100 Fun and Interesting Facts About Practically Everything

100 Fun and Interesting
Facts About Practically

Everything
Marissa Laliberte
Jayna Taylor-SmithUpdated: May. 23, 2020
You'll never believe these fun facts.
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Fact: McDonald’s once made bubblegum-flavored

broccoli
This interesting fact will have your taste buds crawling. Unsurprisingly, the attempt
to get kids to eat healthier didn’t go over well with the child testers, who were
“confused by the taste.” Find out which countries have banned McDonald's.
Fact: Some fungi create zombies, then control their

minds
The tropical fungus Ophiocordyceps infects ants’ central nervous systems. By the
time the fungi been in the insect bodies for nine days, they have complete
control over the host’s movements. They force the ants to climb trees, then
convulse and fall into the cool, moist soil below, where fungi thrive. Once there, the
fungus waits until exactly solar noon to force the ant to bite a leaf and kill it. Don't
miss these 12 animal "facts" that are actually false.
Fact: The first oranges weren’t orange

The original oranges from Southeast Asia were a tangerine-pomelo hybrid, and
they were actually green. In fact, oranges in warmer regions like Vietnam and
Thailand still stay green through maturity. For more interesting facts, find out which
“orange” came first: the color or the fruit.
Fact: There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any

U.S. state name
Can you guess the answer to this random fact? You’ll find a Z (Arizona), a J (New
Jersey), and even two X’s (New Mexico and Texas)—but not a single Q. Check out
these other 50 fun facts about every state in America.
Fact: A cow-bison hybrid is called a “beefalo”

You can even buy its meat in at least 21 states. Don't miss these other random
facts about your favorite foods.

Fact: Johnny Appleseed’s fruits weren’t for eating
Yes, there was a real John Chapman who planted thousands of apple trees on U.S.
soil. But the apples on those trees were much more bitter than the ones you’d find
in the supermarket today. “Johnny Appleseed” didn’t expect his fruits to be eaten
whole, but rather made into hard apple cider.
Fact: Scotland has 421 words for “snow”

Yes—421! That's too many fun facts about snow. Some examples: sneesl (to start
raining or snowing); feefle (to swirl); flinkdrinkin (a light snow). Don't miss these
other 11 random interesting facts about snow.
Fact: Samsung tests phone durability with a butt-

shaped robot
Do these interesting facts have you rethinking everything? People stash their
phones in their back pockets all the time, which is why Samsung created a robot
that is shaped like a butt—and yes, even wears jeans—to “sit” on their phones to
make sure they can take the pressure.
Fact: The “Windy City” name has nothing to do with

Chicago weather
Was this one of the random facts you already knew? Chicago’s nickname
was coined by 19th-century journalists who were referring to the fact that its
residents were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”
Fact: Peanuts aren’t technically nuts

They’re legumes. According to Merriam-Webster, a nut is only a nut if it’s “a hard-
shelled dry fruit or seed with a separable rind or shell and interior kernel.” That
means walnuts, almonds, cashews, and pistachios aren’t nuts either. They’re seeds.

Fact: Armadillo shells are bulletproof
In fact, one Texas man was hospitalized when a bullet he shot at an armadillo
ricocheted off the animal and hit him in the jaw.
Fact: Firefighters use wetting agents to make water

wetter
The chemicals reduce the surface tension of plain water so it’s easier to spread and
soak into objects, which is why it’s known as “wet water.” Find out which of
your favorite science "facts" are actually false.
Fact: The longest English word is 189,819 letters long

We won’t spell it out here (though you can read it here), but the full name for the
protein nicknamed titin would take three and a half hours to say out loud.

Fact: “Running amok” is a medically recognized
mental condition
Considered a culturally bound syndrome, a person “running amok” in Malaysia
commits a sudden, frenzied mass attack, then begins to brood. Learn some
more random facts and trivia you'll wish you'd always known.
Fact: Octopuses lay 56,000 eggs at a time

The mother spends six months so devoted to protecting the eggs that she doesn’t
eat. The babies are the size of a grain of rice when they’re born.
Fact: Cats have fewer toes on their back paws

Like most four-legged mammals, they have five toes on the front, but their back
paws only have four toes. Scientists think the four-toe back paws might help them
run faster. Do you know any other fun facts about cats?

