Saint Joseph of Cupertino is the patron saint of astronauts.
The North Dakota Legislative Assembly (USA) has no permanent staff. Even the governor drives himself around! The State Assembly works four months out of every two years.
In the US, the total number of prisoners increases by over 1,000 each week.
The origin of the word “dog” remains one of the greatest mysteries of English etymology.
Upon their return from the Moon in 1969, the US astronauts had to fill in a customs declaration.
In a lifetime, a human would spend three years on the toilet.
During World War II, American servicemen used to take “trophies” from the corpses of Imperial Japanese troops.
In Japan, ladies cover their mouths when laughing because it is considered rude to show one’s teeth.
Van Halen, Whitesnake, Motley Crew, U2 and other rock bands have been sued by fans for hearing damage during a concert.
LEGO recently created Anti-LEGO slippers. Anyone who has stepped barefoot on a LEGO block knows the pain…
In early 2016, a 150-year-old mousetrap caught a mouse in a UK museum. The trap was a part of the exhibition and was not considered to be operational.
A 2HB pencil can draw a continuous line of roughly 55 km (35 mi).
Samsung provides free smartphones for a period of up to five days to every foreign tourist visiting South Korea.
Since 2014, US cops take more assets from people than burglars do. The US Civil Asset Forfeiture Act gives them the legal right to do so, even without filing charges.
There are documented cases when dental floss facilitated prison escapes. It was either used to meticulously cut bars or braided together into a rope.
Mount Everest has 4G mobile phone coverage since 2013.
Around 1780, the so-called Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom, making it the first industrialized country worldwide. Since 2016 however, the UK has been making more money from rock ’n’ roll than from coal and steel.
Women’s feet are two to three degrees Celsius colder than men’s.
The Ferrari F40 became the first production car to break the 320 km/h (200 mph) threshold in 1987.
"Desire path” or “desire line” is a shortcut created by human traffic outside paved alleys.
During the Apollo 17 mission, Harrison Schmitt suffered from a severe allergic reaction to the dust found on the surface of the moon. He landed on the surface on December 11, 1972.
The word “bistro” comes from Russian, where it means “quick”.
New-born bear cubs weigh on average 300 g (0.7 pound). Their weight increases by a factor of 200 in the course of their first year.
Celluloid billiard balls can literally explode on impact.
Finland has the world’s highest coffee consumption per capita – 12 kg (25 pounds) each year.
DVD players, computers and toasters were banned in Cuba until 2008.
Worldwide, the Republic of Guyana has the highest suicide rate.
Astronauts lose their sense of smell in space.
Up until 1946, in the Japanese schools they were teaching mythology instead of history.
During the first three months of World War II, more British died in car accidents in London due to the blackout rather than soldiers in battle.
The French poodle dog breed in fact originated in Germany.
In the period between 1850 and 1916, all soldiers in the British Army were required to sport moustaches.
Okay, OK, refers to an actual town in Oklahoma, USA.
Sometimes, the automatic face-blurring technology used by Google Street View also blurs the faces of… cows.
Lausanne, Switzerland, is the smallest city in the world to have a metro.
In 1999, Bulgaria gave as a gift more than one hundred T-55 battle tanks and other pieces of weaponry to the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Several years later, FYROM proceeded to sell many of the tanks and cashed in the gift.
Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetic project of a machine in the form of a roller coaster, designed to take the life of a human being humanely.
During WWII, the US Army used code-talkers to transmit encoded messages in the Navajo Indian language, as this made them indecipherable to Japanese intelligence.
In computer animation, 1/100 of a second is called a “jiffy”.
All mammals, except for sloths and manatees, have seven neck vertebrae.
The South Korean automotive brand Hyundai carried out a public crash test to prove that their cars are equally safe regardless of the country they are produced in.
A US company patented an automatic braking system capable of stopping the table saw within milliseconds after its blade comes in contact with the operator’s hand. The inventor of SawStop, Steve Gass, used his own bare finger to demonstrate how safe his invention was.
French stores must either compost their food or donate it to charity. They cannot be thrown away into the trash. The law also states that any unsold food must be given to food banks if it cannot be donated to the homeless.
The notorious prison of San Quentin in California, USA, has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
According to the ancient Israeli Sanhedrin court system, a suspect cannot be sentenced if all 23 members of the jury agreed on his or her guilt. This rule was thought to prevent biased verdicts.
During the Cold War, and more precisely in the period 1953 - 1976, beams of microwaves of 2.5 to 4.0 GHz were aimed at the US embassy building in Moscow, Russia. The sources were located in a neighbouring apartment building. Those microwaves might have been used to remotely charge the batteries of the microphones concealed in the building.
Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car parks at night to stop teenagers from gathering there.
Metropolis, the home of Superman, really exists (in Illinois, USA).
The Dutch police use eagles to catch drones flying illegally in airport areas.
In 1983, in what is known as “the Alraigo Incident”, a lost UK Harrier fighter aircraft landed successfully on the deck of a Spanish container ship. The ship’s crew and owners were awarded a compensation of £570,000 (USD 760,000).
In 19th-century Scotland, “shit-faced” used to mean “to have a childish face”.
