Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, who lived in the s, reportedly invented the sandwich so he wouldn’t have to leave his gambling table to eat (pbsorg)
The earth’s circumference is , miles (nasagov)
The Empire State Building in New York was the tallest building in the world from until , and was the first building of over floors
The first college football game was played on November , , between Rutgers and Princeton (then known as the College of New Jersey) in New Brunswick, New Jersey Rutgers won (ncaacom)
The first footprints on the moon will remain there for a million years (nasagov)
The first sales pitch for the Nerf ball was “Nerf: You can’t hurt babies or old people!”
The folds in a chef’s toque are said to represent ways to cook an egg
The Four Corners is the only spot in the US where you can stand in four states at once: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico
The green code in The Matrix was actually created from symbols in the code designer’s wife’s sushi cookbook (cnetcom)
The hardest working muscle in your body is your heart: It pumps more than , gallons of blood a day and beats more than billion times in a -year life span (heartorg)
The heart of the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, is five feet long and weighs pounds The whale in total weighs , pounds (nationalgeographiccom)
The hottest temperature ever recorded occurred in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, at degrees Fahrenheit on July , (publicwmoint)
The Library of Congress regularly receives requests for books that don’t exist The most common is the President’s Book of Secrets, from the movie, National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The longest fingernails ever were over feet in total American Lee Redmond started growing them in and set the record in Sadly, she lost her nails in a car crash in (guinnessworldrecordscom)
The longest place name in the word, at letters, is “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu,” New Zealand Locals just call it Taumata Hill (newzealandcom)
The man who designed the Pringles can, Fred Bauer, is buried in one—or at least some of his ashes are (nprorg)
The manchineel tree is nicknamed the “Tree of Death” for good reason: Touching it can leave chemical burns on your skin, its fruit is toxic, and its bark—when burned—can cause blindness
The medical term for ice cream headaches is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia
The Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships are held in Finland One winner (not pictured) said he prepared for the event by “mainly drinking”
The most common wild bird in the world isn’t the sparrow or blue jay—it’s the red-billed quelea, which live in Africa and have an estimated population of billion (audubonorg)
The oldest person ever to have lived (whose age could be authenticated), a French woman named Jeanne Louise Calment, was years old when she died in (guinnessworldrecordcom)
The oldest-known living land animal is a tortoise named Jonathan, who is years old He was born in and has lived on the island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean since (guinnessworldrecordscom)
The only Blockbuster store in the world that is still operating is in Bend, Oregon
The origin of the word “sinister” reflects a historical bias against left-handed people It comes from the Latin word for “left,” which was also seen to be unlucky or evil (merriam-webstercom)
The original name for the search engine Google was Backrub It was renamed Google after the googolplex, which is the number one followed by zeros (aboutgoogle)
The original title of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions (jasnaorg)
The platypus doesn’t have a stomach at all: Their esophagus goes straight to their intestines (nationalgeographiccom)
The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac
The Reese in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups is Harry Burnett Reese, a former Hershey employee who created his famous candy in the s
The Russians showed up days late to the Olympics in London because they were using the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar
The Starry Night depicts Vincent van Gogh’s view from the Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum
The tallest building in the US is One World Trade Center in New York, which comes in at number six on the worldwide list It stands at exactly , feet as a nod to the date of the Declaration of Independence
The tallest building in the world is the Burg Khalifa in Dubai, standing at over , feet (skyscrapercentercom)
The tallest living man is -year-old Sultan Kosen, from Turkey, who is feet, inches, who set the record in His growth is also due to a pituitary issue (guinnessworldrecordscom)
The tallest man ever recorded was American giant Robert Wadlow ( – ), who stood feet inches Wadlow’s size was the result of abnormally enlarged pituitary gland (guinnessworldrecordscom)
The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt After he refused to shoot a captured black bear on a hunt, a stuffed-animal maker decided to create a bear and name it after the president (npsgov)
The wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles was watched by million people worldwide in ; sadly, billion watched her funeral in (bbccom)
The White House in Washington, DC, has rooms, including bathrooms (whitehousegov)
The word “strengths” is the longest word in the English language with only one vowel (guinnessworldrecordscom)
There actually aren’t “ varieties” of Heinz ketchup, and never were Company founder HJ Heinz thought his product should have a number, and he liked Hint: Hit the glass bottle on the “ ,” not the bottom, to get the ketchup to flow (heinzcom)
There are no muscles in your fingers: Their function is controlled by muscles in your palms and arms (asshorg)
There are streets in Atlanta with “Peachtree” in their name
There is not one letter “q” in any US state name, the only letter in the alphabet to be missing “J” and “z” are only represented once each, in New Jersey and Arizona
There’s a Nikola Tesla statue in Palo Alto that provides free Wi-Fi
There’s a world record for the holder of the most world records: Ashrita Furman, who’s set more than records and currently holds more than His records have ranged from fastest mile on a pogo stick, longest time to hula hoop underwater and greatest distance travelled on a bicycle balancing a milk bottle on the head (guinnessworldrecordscom)
This is one animal myth that’s true: Eating parts of a pufferfish can kill you because, in a defense mechanism to ward off predators, it contains a deadly chemical called tetrodotoxin There’s enough in one pufferfish to kill people—and there’s no antidote Still, pufferfish, called fugu, is a highly-prized delicacy in Japan, but can only be prepared by well-trained chefs (nationalgeographiccom)
This isn’t exactly a “fun” fact, but there are over dead bodies of climbers on Mt Everest because it’s so difficult to bring them down (outsideonlinecom)
Three presidents, all Founding Fathers—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe—died on July Presidents Adams and Jefferson also died the same year, ; President Monroe died in Coincidence? You decide (constitutioncenterorg)
Tigers’ skin is actually striped, just like their fur Also, no two fur patterns are alike
Tootsie Rolls were added to soldiers’ rations in World War II for their durability in all weather conditions
Truman Capote said he was the only person who’d met John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Sirhan Sirhan
Truman Show Delusion is a mental condition marked by a patient’s belief that he or she is the star of an imaginary reality show
Tsundoku is the act of acquiring books and not reading them
Two of President John Tyler’s grandsons are still alive today—and he was born in How is this possible? President Tyler, the th US president, was when his son Lyon Tyler was born in ; Lyon’s sons were born when he was and President Tyler’s living grandsons, Lyon Jr and Harrison Tyler, are and years old The Tyler family still maintains the President’s home, Sherwood Forest Plantation in Virginia (sherwoodforestorg)
Visitors are not allowed to scatter loved ones’ ashes at Disney World or Disneyland This is apparently a problem particularly around the Haunted Mansion attraction (wsjcom)
We shake hands to show we’re unarmed (bbccouk)
Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas dropped out of high school but earned his GED in His GED class voted him Most Likely to Succeed
What do Miss Piggy and Yoda have in common? They were both voiced by the same person, puppeteer Frank Oz
What’s inside a Kit Kat? Broken Kit Kats that are damaged during production—they get ground up and go between the wafers inside, along with cocoa and sugar That’s a way to not let anything go to waste! (todaycom)
When Canada’s Northwest Territories considered renaming itself in the s, one name that gained support was “Bob”
When Gene Wilder accepted the role of Willy Wonka, he had one condition: In his first appearance, Wilder wanted Wonka to limp toward the crowd with a cane in hand before falling into a perfect somersault and jumping back up The reason? “Because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth”
When times get tough, elephants will comfort each other by stroking loved ones with their trunks and emitting small chirps
Winston Churchill’s mother was born in Brooklyn
Wisconsin is the Badger State because the area’s lead miners used to spend winters in tunnels burrowed into hills Like badgers
With billion viewers, half the world’s population watched the FIFA World Cup of soccer (or football, as many international fans call it), which is held every four years That number is on par with the Summer Olympics; but only a quarter of the world watched the less-popular Winter Olympics in (fifacom)
Wombats are the only animal whose poop is cube-shaped This is due to how its intestines form the feces The animals then stack the cubes to mark their territory (bbccom)
You can still stay at the world’s oldest hotel, Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, which was founded in AD (guinnessworldrecordcom)
A single strand of Spaghetti is called a “Spaghetto”