Fact: Kleenex tissues were originally intended for gas
masks
When there was a cotton shortage during World War I, Kimberly-Clark developed a
thin, flat cotton substitute that the army tried to use as a filter in gas masks. The
war ended before scientists perfected the material for gas masks, so the
company redeveloped it to be smoother and softer, then marketed Kleenex as
facial tissue instead.
Fact: Blue whales eat half a million calories in one

mouthful
These random facts are mindblowing! Those 457,000 calories are more than 240
times the energy the whale uses to scoop those krill into its mouth.
Fact: That tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store

pocket watches
The original jeans only had four pockets: that tiny one, plus two more on the front
and just one in the back.
Fact: Turkeys can blush

When turkeys are scared or excited—like when the males see a female they’re
interested in—the pale skin on their head and neck turns bright red, blue, or
white. The flap of skin over their beaks, called a “snood,” also reddens.
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Fact: Most Disney characters wear gloves to keep
animation simple
Walt Disney might have been the first to put gloves on his characters, as seen in
1929's The Opry House starring Mickey Mouse. In addition to being easier to
animate, there's another reason Disney opted for gloves: “We didn’t want him to
have mouse hands because he was supposed to be more human,” Disney told his
biographer in 1957.
Fact: The man with the world’s deepest voice can

make sounds humans can’t hear
The man, Tim Storms, can’t even hear the note, which is eight octaves below the
lowest G on a piano—but elephants can. Check out these 16 little-known
interesting facts about the greatest songs of all time.
Fact: The current American flag was designed by a

high school student
It started as a school project for Bob Heft’s junior-year history class, and it only
earned a B- in 1958. His design had 50 stars even though Alaska and Hawaii weren’t
states yet. Heft figured the two would earn statehood soon and showed the
government his design. After President Dwight D. Eisenhower called to say his
design was approved, Heft’s teacher changed his grade to an A.
Fact: Cows don’t have upper front teeth

They do have molars in the top back of their mouths though. Where you’d expect
upper incisors, cows, sheep, and goats have a thick layer of tissue called a “dental
pad.” They use that with their bottom teeth to pull out grass. Check out these 13
fun facts about the human body you've always wondered about.
Fact: Thanks to 3D printing, NASA can basically

“email” tools to astronauts
Getting new equipment to the Space Station used to take months or years, but the
new technology means the tools are ready within hours.
Fact: Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy

Most of it is covered in gravel, though it also contains mountains and oases. Oh,
and it isn’t the world’s largest desert—Antarctica is. Don’t miss these other 30
geography facts everyone gets wrong.

Fact: Bananas grow upside-down
Or technically, we peel them upside-down. These random facts will have you eating
fruit differently. Naturally, they grow outward from their stems, but that means
their bottoms actually face the sky. As they get bigger, the fruits turn toward the
sun, forming that distinctive curve. Check out these 21 food myths that are totally
untrue.
Fact: There were active volcanoes on the moon when

dinosaurs were alive
Most of the volcanoes probably stopped one billion years ago, but new NASA
findings suggest there might still have been active lava flow 100 million years ago,
when dinosaurs were still roaming.
Fact: Dogs sniff good smells with their left nostril

Dogs normally start sniffing with their right nostril, then keep it there if the smell
could signal danger, but they’ll shift to the left side for something pleasant,
like food or a mating partner. Learn the real reason dogs follow you everywhere.

Fact: Avocados were named after reproductive organs
Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America used the Nahuatl
word āhuacatl to mean both “testicles” and “avocado.” The fruits were originally
marketed as “alligator pears” in the United States until the current name stuck. For
more random facts, learn what the original word for avocado means about
guacamole’s name.
Fact: T. S. Eliot wore green makeup

No one is sure why the poet dusted his face with green powder, though some
guess he was just trying to look more interesting. Here are more fascinating facts
about famous authors.
Fact: The word “fizzle” started as a type of fart

In the 1400s, it meant to “break wind quietly,” according to English Oxford Living
Dictionaries.