Macaques never eat an entire fruit if there is another fruit available nearby.
In 1838, the state of Missouri, USA, entered into a full-scale war against the Mormons, forcing them to leave the state. These events are also known as “1838 Mormon War”.
Public dissection used to be a common practice in medieval Europe. In 1751, the UK Murder Act stipulated that all murderers be dissected after execution – a very strong deterrent as it was seen as the ultimate indignity.
Jelly bears are quite effective in stopping bullets.
Monsanto produced the Agent Orange, a herbicide notorious for its use by the US forces in Vietnam.
Most Dutch people believe that reheating spinach is very dangerous and can lead to poisoning although there is little scientific evidence supporting this.
Finland became the first country in the world to launch its own emojis in 2015.
A Hijab can now form part of an official police uniform in Scotland and Canada.
In most US states, it is still allowed to have a tiger as a pet.
The word “democracy” is not found in the Constitution of the USA nor is it present in the Declaration of Independence.
Across the majority of the Western nations, the higher the average wedding costs, the higher the probability of divorce.
Operation CHASE (an acronym for “Cut Holes And Sink ’Em”) was a US Department of Defence program for the disposal of unwanted munitions at sea from May 1964 until the early 1970s. Some of the sinkings involved chemical weapons.
The original jeans only had four pockets: that tiny one, plus two more on the front and just one in the back.
In March 2017, the Chinese government closed down the last coal power plant in the Beijing area. They switched to natural gas instead in a bid to fight the heavy smog over the Chinese capital.
Jupiter is the fastest rotating planet in the Solar System.
In the Greek language, “symposium” roughly means “drinking together”.
Italy only legalised divorce in 1970.
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.
Some of these roads include Peachtree lane and Peachtree Creek road. This name is used to honor the memory of the Civil War Battle of Peachtree Creek.
Warner Bros film studio has officially confirmed that Tweety is a canary.
The IBM ThinkPad was the first laptop with a DVD-ROM reader.
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The Earth’s crust is split into gigantic pieces called tectonic plates. These plates are in constant motion, propelled by currents in the Earth’s upper mantle. Hot, less-dense rock rises before cooling and sinking, giving rise to circular convection currents which act like giant conveyor belts, slowly shifting the tectonic plates above them. Hawaii sits in the middle of the Pacific Plate, which is slowly drifting north-west towards the North American Plate, back to Alaska. The plates’ pace is comparable to the speed at which our fingernails grow.
Adolf Hitler objected to the use of poison gas on the battlefield in WWII partly because he had been gassed as a soldier during WWI.
The word ampersand is a combination of the phrase ‘and per se and’ which was generally accepted as just ‘and’. This symbol was taken from the Latin letter et.
The residents of the District of Columbia (United States of America) voted for the first time for US President on 3 November 1964.
In Japan, you should never place your chopsticks upright in your rice as such action is part of a funeral ceremony.
The metric system was introduced in 1875. Today, only three countries have not yet officially adopted it: the USA, Liberia and Myanmar.
To date (early 2018), the most bananas peeled and eaten in one minute by one person is eight. The record was set in 2012.
Chinese steel production increased twelvefold in the period 1990-2015.
Queens, New York (USA) has a ratio of 1:1 of native-born to foreign-born residents.
Just over 96% of the total amount of the world's water is held in its oceans, according to Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources via the United States Geological Survey (USGS). However, that's primarily saltwater. To find the bulk of the world's freshwater you need to trek to the poles, as 68.7% of it is encased in ice caps, permanent snow, and glaciers. For more facts sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
Panophobia means “fear of everything”.
Up until the early 19th century, the conductor of a musical orchestra would also play an instrument during the performance.
The nine species of moa were the only wingless (do not mistake with “flightless”) birds that ever existed on Earth. They used to inhabit New Zealand and were overhunted to extinction around 1500 by the Maori.
In 2005, a mock-paper titled “Get me off your fucking mailing list” has been accepted and published in the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology.
Luxembourg is planning to mine asteroids. Many asteroids are known to contain minerals, metals and volatile gases invaluable to human life.
The Huzhu Pagoda, China, and the Tower of Church of Suurhusen, Germany, are both more tilted than the famous Tower of Pisa, Italy.
Bulgaria had more military airplanes than the USA until 1912. Bulgarian air force was the first to drop bombs from an airplane.
Photoshop prevents you from working on full-size pictures of real banknotes.
In parts of Germany, it is illegal to wash your car on Sunday. It is also illegal to run out of fuel on highways.
One in nine black US children has had a parent in prison.
In Lichtenstein, prison inmates with sentences over two years are normally confined abroad. They are sent to do their time in Austrian prisons.
Peanuts used to be a key ingredient in dynamite
Until 2010, beekeeping was illegal in New York City, USA.
Baby rabbits are referred to as “kittens”.
In many cases, toddlers recognise companies' logos before they are able to recognise their own name.
Out of superstition, the Japanese avoid whistling or cutting their nails after dark. Whistling was historically associated with burglars signalling to each other at night, while cutting your nails is thought to “summon evil spirits”.
Pepsi was initially called “Brad’s Drink”. In 1893, it was introduced by Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North Carolina (USA).