A wildlife technician, Richard Thomas, took the famous tongue twister, “how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and calculated a rough estimate of what the answer would actually be It came out to be around pounds
After the release of the film Scream, which involved an anonymous killer calling and murdering his victims, Caller ID usage tripled in the United States
An -year-old girl proposed the name for Pluto after the Roman god of the Underworld
An estimated % of all gold ever mined on Earth came from a single plateau in South Africa: Witwatersrand
At birth, a baby panda is smaller than a mouse
Calling “shotgun” when riding in a car comes from the term “shotgun messenger”
Canadians say “sorry” so much that a law was passed in declaring that an apology can’t be used as evidence of admission to guilt
China is spending $ billion dollars to build panda shaped solar farms in order to get more young people interested in renewable energy
Costa Coffee employs Gennaro Pelliccia as a coffee taster, who has had his tongue insured for £ million since
During the cremation process of a pound body, the corpse was so obese that it set the crematorium on fire
During the Prohibition era, the US Government allowed Whiskey to be sold through pharmacies As a result, Walgreens grew from retail stores to almost
Ed Sheeran bought a ticket to LA with no contacts He was spotted by Jamie Foxx, who offered him the use of his recording studio and a bed in his Hollywood home for six weeks
Elton John tried to commit suicide once by sticking his head in an oven with the gas on low and windows open He was found and stopped by his best friend Bernie Taupin
For nearly years, Texas didn’t have an official state flag between & During that time, the Lone Star flag was the active, but unofficial flag
German Chocolate Cake is named after an American baker by the name of Samuel German
Hanna-Barbera pitched The Flintstones to networks for weeks before it was finally picked up It became the first ever animated show to air during primetime
Herring fish communicate by using flatulence
Iceland does not have a railway system
If a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Bear mate, their offspring is called a “Pizzy Bear”
If you cut down a cactus in Arizona, you be penalized up to years in jail It is similar to cutting down a protected tree species
If you point your car keys to your head, it increases the remote’s signal range
If you point your car keys to your head, it increases the remote’s signal range
If you translate “Jesus” from Hebrew to English, the correct translation is “Joshua” The name “Jesus” comes from translating the name from Hebrew, to Greek, to Latin, to English
IKEA is an acronym which stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, which is the founder’s name, farm where he grew up, and hometown
In , a Coca-Cola employee offered to sell Coca-Cola secrets to Pepsi Pepsi responded by notifying Coca-Cola
In , a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack but his horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death
In , Stephen Hawking held a reception for time travelers, but didn’t publicize it until after This way, only those who could time travel would be able to attend Nobody else attended
In , the company who had a patent on GIFs tried to charge a fee for using GIFS The PNG was invented as an alternative, and the company backed down
In , two Italian city states fought over a bucket which resulted in , deaths It started when two soldiers stole a bucket from a well from the city center
In Colorado, USA, there is still an active volcano It last erupted about the same time as the pyramids were being built in Egypt
In order to keep Nazis away, a Polish doctor faked a typhus outbreak This strategy staved , people
In order to protect themselves from poachers, African Elephants have been evolving without tusks, which unfortunately also hurts their species
In Svalbard, a remote Norwegian island, it is illegal to die
In World War II, Germany tried to collapse the British economy by dropping millions of counterfeit bills over London
It has has no affiliation with the country of Germany
It is a contact sport between teams of competing underwater in a pool to score goals while freediving
Jack Daniel (the founder of the whiskey) died from kicking a safe When he kicked it, he broke his toe which got infected He eventually died from blood poisoning
Joe Arridy had an IQ of and is known as the “happiest prisoner on death row” He went into the gas chamber with a smile It turned out he was innocent
Johnny Cash took only three voice lessons before his teacher advised him to stop taking lessons and to never deviate from his natural voice
Kea parrots warble together when they’re in a good mood, making them the first known non-mammal species to communicate with infectious laughter
Larry the Cable Guy’s real name is Daniel Lawrence Whitney His notable Southern accent is fake – he was born and raised in the mid-west, not the South
Nintendo trademarked the phrase “It’s on like Donkey Kong” in
Saint Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman
Standing around burns calories On average, a pound person burns calories per hour while standing and doing nothing
Sumo wrestlers making babies cry (for luck!)