Fact: You only have two body parts that never stop
growing
Human noses and ears keep getting bigger, even when the rest of the body’s
growth has come to a halt. Learn more about the phenomenon and what it
means.
Fact: No number before 1,000 contains the letter A

Some of these fun facts will have you counting. But there are plenty of E’s, I’s, O’s,
U’s, and Y's.
Fact: The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or

pound
Its technical name is octothorpe. The “octo-” means “eight” to refer to its points,
though reports disagree on where “-thorpe” came from. Some claim it was named
after Olympian Jim Thorpe, while others argue it was just a nonsense suffix.
Fact: The French have their own name for a “French

kiss”
This interesting fact doesn't date that far back. The word hasn’t been around for
long. In 2014, galocher—meaning to kiss with tongues—was added to the Petit
Robert French dictionary. Here are more fun facts about kissing.
Fact: You can thank the Greeks for calling Christmas

“Xmas”
In Greek, the word for "Christ" starts with the letter Chi, which looks like an X in
the Roman alphabet.
Fact: Movie trailers originally played after the movie

They “trailed” the feature film—hence the name. The first trailer appeared in
1912 and was for a Broadway show, not a movie. Don't miss these other 13 things
movie theater employees won't tell you.

Fact: Mercedes invented a car controlled by joystick
The joystick in the 1966 Mercedes F200 showcase car controlled speed and
direction, replacing both the steering wheel and pedals. The car could also sense
which side the driver was sitting in, so someone could control it from the passenger
seat.
Fact: The U.S. government saved every public tweet

from 2006 through 2017
Starting in 2018, the Library of Congress decided to only keep tweets on “a very
selective basis,” including elections and those dealing with something of national
interest, like public policy. Here are 18 more interesting facts about Washington,
DC you've never heard.
Fact: H&M actually does stand for something

This is one of the random facts you've probably never thought about before. The
clothing retail shop was originally called Hennes—Swedish for “hers”—before
acquiring the hunting and fishing equipment brand Mauritz Widforss. Eventually,
Hennes & Mauritz was shortened to H&M.
Fact: Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena

Its name was Bill and was a present from the Ethiopian emperor. Roosevelt was
famous for his many pets, including a one-legged rooster, a badger, a pony, and a
small bear.

Fact: Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Horatio Magellan
Crunch
He’s also been called out for only having the bars of a Navy commander, but the
so-called cap’n held his ground on Twitter, arguing that captaining the S. S. Guppy
with his crew “makes an official Cap’n in any book!” For more fun facts, find out
other characters you didn't know had full names.
Fact: The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks,

but baristas don’t write names on the cups
Its receipts say “Store Number 1” instead of “Starbucks,” and its workers need an
escort to leave their work posts. Find out why “Pequod” was almost the name for
Starbucks.
Fact: Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long

Their dark bluish black color is probably to prevent sunburn.

Fact: There’s only one U.S. state capital without a
McDonald’s
Montpelier, Vermont, doesn’t have any of those Golden Arches. It also happens to
have the smallest population of any state capital, with just 7,500 residents. Find
out the farthest you can possibly be from a McDonald's in the United States.
Fact: Europeans were scared of eating tomatoes when

they were introduced
Scholars think Hernán Cortés brought the seeds in 1519 with the intent of the fruits
being used ornamentally in gardens. By the 1700s, aristocrats started eating
tomatoes, but they were convinced the fruits were poison because people would
die after eating them. In reality, the acidity from the tomatoes brought out lead in
their pewter plates, so they’d died of lead poisoning. These facts about our
world are so surprising, they're hard to believe.
Fact: Humans aren’t the only animals that dream

Studies have indicated rats dream about getting to food or running through
mazes. Most mammals go through REM sleep, the cycle in which dreams occur, so
scientists think there’s a good chance they all dream. Here are 13 more interesting
facts about dreaming.
Fact: The inventor of the microwave appliance only

received $2 for his discovery
Percy Spencer was working as a researcher for American Appliance Company (now
Raytheon) when he noticed a radar set using electromagnetic waves melted the
candy bar in his pocket. He had the idea to make a metal box using microwaves to
heat food, but the company was the one to file the patent. He received a $2
bonus but never any royalties. Here are 16 more random facts about money.
Fact: The Eiffel Tower can grow more than six inches
during the summer
The high temperatures make the iron expand. Don't miss these other 19 Eiffel
Tower facts you never learned before.
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Fact: Glitter was made on a ranch