Dutch names can sound hilarious in English. How about Kitty Miao, Justin Case, or an eye doctor called I.C. Notting?
Maybe you have noticed that the heads of LEGO figures have a hole. Its sole purpose is to prevent choking.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death for US police officers.
Europe-wide, Sweden has the highest rate per capita of reported rapes.
The then US President Bill Clinton forced Haiti to drop the import customs duties for rice in 1995. Soon afterwards Haiti was “flooded” with rice produced in Arkansas, USA.
Playing the didgeridoo (a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia) relieves stress, reduces snoring and improves blood circulation.
Jehovah’s Witnesses is one of the few religions that have never been involved in a war. Its followers do not use the cross and do not accept blood transfusions.
35,000 Americans buy an insurance covering the risk of “abduction by aliens” every year.
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.
General Electric is the only still operating independent company that was part of the original Dow Jones index of 1896.
In many countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, etc.) men never give an even number of flowers to a lady. Even numbers bouquets are reserved for funerals.
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Babies have about 300 bones at birth, with cartilage between many of them. This extra flexibility helps them pass through the birth canal and also allows for rapid growth. With age, many of the bones fuse, leaving 206 bones that make up an average adult skeleton.
The encircled “U” sign on food labels means it is kosher.
In the 1930s, the Nazi regime in Germany widely publicised a picture of the “Perfect Aryan Baby”. Ironically, the baby chosen for the posters turned out to be Jewish.
Cat’s eyes (the retroreflective road safety devices) were invented in 1934
The Emperor of Japan is not allowed to eat fugu (pufferfish). This fish contains tetrodotoxin which can be lethally poisonous.
In the late 1920s, General Motors secretly started purchasing trolley systems in many US cities. Its only aim was to dismantle them and turn them into bus lines.
There is more information about the Virgin Mary in the Quran than in the Bible.
In 1989, the USSR gave Pepsico seventeen submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer in exchange for Pepsi products.
This championship has been held annually since the year 2000 in Finland. The sport is judged based on the participant’s length of throw and his performance or technique. World placeholder, Tom Philipp Reinhardt has a record distance of 136.75m.
Only the US Congress can declare a war. This power is not shared with anyone, including the President. Approximately half of the Americans are unaware of this fact.
Until 2002, the UK broadcaster BBC had banned the song “Gloomy Sunday” aka “Hungarian Suicide song”. It was thought to urge people to take their lives.
Many keyboards have proved to be more efficient than QWERTY (patented back in 1868). However, we are so used to it that QWERTY remains by far the most popular keyboard.
In 2016, endohedral fullerene was the most expensive material worldwide. The price was set at USD 145 million per gram. It is used in GPS devices and atomic clocks for highly increased accuracy and precision.
Cans of regular soda are denser than water and sink. Cans of diet soda are usually less dense than water and float.
The construction of a 3-km pipeline from a brewery to the bottling plant in Bruges, Belgium, was crowdfunded. The contributors will receive a bottle of beer every day for the rest of their lives.
A bird’s beak grows constantly, just like human nails. Natural wear and tear however keeps the beak’s size more or less constant.
In October 2016, an atheist billboard in Nebraska, USA, reading “The Good Life Without God” had to be taken down following numerous complaints of pious citizens.
On average, in Kericho, Kenya, there is hail falling one out of every three days.
In early 1915, almost ten million pigs were slaughtered in Germany to free up grain and potatoes for human consumption.
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A neutron star is the remnants of a massive star that has run out of fuel. The dying star explodes in a supernova while its core collapses in on itself due to gravity, forming a super-dense neutron star. Astronomers measure the mind-bogglingly large masses of stars or galaxies in solar masses, with one solar mass equal to the Sun’s mass (that is, 2 x 1030 kilograms/4.4 x 1030 pounds). Typical neutron stars have a mass of up to three solar masses, which is crammed into a sphere with a radius of approximately ten kilometres (6.2 miles) – resulting in some of the densest matter in the known universe.
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Our atmosphere is made up of roughly 78 per cent nitrogen and 21 per cent oxygen, with various other gases present in small amounts. The vast majority of living organisms on Earth need oxygen to survive, converting it into carbon dioxide as they breathe. Thankfully, plants continually replenish our planet’s oxygen levels through photosynthesis. During this process, carbon dioxide and water are converted into energy, releasing oxygen as a by-product. Covering 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1 million square miles), the Amazon rainforest cycles a significant proportion of the Earth’s oxygen, absorbing large quantities of carbon dioxide at the same time.
Orthodox Christians observe on average 200 days of fasting each year.
The scientific term is sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia, but it is also better known as the brain freeze. It is often caused by the rapid constriction of blood vessels at the roof of the mouth.
In May 2016, the Philadelphia Police Department (USA) admitted having disguised a surveillance SUV as a Google Maps car.
At the time, women were not allowed to vote. After being charged a fine of $100, Anthony ignored this and never paid it.
Two out of every three US soldiers who served in Vietnam were volunteers.
In many countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, etc.) men never give an even number of flowers to a lady. Even numbers bouquets are reserved for funerals.