Sunflowers can help clean radioactive soil Japan is using this to rehabilitate Fukashima Almost , packets of sunflower seeds have been sold to the people of the city
The average American child is given $ per tooth that falls out
The British government coined the slogan, “Keep Calm and Carry on” during World War in order to motivate citizens to stay strong
The Buddha commonly depicted in statues and pictures is a different person entirely The real Buddha was actually incredibly skinny because of self-deprivation
The color red doesn’t really make bulls angry; they are color-blind
The country was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French
The Ethiopian calendar is years behind the Gregorian calendar due to the fact that it has months
The famous line in Titanic from Leonardo DiCaprio, “I’m king of the world!” was improvised
The first movie ever to put out a motion-picture soundtrack was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
The first service animals were established in Germany during World War I References to service animals date as far back as the mid- th Century
The Hobbit has been published in two editions In the first edition, Gollum willingly bet on his ring in the riddle game
The largest Japanese population outside of Japan stands at million people who live in Brazil
The largest known prime number has , , digits The new prime number is multiplied by itself , , times, minus
The lead singer of The Offspring started attending school to achieve a doctorate in molecular biology while still in the band He graduated in May
The only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table is J
The original Star Wars premiered on just screens across the US in This was to produce buzz as the release widened to more theaters
The piano is a little over feet long and has keys – short of the standard
The Roman – Persian wars are the longest in history, lasting over years They began in BC and ended in AD
The scientific name for Giant Anteater is Myrmecophaga Tridactyla This means “ant eating with three fingers”
The scientific term for brain freeze is “sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia”
The spiked dog collar was invented by the Ancient Greeks to protect their dogs from wolf attacks
The voice actor of SpongeBob and the voice actor of Karen, Plankton’s computer wife, have been married since
The world’s largest grand piano was built by a -year-old in New Zealand
The youngest Pope in history was Pope Benedict IX who was years old at the time of election He is also the only person to have been the Pope more than once
There are less than ships in the Royal Canadian Navy which is less than most third-world countries
There are times when Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune – one of these timelines was from to
There is a boss in Metal Gear Solid that can be defeated by not playing the game for a week; or by changing the date
There is a punctuation mark used to signify irony or sarcasm that looks like a backwards question mark ⸮
There is a town in Nebraska called Monowi with a population of one The only resident is a woman who is the Mayor, Bartender and Librarian
There is actually a difference between coffins and caskets – coffins are typically tapered and six-sided, while caskets are rectangular
There is an underwater version of rugby, unsurprisingly called “underwater rugby”
There is no news
There were two AI chatbots created by Facebook to talk to each other, but they were shut down after they started communicating in a language they made for themselves
There’s no period in “Dr Pepper” It was removed because the old logo font made it look like “Di: Pepper”
This is because bodies are unable to be buried safely due to the permafrost on the ground If you are about to die, they fly you back to mainland Norway to pass on there
This is mostly due to the fact that they have so many predators However, in a controlled environment like being kept as a pet, they can live up to two years
This term which was used to refer to the guard who sat next to the Stagecoach driver The guards would use a shotgun to keep robbers and criminals away It made its way into society due to Hollywood’s love of Western flicks
This works by using your brain to act as a radio transmitter
Throwing curling stone across the ice
Tirana, the capital of Albania has a lot of things in common with other European capitals – except one It’s one of two capitals without a McDonalds The second is Vatican City
To leave a party without telling anyone is called in English, a “French Exit” In French, it’s called a “partir à l’anglaise”, to leave like the English
To properly write adjectives in order, you would list them by amount, value, size, temperature, age, shape, color, origin, and material
Until , the “Happy Birthday” song was not for public use Meaning, prior to , the song was copyrighted and you had to pay a license to use it
Violin bows are commonly made from horse hair
When George Washington died, Napoleon Bonaparte of France gave a personal eulogy and ordered a ten day mourning period for France
When mice live in the wild, they typically only live for about six months
When Space Invaders was created, Tomohiro Nishikado left in the lag caused by more invaders on the screen in order to create greater difficulty in the games
While Apple was building a huge data center in the middle of North Carolina, they wanted to occupy the area of a couple that lived there for years When the couple refused to leave, Apple paid them $ million dollars for their land
While hunting, stoats go crazy jumping, spinning, and twisting to get a rabbits attention This hypnotizes the rabbit until the stoat gets close enough to attack

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