A cattle rancher in New Jersey is credited for inventing glitter, and it was by
accident. Henry Ruschmann from Bernardsville, New Jersey was a machinist who
crushed plastic while trying to find a way to dispose of it and thus made glitter in
1934.
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Fact: Creature is a vegetarian

Victor Frankenstein’s Creature is actually vegetarian. Frankenstein and Creature are
fictional characters created by Mary Shelley in her novel, Frankenstein. In the novel,
Creature says, “My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to
glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.”
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Fact: Medical errors are a top cause of death

According to a Johns Hopkins research team, 250,000 deaths in the United States
are caused by medical error each year. This makes medical error the third-leading
cause of deaths in the country.
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Fact: Sloths have more neck bones than giraffes
Despite physical length, there are more bones in the neck of a sloth than a giraffe.
There are seven vertebrae in the neck of giraffes, and in most mammals, but there
are ten in a sloth. Still, giraffes are among 23 of the world’s biggest living
animals.
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Fact: Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest

Bees can fly higher than 29,525 feet above sea level, according to National
Geographic. That’s higher than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
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Fact: Ancient Egyptians used dead mice to ease

toothaches
In Ancient Egypt, people put a dead mouse in their mouth if they had a toothache,
according to Nathan Belofsky’s book Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of
Real Medical Practices Through the Age. Mice were also used as a warts
remedy during Elizabethan England.
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Fact: Paint used to be stored in pig bladders

Pig bladders were used in the 19th century to store an artist’s paint. The bladder
would be sealed with a string and then pricked to get the paint out. This option
wasn’t the best because it would often break open. American painter John G. Rand
was the innovator who made paint tubes from tin and screw cap in the 19th century.
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Fact: Humans have jumped further than horses in the

Olympics
The Olympic world record for the longest human long jump is greater than the
world record for longest horse long jump. Mike Powell set the record in 1991 by
jumping 8.95 meters, and the horse Extra Dry set the record in 1900 by jumping
6.10 meters. Don’t miss 13 more Olympic moments that changed history.
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Fact: The Terminator script was sold for $1

James Cameron is the award-winning director of movies like Titanic,
Avatar, and The Terminator. In order to get his big break with The
Terminator, he sold the script for $1 and a promise that he’d be able to direct.
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Fact: Pigeon poop is the property of the British Crown
In the 18th century, pigeon poop was used to make gunpowder, so King George I
confirmed the droppings to be property of the crown.
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Fact: Onions were found in the eyes of an Egyptian

mummy
Pharaoh Ramses IV of Ancient Egypt had his eyes replaced with small
onions when he was mummified. The rings and layers of onions were worshipped
because people thought they represented eternal life. This aligns with the reason
for mummification: to allow the pharaoh’s body to live forever. Let's hope these
interesting facts don't all apply to practices used today.
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Fact: Abraham Lincoln was a bartender

You know that the 16th president of the United States fought for the freedom of
slaves and the Union, but what you didn’t know is that he was a licensed bartender.
Lincoln’s liquor license was discovered in 1930 and displayed in a Springfield liquor
store. Wayne C. Temple, a Lincoln expert, told the Southeast Missourian
newspaper that in 1863 Congress wanted to fire Ulysses S. Grant because he drank
a lot and Lincoln’s response was to send Grant a supply of whiskey.
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Fact: Beethoven never knew how to multiply or divide

Ludwig van Beethoven is arguably one of the greatest composers in musical history.
The renowned pianist went to a Latin school called Tirocinium. There he learned
some math, but never multiplication or division, only addition. Once when he
needed to multiply 62 by 50, he wrote 62 down a line 50 times and added it all up.
Here are 12 easy math tricks you and Beethoven will wish you knew sooner.
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Fact: Japan released sushi-inspired KitKats