In 2003, the Moroccan government offered to the US troops in Iraq 2,000 monkeys, trained in detonating land mines.
Easter is the peak time for reading crime stories and detective novels in Norway.
Initially, the WD-40 spray was developed for lubricating nuclear missiles.
In mediaeval England, some wandering gipsies claimed to be descendants of the Egyptians and to be skilled fortune-tellers, thus deceiving and taking the money of many naïve locals. In 1530, King Henry VIII decreed that impersonating an Egyptian was a serious crime and should be given the death sentence. By the way, the word “gipsy” derives from “Egyptian”.
According to the International Labour Organization, more people died of work-related accidents than in wars or natural disasters during the last few decades.
In 2002, 15 girls burned to death inside their school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The religious police (aka mutaween) did not allow them to leave the burning building because the girls were not covering their hair.
In 2016, Facebook’s Marketplace debut was very controversial with people trying to sell weird stuff. For instance, in London, UK, someone tried to “sell” his pregnant girlfriend for $400.
The former US President, Barack Obama, left his successor with 11 million followers on Twitter. As of early 2018, Donald Trump has around 20 million.
Retailers did the math – a more lenient return policy normally correlates with an increase in returns but also with a much greater surge in purchases.
The axolotl, although colloquially known as a “walking fish”, is actually an amphibian.
In 2013, Tesla Model S underwent crash evaluations. Habitually, cars are ranked on a scale of one to five stars. The Model S passed the tests so well that, if such a rating existed, it would have earned 5.4.
In 1983, an Israeli Air Force F15 jet fighter lost one wing but nevertheless successfully landed in the Negev desert, Israel.
A large part of the Netherlands is actually below the sea level, with the lowest city (Nieuwekerk aan den IJssel) at -7 m (-23 ft).
As of 2017, half of the new cars registered in Norway are either electric or hybrid.
Romans used a sponge on the end of a stick instead of toilet paper.
46 BCE was the longest year with its 445 days. Julius Caesar added two extra leap months as a preparation for his calendar reform, which he implemented in 45 BCE.
Owned by the German company Daimler AG, the brand Mercedes-Benz first appeared in 1926. Until then, Daimler only produced typewriters and bicycles.
In 2009, the Brazilian environment group SOS Mata Atlantica urged people to pee in the shower in a bid to conserve water.
Elmo Monster (the Muppet character) was the first non-human to testify before the US Congress in 2002. He urged support for increased funding for music education.
The engine oil of Aston Martin Vulcan can be changed in less than 100 seconds. For most other car models, the usual time is fifteen minutes.
A US environmentalist, John Francis, voluntarily spent seventeen years without talking (from 1973 until 1990). Whilst under his vow of silence, he completed three college degrees as well as a PhD.
In Turkey, the Ulas family is better known as “The Family That Walks on All Fours”. Debate still exists as to the nature and cause of their quadruped gait.
Only 30% of the global population have access to toilet paper.
Stairwells in medieval castles were often curved very narrowly and in a clockwise direction. This design allowed the defenders to use their right hands in battle, thus handicapping the attackers.
Honeybees can recognise human faces.
On average, we blink four million times every year.
The B52 bomber entered in service in 1955 and is expected to be used by the United States Air Force until 2040.
The earliest copy of the masterpiece Mona Lisa was painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s students. It is presently kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.
Astronauts avoid eating beans as a single episode of flatulence in space could rip a space suit apart.
The book “Everything men know about women” has 120 blank pages. It has sold over a million copies so far.
Genetically modified salmon has already been approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Each astronaut on the International Space Station can only take with them 1.5 kg (3 pounds) of personal effects.
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When a substance is heated up, its particles move more and it takes up a larger volume – this is known as thermal expansion. Conversely, a drop in temperature causes it to contract again. The mercury level inside a thermometer, for example, rises and falls as the mercury’s volume changes with the ambient temperature. This effect is most dramatic in gases but occurs in liquids and solids such as iron too. For this reason, large structures such as bridges are built with expansion joints which allow them some leeway to expand and contract without causing any damage.
In 2010, Bhutan banned tobacco sales and distribution.
In the USA, garbage collectors die more often at work than police officers.
Catholics were barred from becoming teachers, doctors or nurses in Sweden until 1951.
According to the Chinese law on the “Management Measures for the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism” from 2007, Buddhist monks need to seek prior government approval before reincarnation.
Torpedoes have two propellers turning in opposite directions.
The congested traffic in Moscow, Russia, has led some wealthy Russians to hire fake ambulances to beat the jams.
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.
Grab a calculator: dividing 1 by 998,001 gives you a really weird result.
Norway is building the world’s first underwater floating tunnel.
Since 2016, one in three landline phone calls in the USA is made by robots.
All the numbers on a roulette table add up to 666.
The Scandinavian snus is a form of smokeless tobacco which is usually placed under the upper lip and does not provoke spitting. Its sale is illegal in the European Union except for Sweden.
In 2006, Honda introduced the first airbag for motorbikes.
On any given day, women lose almost twice as many hairs as men.
Figs are one of the oldest fruits grown by humans.
The first cash machine (ATM) was installed on 27 June 1967 by Barclays Bank in its Enfield Town branch in London, United Kingdom.
Languages originating in warm areas with a dense tree cover tend to use fewer consonants.
"Hitler woman” is an anagram of “mother-in-law”.
The drink Fanta originated in Nazi Germany during WWII. Local soda drink factories could no longer import the original Coca-Cola syrup from the USA due to the trade embargo and had to improvise with available ingredients, leading to the genesis of the world’s favourite orange soda.
Empty batteries bounce when dropped, charged ones do not.
In Colorado, USA, losing an arm in a work-related accident would make the employer liable to pay no more than 36,000 dollars.
Trees in the rainforest grow year-round and therefore have no rings.
The Russky Bridge in Vladivostok, Russia, is the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge. Built in 2012, it cost over one billion US dollars, but is now virtually unused. It has a capacity of 50,000 cars per day while the existing population of Russky Island is 5,000 people.
Built by the Nazis between 1936 and 1939, the German beach resort named Prora has 10,000 rooms with sea view. However, it has never had a single guest.
Most Dutch people believe that reheating spinach is very dangerous and can lead to poisoning although there is little scientific evidence supporting this.
In the Star Wars saga, the sound of the TIE Fighter engines is actually a mix of an elephant call and a car driving on a wet pavement.
Habitually, male gorillas sleep on the ground in a nest made from leaves and twigs, while most females and babies nest in trees.
The congested traffic in Moscow, Russia, has led some wealthy Russians to hire fake ambulances to beat the jams.
No single case of schizophrenia has ever been reported among people born blind or having lost their eyesight as infants.
The billionaire and founder of Alibaba Corporation, Jack Ma, is worth almost USD 40 billion (2017 data). Before finding success as an entrepreneur, he unsuccessfully applied ten times to Harvard University, and even was once turned down for a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Australia has not experienced a recession for the last 25 years.
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.
Since 2016, there have been several cases when starving Venezuelans broke into zoos and ate the exhibited animals.
In 80% of the mass shootings in the USA, the killers had obtained their weapons legally.
In 2005, the company 3M set up a promotional stunt at a bus stop in Vancouver, Canada. They left cash behind their unbreakable glass and encouraged passers-by to try to break it and get the promised three million dollars. No-one succeeded.
The book “Everything men know about women” has 120 blank pages. It has sold over a million copies so far.
The Easter Bilby is the Australian alternative to the Easter Bunny.
In New York, USA, it was illegal for men to show a nipple in public until 1936.
In 1935, the Esperanto language was legally forbidden in Nazi Germany and many Esperantists ended up in concentration camps.
It was observed on many skyscrapers that the sun sets up to three minutes later on the top floor compared to the first floor.
During World War II, the Soviet Red Army executed 158,000 of its own soldiers; the German Wehrmacht: approximately 8,000.
Silk thrown at a brick wall would stick to the wall; cheaper artificial fabrics would normally slide down.
In Mexico, Austria and Germany the law recognizes that it is basic human nature to escape for freedom and hence the act of prison escape itself is not a crime.
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War from 1 to 2 September 1870. To commemorate this major German victory, which by the way made the unification of Germany possible, 2 September was celebrated as an unofficial national holiday in Germany until 1919.
Switzerland has four official languages. As a compromise, none of them is used on the country’s postal stamps. Instead Latin is used.
Right after WWI, Germany made bicycles “tyres” out of metal springs due to rubber shortages.
When observed from an airplane, rainbows sometimes look like a discus and not like an arch.
So far, only two Popes have visited Sweden.
The odds of getting struck by a lightning are a lot higher for men than for women.
In Fiji, widows used to be strangled immediately after their husbands' death. When Fijians adopted Christianity, widow-strangling was abandoned.
Paper comes to printing houses on huge rolls. A single roll can weigh over a ton and have more than 21 km (13 mi) of paper on it.
Europe-wide, Sweden has the highest rate per capita of reported rapes.
The Ides of March denarius is one of the few coins dedicated to a murder.
After 52 years of domination in its home car market, Volvo lost the title of best-selling brand in Sweden in 2016. Volkswagen simply outsold it.
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1. Giant pandas (often referred to as simply “pandas”) are black and white bears. In the wild, they are found in thick bamboo forests, high up in the mountains of central China
2. These magnificent mammals are omnivores. But whilst pandas will occasionally eat small animals and fish, bamboo counts for 99 percent of their diet.
3. Pandas are BIG eaters – every day they fill their tummies for up to 12 hours, shifting up to 12 kilograms of bamboo!
4. The giant panda’s scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, which means “black and white cat-foot”.
5. Giant pandas grow to between 1.2m and 1.5m, and weigh between 75kg and 135kg. Scientists aren’t sure how long pandas live in the wild, but in captivity they live to be around 30 years old.
6. Baby pandas are born pink and measure about 15cm – that’s about the size of a pencil! They are also born blind and only open their eyes six to eight weeks after birth.
7. It’s thought that these magnificent mammals are solitary animals, with males and females only coming together briefly to mate. Recent research, however, suggests that giant pandas occasionally meet outside of breeding season, and communicate with each other through scent marks and calls.