For a limited time in 2017, Tokyo’s KitKat Chocolatory shop made three types of the
chocolate bar that was sushi-inspired but didn’t actually taste like raw fish. The
tuna sushi was actually raspberry, the seaweed wrapped one was pumpkin pudding
flavored, and the sea urchin sushi was actually Hokkaido melon with mascarpone
cheese flavored. All were made with puffed rice, white chocolate, and a bit of
wasabi.
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Fact: The word aquarium means "watering place for

cattle" in Latin
In the classic Latin language, aquarium means a "watering place for cattle."
However, aquariums these days aren’t for cows—instead, they are a place for the
public to see sea creatures. The first aquarium that looks like what you’d imagine
now was created in 1921 and opened in 1924 in England. If you love what’s in the
deep blue sea, take an intimate look at these large and tiny sea creatures.
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Fact: An espresso maker was sent into space in 2015

Samantha Cristoforetti is the first female Italian astronaut to get a warm and cozy
piece of home sent to her while in orbit. The Italian Space Agency worked with
Italian coffee manufacturer, Lavazza, to get the coffee capsules flown up and out
into space.
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Fact: An employee at Pixar accidentally deleted a

sequence of Toy Story 2 during production
Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar, wrote in his book Creativity Inc. that the year
before the movie came out, someone entered the command, '/bin/rm -r -f *' on the
drive where the files were saved and scenes started to be deleted. It would have
taken a year to recreate what was deleted, but luckily another employee had a
backup of the entire film on her laptop at home.
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Fact: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne

started Apple Inc. on April Fools’ Day
The three technology innovators signed the documents to form the Apple
Computer Company on April 1, 1976. However, the company was not fully
incorporated until January 3, 1977. Thirty years later, the company was renamed
Apple Inc. and is no joke. In 2018, Apple Inc. became the country’s first trillion-
dollar company.
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Fact: The inventor of the tricycle personally delivered

two to Queen Victoria
In 1881, Queen Victoria was on a tour on the Isle of Wight when her horse and
carriage could not keep up with a woman riding a tricycle. The Queen made her
servants identify the woman so she could demonstrate the tricycle to the Queen.
Intrigued by the bike, the Queen proceeded to order two. She also asked that the
inventor, James Starley, arrive with the delivery. Though you might associate
tricycles with toddlers, Queen Victoria made them cool among the elite. Special
deliveries are definitely a royal bonus. Want more random facts? Here are 15 more
of the most bizarre perks of the British royal family.
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Fact: Your brain synapses shrink while you sleep

A 2003 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sleep and
Consciousness was done on mice to observe what happens to our brains while we
sleep. Dr. Chiara Cirelli and Dr. Giulio Tononi found an 18 percent decrease in the
size of synapses after a few hours of sleep. Don’t worry, though, your brain
shrinking at night actually helps your cognitive abilities.
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Fact: A waffle iron inspired one of the first pairs of

Nikes
Bill Bowerman was a track and field coach in the 1950s who didn’t like how running
shoes were made. He first created the Cortez shoe, but still wanted to make a shoe
even lighter that could be worn on various surfaces. During a waffle breakfast with
his wife in 1970, the idea came to him of using the waffle texture on the sole of
running shoes. The waffle sole shoe made their appearance in the 1972 U.S.
Olympic track and field trials in Eugene.
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Fact: Boars wash their food

National Geographic reported that at Basel Zoo in Switzerland, zookeepers
watched adult and juvenile wild boars pick up sandy apples and bring them to a
nearby creek in their environment to wash before eating. Though some items like
sugar beets were eaten without the human-like behavior, the boars brought a
whole dead chicken to the creek to wash before chowing down. One ecologist
called this a “luxury behavior.” You’d never believe the 12 animals that are
probably smarter than you.
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Fact: Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs

People have been playing baseball since the mid 19th century. In the early games,
umpires would officiate the games reclining in a rocking chair that was located 20
feet behind home plate. By 1878, the National League also declared that home
teams must pay umpires $5 per game.
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Fact: The first commercial passenger flight lasted only