8. Family time! Female pandas give birth to one or two cubs every two years. Cubs stay with their mothers for 18 months before venturing off on their own!
9. Unlike most other bears, pandas do not hibernate. When winter approaches, they head lower down their mountain homes to warmer temperatures, where they continue to chomp away on bamboo!
10. Sadly, these beautiful bears are endangered, and it’s estimated that only around 1,000 remain in the wild. That’s why we need to do all we can to protect them!
Norwegians use the word “Texas” as a synonym for “crazy”
Each bolt contains up to one billion volts of electricity. This calculates to about 8 million lightning strikes per day.
Multiple studies show that men are more likely to marry and stay married to women who bear them sons rather than daughters.
The Huzhu Pagoda, China, and the Tower of Church of Suurhusen, Germany, are both more tilted than the famous Tower of Pisa, Italy.
Saudi Arabia only switched to the “Western” Gregorian calendar in October 2016. Civil servants lost eleven days of salary as a result of this reform.
The newly elected Pope has his testicles inspected by cardinals. They are determined not to elect a female Pope again.
Cockatoos sometimes eat so much that they lose the ability to fly for a certain period.
The indigenous peoples of Greenland use the Danish language (and not their native language Kalaallisut) if they need to count to more than twelve.
Bullfighting is not an ancient tradition at all. It started in the 18th century in Andalusia, Spain.
The Australian Aboriginals never developed bows and arrows.
Uruguay produces almost 100% of its electricity out of renewable sources.
Ray-Ban sunglasses were the first ones to introduce an anti-glare filter.
In 1998, the website of McDonald’s (aimed mostly at children) stated that “Ronald McDonald is the absolute authority in everything”.
All high school graduates from Kalamazoo, Michigan (USA) can attend any in-state college for free, thanks to a group of anonymous donors.
Mickey Mouse was the first non-human to win an Oscar.
In Albania, thousands of people do not leave home being afraid of vendetta.
Across the majority of the Western nations, the higher the average wedding costs, the higher the probability of divorce.
Fact: Scotland has 421 words for “snow”
The city of Shanghai hosts the first Disneyland in China.
Diamond is not the hardest substance on Earth. In 2009, scientists announced that lonsdaleite (aka hexagonal diamond) and wurtzite boron nitride both have greater indentation strengths.
Nine out of ten black actresses nominated for an Oscar played characters who are or might soon become homeless.
The automotive brand Rolls Royce offers cars in 44,000 colours.
The house with the narrowest facade of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is only 202 cm (less than 80 in) wide. The shape of the houses in Amsterdam is due to the tax rate in the Golden Age, which was calculated based on the width of the house.
Papua-New Guinea has a population of seven million people and roughly the size of Sweden. They speak an estimated 850 languages (of all 6000 known worldwide), belonging to dozens of distinct language families.
The ozone actually smells like geranium.
In 1943, the US Supreme Court ruled that forcing public schoolchildren to salute the flag violates the First Amendment.
The Hotel Moskva in Moscow, Russia, was notable for the use of two different designs for the façade. Allegedly, the architect submitted to Stalin a single drawing where each half showed a different design. Stalin put his signature exactly in the middle and as no-one dared to ask for clarification, they simply built an asymmetric hotel.
In Japan, many people hide their thumbs from hearses (funeral vehicles) and when passing close to a graveyard. They say that “your parents will die young if you do not hide your thumbs”. This is linked to the fact that the Japanese word for “thumb” translates into “parent finger”.
Many aircraft engines are designed to be cooled by the fuel.
The earliest documents containing written human names are approximately 5500 years old.
In the 19th century, scientists observed the fast evolution of the peppered moth’s colour near Manchester, UK. Caused by the air pollution, it has been dubbed “one of the clearest and most easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action”.
A study found out that people who use their integrated browser (Internet Explorer or Safari) have a greater chance to do badly in their job and to be fired than those who use an additionally installed one (such as Firefox or Chrome).
Airlines deal differently with in-flight deaths. Some major airlines keep body bags on-board just in case, while Singapore Airlines is known to have fitted the aircraft with special cupboards for corpses.
A 1% increase in unemployment in the USA leads to 40,000 premature deaths.
In Massachusetts, USA, tattooing was illegal up until 2000.
Deaf Americans will be better understood in France than in the UK. US Sign Language was created by a Frenchman and it closely resembles the French Sign Language whereas UK Sign Language differs greatly.
Airplane tickets are statistically the most expensive to buy on a Saturday.
Amidst the 2016 US presidential race, a guest at a Donald Trump hotel requested a framed photo of Hillary Clinton. Hotel staff duly delivered it.
Three-quarters of the Swiss voters rejected UN membership in a referendum in 1986. Switzerland held another one in 2002 and eventually joined the UN.
In the Philippines, multiple karaoke bars have banned Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way” as it is known to provoke riots and killings.
A five-star slum-like South African resort, Shanty Town, is supposed to give the rich tourists a taste of hard life. However, the shanties have running water, electricity, Wi-Fi, refrigerators, TV sets, and even floor heating.
Worldwide, more IKEA catalogues are printed than Bibles.