23 minutes
These fun facts really get you thinking about how far we've come. Taking a 23-
minute flight might seem like a waste of money today, but in 1914 Abram Pheil
paid $400, which would be $8,500 today, for a 23-minute long plane ride. He flew
between St. Petersburg, Florida and Tampa, Florida, where only 21 miles of water
separate the cities. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, and the pilot, Tony
Jannus, were the only passengers. This momentous flight paved the way for air
travel as we know it.
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Fact: The world’s first novel ends mid-sentence

The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is considered the
world’s first novel. After reading 54 intricately crafted chapters, the reader is
stopped abruptly mid-sentence. One translator believes the work is complete as is,
but another says we’re missing a few more pages of the story. If you’ve never
read The Tale of Genji, don’t worry. Just be sure to read these 50 books before
you’re 50.
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Fact: The French-language Scrabble World Champion

doesn’t speak French
New Zealand native Nigel Richards memorized the entire French Scrabble
dictionary, which has 386,000 words, in nine weeks to earn his title. He has also
won the English world Scrabble Championship three times, the U.S. national
championships five times, and the U.K. Open Scrabble tournament six times. This
comes 20 years after first playing Scrabble when Richards was 28 years old. Here
are 22 high-scoring Scrabble words you should try to memorize.
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Fact: A woman called the police when her ice cream

didn’t have enough sprinkles
The West Midlands police in England released a recording of a woman who called
999 (the U.K. version of 911) because there were “bits on one side and none on the
other,” she says in the recording. She was even more upset when the ice cream
truck man did not want to give her money back.
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Fact: Uncle Ben’s rice was airdropped to World War

II troops
German chemist Erich Huzenlaub invented a process of parboiling rice to keep
more nutrients in the rice and lessen the cooking time. The "Huzenlaub Process"
had another unexpected benefit, too: It stopped bug infestations. The quick-cook,
bug-free rice was a big advantage during World War II, and Converted rice (as it
was then known) was airdropped to American and British troops. After the war,
the company rebranded to Uncle Ben's Original Converted Brand Rice, named after
one of the company's best rice suppliers, and the product hit the shelves in
1947. Did you know these 11 food product icons were based on real people?
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Fact: The British Empire was the largest empire in

world history
According to the World Atlas, an empire “is a group of nations or people that are
under the rule of a powerful government or an emperor of a territory usually larger
than a kingdom.” The British Empire was most powerful in the 1920s when it ruled
over 23 percent of the world’s population. That equates to about 13 million square
miles.
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Fact: South American river turtles talk in their eggs

Turtles don’t have vocal cords and their ears are internal, so scientists believed that
turtles were deaf and didn’t communicate through sounds. However, research has
found that turtles actually communicate at an extremely low frequency that sounds
like “clicks, clucks, and hoots” that can only be heard through a hydrophone (a
microphone used underwater). These sounds even come from the egg before the
turtle hatches. Researchers hypothesize that this helps all the turtle siblings hatch at
once.
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Fact: Penicillin was first called “mold juice”

Alexander Fleming was one of those quirky scientists who accidentally made a
scientific breakthrough. In 1928, the bacteriologist left a petri dish in his lab while
he was on vacation only to return and find that some liquid around the mold had
killed the bacteria in the dish. This became the world’s first antibiotic. But before
naming it penicillin, he called it “mold juice.”
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Fact: The first stroller was pulled by a goat

This is one of the many interesting facts that had us scratching our head. Or a dog
or a miniature horse, but not by parents. William Kent, a landscape architect,
invented the first stroller for the third Duke of Devonshire in 1733. By the mid
18th century, strollers were still pretty unstable, but they had handles so parents, not
animals, could pull the baby behind them.
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Fact: May 20, 1873, is the “birthday” of blue jeans

According to the Levi Strauss website, this was the day that Levi Strauss and Jacob
Davis, the innovators behind the sturdy blue jeans we all love, got a patent on the
process of adding metal rivets to men’s denim work pants for the first time in
history. The pants were called waist overalls until 1960 when baby boomers began
calling them jeans. Check out the 9 secrets you never knew about your clothes.
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Fact: 170-year-old bottles of champagne were found at

the bottom of the Baltic Sea
The bottles of bubbly are estimated to have been traveling from Germany to Russia
during the 1800s when they sank to the bottom of the sea, says New Scientist.
Turns out that the bottom of the sea, where temps are between two and four
degrees Celsius, is a great place for wine aging. Oenologists, people who study
wine and winemaking, sampled the champagne and described it as, “sometimes
cheesy,” with “animal notes,” and that it had elements of “wet hair.” We’ll pass on
that and go for the best wine in the world that only costs $10.
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Fact: The MGM lion roar is trademarked