Ants have the highest brain to body size ratio of any animal.
Pheasants are the birds with the longest feathers.
Formosa is the old name of Taiwan. It was widely used up until the early 20th century.
In Portugal, each canteen which receives public money is obliged by law to offer a non-meat option.
In 2001, Turkmenistan outlawed opera, ballet, video games, listening to car radios, smoking in public and long hair on men.
Until 1997, cattle in the US were routinely fed with processed dead cats and dogs, which companies bought from shelters.
Ouija boards were initially made of coffin wood. The first Ouija patent was awarded without any explanation on how the device worked.
In Italy, the number 17 is considered unlucky.
In the course of the last 150 years, Russia has been ruled alternately by hairy and bald rulers. Georgy Malenkov who succeeded Stalin has been the only exception so far. Based on this historic trend, we should expect Putin’s successor to be hairy!
Some fourteen years before the sinking of Titanic, the novel called “Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan” by Morgan Robertson had described a ship called Titan, travelling on the same route at almost the same speed, sinking after a collision with an iceberg.
Women are more likely to cheat on their partner in the weeks before and after their birthday than in any other period of the year.
Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Finland and all the former USSR states have different rails sizes from the rest of Europe. This specificity means that trains from these countries cannot travel in Europe without changes to the wheelsets.
Since 2016 and as of writing, one salmon fish costs more than a barrel of oil.
Hyperloop, Elon Musk’s project for a levitating train with a theoretical top speed of over 1200 km/h (760 mph), started tests in early 2016. The prototype reached a top speed of 324 km/h (201 mph) in 2017, still far away from the ambitious goal.
Soldiers in the German Military Forces are allowed to disobey any order that, according to their conscience, they think would violate human dignity.
To produce 1 ton of paper from standing timber you need more energy than to produce 1 ton of steel from iron.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the most consumed type of red wine worldwide.
The Philippines remains the only UN-member state without legal provision for divorce.
The company Goodyear is now known for producing tyres. Decades ago, it was also a renowned producer of pillows.
Japanese eat Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) for Christmas. It all started in 1974 when KFC Japan successfully promoted fried chicken as a Christmas meal.
Iowa, USA, wants to permit toddlers to use weapons. It could be a risky idea considering that in 2015 more US citizens were killed by toddlers with a gun than by terrorists.
A US tea trader accidentally invented tea bags in 1904. Thomas Sullivan started packing samples of his tea into silk bags, which his clients mistakenly began to put directly into the hot water without unpacking.
As of early 2016, the 62 richest people possessed more money than the rest of the world’s population. According to another study from 2017, the eight world’s richest people have the same wealth as the poorest 50% of the world population combined.
The US state with the most numerous plane flyovers is Virginia.
The Allied forces deployed more troops for the Battle of Okinawa (1945) than for the D-Day in Normandy (1944).
The Ford Pinto car was not a success in Brazil as “Pinto” is slang for “small penis”.
The Louisiana Supreme Court (USA) ruled in October 2016 that Catholic priests are not obliged to report cases of sexual abuse of children if they learn about them during confession.
The vast majority of children under the age of six dream about animals.
Sweaty people and pregnant women have a greater chance of being bitten by a mosquito.
Worldwide, nine out of every ten people who learn Finnish as a foreign language were motivated by their interest in Finnish heavy metal music.
Nutella was invented during WWII because there was a shortage of chocolate. As its name suggests, it contains more hazelnuts than cocoa. As an aside, the producing company Ferrero uses 25% of the global supply of hazelnuts.
The worse a pregnant woman experiences morning sickness, the smaller the chance of a stillbirth.
If there is a first class on a flight, passengers in the economy have 3.8 times greater chance to have an air rage fit, especially if they have to walk through first class to get to their seat.
The zone that controls the eyes, the occipital lobe, covers almost one quarter of the entire human brain.
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.
The male Australian lyrebird can imitate the calls of at least twenty other birds. He can also perfectly mimic sounds such as that of a chainsaw and a car alarm.
These random facts are mind-blowing! Those 457,000 calories are more than 240 times the energy the whale uses to scoop those krill into its mouth.
Bundanoon, Australia, became the first town in the world to outlaw bottled water in 2009. Many other cities followed suit, the largest being San Francisco, USA, which banned plastic water bottles in 2014.
The tiny country of Luxembourg is the largest investment fund centre in Europe and the second largest in the world after the USA.
Bees are very sensitive to magnetism. They also use the Sun for orientation and are even able to detect its position at night.
Pistachios can combust spontaneously.
The first Barbie doll was sold in 1959.
Germany was the first country ever to implement Daylight Saving Time in order to save energy during World War I.
Camel racing jockeys in the United Arab Emirates are being gradually replaced by robots since 2005.
South Korea grants exemption from military service, which is mandatory for all able-bodied males countrywide, to all sportsmen who win a gold Olympic medal.
In 1908, the Russian Olympic team arrived in London, UK, twelve days late because they were still using the Julian calendar. The Russian Orthodox Church still follows it, which is why Christmas in Russia falls on 7 January rather than on 25 December.