At the start of any movie made by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, there’s the
iconic lion that roars at the audience. While MGM has gone through several
iterations of lion mascots, the sound of the roar is always the same. The company
trademarked the “sound mark” with the United States Patent and Trademark
Office in the '80s. Think you know all the fun facts about movies? Check out
this movie trivia that you won't believe.
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Fact: Neil Armstrong’s hair was sold in 2004 for $3,000

The lucky buyer, John Reznikoff, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest
collection of hair from historical celebrities, reports NBC. The not-so-lucky barber
Marx Sizemore, who cut Armstrong’s hair, received threats of being sued by
Armstrong’s lawyers who said he violated an Ohio law that protects the rights of
famous people. Sizemore said he wouldn’t pay, and Reznikoff said he wouldn’t give
back the hair but that he’d donate $3,000 to charity.
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Fact: Irish bars used to be closed on St. Patrick’s Day

You might associate St. Patrick’s Day with wearing green and drinking so much you
think you actually see leprechauns. However, until 1961, there were laws in Ireland
that banned bars to be open on March 17. Since the holiday falls during the
period of Lent in the heavily Catholic country, the idea of binge drinking seemed a
bit immoral.
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Fact: Nikola Tesla hated pearls

Tesla was a European electrical engineer who paved the way for current system
generators and motors. The way electricity gets transmitted and converted to
mechanical power is thanks to his inventions. However, despite experimenting with
electricity, he despised being in the presence of pearls. One day when his secretary
wore pearl jewelry, he made her go home.
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Fact: Thomas Edison is the reason you love cat videos

Thanks to Edison’s invention of the Kinetograph in 1892, he was able to record and
watch moving images for the first time. He filmed short clips in his studio named
Black Maria. Some of his shorts feature famous people like Annie Oakley and
Buffalo Bill, but the real stars are The Boxing Cats. Check out the video Edison
captured of adorable cats in a boxing ring circa 1894.
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Fact: Brad Pitt suffered an ironic injury on a film set

During Pitt’s prime acting career, he filmed Troy, based on Homer’s Illiad. He played
the brave, and buff, Greek hero Achilles. Legend has it that Achilles could not be
defeated unless hit in his Achilles heel. While filming an epic battle scene, Pitt
ironically hurt his Achilles tendon that put him back two months.
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Fact: Pregnancy tests date back to 1350 BCE

Based on an ancient papyrus document, Egyptian women urinated on wheat and
barley seeds to determine if they were pregnant or not, according to the Office of
History in the National Institutes of Health. If wheat grew, it predicted a female
baby. If barley grew, it predicted a male baby. The woman was not pregnant if
nothing grew. Experimenting with this seed theory in 1963 proved it was accurate
70 percent of the time.
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Fact: Martin Luther King Jr. got a C in public

speaking
Everyone remembers Dr. King as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement and often
quotes his “I Have a Dream” speech that he delivered in 1963. However, over a
decade before his legendary speech, while attending Crozer Theological Seminary
in Pennsylvania, he earned a C in public speaking during his first and second
term. Bad grades don’t change anything about these 8 inspirational quotes from
MLK.
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Fact: Bananas glow blue under black lights

To the everyday eye under normal conditions, ripe bananas appear yellow due to
organic pigments called carotenoids. When bananas ripen, chlorophyll begins to
break down. This pigment is the element that makes bananas glow, or
“fluoresce,” under UV lights and appear blue.
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Fact: Bees can make colored honey

In France, there’s a biogas plant that manages waste from a Mars chocolate factory,
where M&Ms are made. Beekeepers nearby noticed that their bees were making
“unnatural shades of green and blue” honey, reported BBC. A spokesperson from
the British Beekeepers’ Association predicted the bees eating the sugary M&M
waste caused the colored honey.
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Fact: Wimbledon tennis balls are kept at 68 degrees

Fahrenheit
The temperature of tennis balls affects how the ball bounces. At warmer
temperatures, the gas molecules inside the ball expand making the ball bounce
higher. A tennis ball at lower temperatures causes the molecules to shrink and the
ball bounces lower. To make sure the best tennis balls are used, Wimbledon goes
through over 50,000 tennis balls. Next, find out the 11 genius ways that tennis
balls can actually make your life better.
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Fact: Adult cats are lactose intolerant

Feeding your cat milk could be making them sick. Like some humans, adult cats
don’t have enough of the lactase enzyme to digest lactose from milk, causing them
to vomit, have diarrhea, or get gassy. Cats only have enough of that enzyme when
they’re born and during the early years of their life. Find out why cats are also
afraid of cucumbers.
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Fact: Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are in New York City

They were given to Henry Abrams and preserved in a safety deposit box. Abrams
was Einstein’s eye doctor. He received the eyeballs from Thomas Harvey, the man
who performed the autopsy on Einstein and illegally took the scientist’s brain for
himself.
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Fact: The Pope can’t be an organ donor

Pope Benedict XVI was issued an organ donor card in 1970. Once he ascended to
the papacy in 2005, the card was invalid, reports the Telegraph. According to the
Vatican, the Pope’s entire body must be buried intact because his body belongs to
the universal Catholic Church. Don’t miss 27 other things Rabbis, priests, and
ministers won’t tell you.
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Fact: A one-armed player scored the winning goal in

the first World Cup
Héctor Castro played on the Uruguay soccer team during the first ever World Cup
in 1930. In the last game between Uruguay versus Argentina, Castro scored the
winning goal in the last minute of the game. The final score was 4-2, making
Uruguay the first country to win the World Cup title.
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Fact: The world’s oldest toy is a stick

Think of how versatile a stick is. You can use it to play fetch with your dog, swing it
as a bat, or use your imagination to turn it into a lightsaber. Its adaptability, along
with how old sticks are, is among the reasons why the National Toy Hall of Fame
inducted the stick into its collection as possibly the oldest toy ever. Next, don’t
miss 46 more weird, interesting facts that most people don’t know.
Originally Published:May 09, 2019

100 Fun and Interesting Facts About Practically Everything

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100 Fun and Interesting Facts About Practically Everything

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100 Fun and Interesting

Facts About Practically

Jayna Taylor-SmithUpdated: May. 23, 2020

You'll never believe these fun facts.

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Fact: McDonald’s once made bubblegum-flavored

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Fact: Some fungi create zombies, then control their

Fact: The first oranges weren’t orange

Fact: There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any

Fact: A cow-bison hybrid is called a “beefalo”

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Fact: Scotland has 421 words for “snow”

Fact: Samsung tests phone durability with a butt-

Fact: The “Windy City” name has nothing to do with

Fact: Peanuts aren’t technically nuts

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Fact: Firefighters use wetting agents to make water

Fact: The longest English word is 189,819 letters long

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Fact: Octopuses lay 56,000 eggs at a time

Fact: Cats have fewer toes on their back paws

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Fact: Blue whales eat half a million calories in one

Fact: That tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store

Fact: Turkeys can blush

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Fact: The man with the world’s deepest voice can

Fact: The current American flag was designed by a

Fact: Cows don’t have upper front teeth

Fact: Thanks to 3D printing, NASA can basically

Fact: Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy

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Fact: There were active volcanoes on the moon when

Fact: Dogs sniff good smells with their left nostril

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Fact: T. S. Eliot wore green makeup

Fact: The word “fizzle” started as a type of fart

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Fact: No number before 1,000 contains the letter A

Fact: The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or

Fact: The French have their own name for a “French

Fact: You can thank the Greeks for calling Christmas

Fact: Movie trailers originally played after the movie

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Fact: The U.S. government saved every public tweet

Fact: H&M actually does stand for something

Fact: Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena

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Fact: The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks,

Fact: Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long

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Fact: Europeans were scared of eating tomatoes when

Fact: Humans aren’t the only animals that dream