Depending on the size and brand of the lollipop, it may take fewer or more licks to reach the center of the candy. Over 20 people were gathered to conduct this experiment.
Hair loss increases in autumn.
In the period 1941 - 1945, hamburgers in the USA were re-named “Liberty Steaks” to get rid of the German-sounding name.
After the dissolution of the USSR, many Russians could not prove their working experience when applying for a pension. Several former communist leaders went so far as to present as a proof articles dedicated to them in newspapers and in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In Jatinga, India, a strange and unexplained phenomenon happens each evening in the period from September to November. Hundreds of birds descend from the sky crashing into buildings and trees to their death.
Myspace refused to buy Facebook on two occasions.
One can become an air traffic controller in the United States of America without a bachelor’s degree.
The Yamoussoukro Basilica, formally Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix, is a Roman Catholic church in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire. It is the largest Christian church building in the world.
Worldwide, 1.8 million Ikea meatballs are sold every day.
Japanese women cannot remarry for six months after the divorce but men can.
Getting new equipment to the Space Station used to take months or years, but the new technology means the tools are ready within hours.
Baltimore, Maryland, was the most dangerous city in the United States in 2017; Sunnyvale, California, the safest one.
In 2007, over 34,000 Americans committed suicide. No-one was killed by terrorists on US soil in the same year.
A US town (Woodland, North Carolina) rejected a solar farm project. They were worried it would “suck up all the energy from the Sun”.
Killing or harming a badger is an offence in England and can lead to six months in prison.
During WWII, the paper clip was a symbol of the Norwegian resistance.
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.
The Palace of the Parliament in Romania is the heaviest and the second largest (after the US Pentagon) building in the world.
The German retailer, Otto, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to purchase goods. With no human intervention, AI is predicting with 90% accuracy what will be sold within thirty days and automatically buys more than 200,000 items every month from third-party brands.
Taste tester of pet food is an actual job.
It is that simple: if a month starts with a Sunday, it will have a Friday the 13th.
Worldwide, icicles kill more people than sharks do.
Barra Airport, Scotland, is the only airport in the world where scheduled flights use a beach as a runway.
Unlike most mammals, humans, primates, guinea pigs and bats have lost their ability to produce vitamin C.
Every Halloween, people in the USA spend more than two billion dollars on candy.
On average, each year 12,000 miners die in accidents worldwide.
In 1989, the USSR gave Pepsico seventeen submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer in exchange for Pepsi products.
On the International Space Station, Sunday is a day of rest.
It is illegal to stand within 90 metres of the Queen without socks on
In 2013, two wannabe robbers armed with squirt guns entered Clifton Grill restaurant in Chicago, USA. The owner asked them to return in an hour since he was busy. The two men actually came back only to be caught by the police.
Discover Facts
There are certain metals – including potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium and caesium – that are so reactive that they oxidise (or tarnish) instantly when exposed to air. They can even produce explosions when dropped in water! All elements strive to be chemically stable – in other words, to have a full outer electron shell. To achieve this, metals tend to shed electrons. The alkali metals have only one electron on their outer shell, making them ultra-keen to pass on this unwanted passenger to another element via bonding. As a result they form compounds with other elements so readily that they don’t exist independently in nature.
LEGO originates from the Danish phrase “leg godt”, which means “play good”.
Play-Doh (a modelling compound used by young children for art and craft projects) was initially used as a wallpaper cleaner. It was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) in the 1930s.
Across the cultures, women want a husband on average 3.5 years older than them, while men seek 2.5-year-younger wives.
Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John S. Pemberton as an alternative to alcoholic beverages. Ironically, his decision to sell the business was partly driven by his expensive morphine addiction.
Here’s one of the amazing facts about a particular statue located in Silicon Valley. This statue of Nikola Tesla not only provides free Wi-Fi but also contains a time capsule that is dated to be opened in the year 2043.
Each year, more than 80 million tourists visit France. Their number exceeds that of the entire population of the country.
Because they contain “hidden non-edible pieces”, Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs are outlawed in the USA in their original form.
The first match was made in 1826. However, the first cigarette lighter was made in 1823.
In Burgas, Bulgaria, there is a monument dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who died there in 1944. They did not fall in combat but after drinking methylated spirits.
Less than 2% of what you spend on fries at the restaurant actually goes to the farmer who produced the potatoes.
It is more probable to catch a computer virus on a church website than on a porn website. The reason is that religious websites are often maintained by volunteers and not by IT professionals.
Almonds belong to the peach family.
Banana plants can move sideways up to 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in a lifetime.
Each year, around one hundred journalists get killed on duty worldwide.
Sometimes wallabies get high after breaking into opium crops, then run around in a frenzy and make what look like crop circles.
In late 2016, the Bank of England confirmed that the new £5 notes would contain animal fat. In response, many vegans organised protests.
The video game Tetris was first released in the Soviet Union in 1984. It appeared in the West a year later.
In 2015, on average one billion dollars were given daily for charity in the United States of America.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a concentrated solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert, USA. It generates up to 392 megawatts but burns about 6,000 birds every year.
Koalas almost never drink water. Their name actually means “no water” in several aboriginal languages of Australia.