Fun Facts: A Giant list of 50 Random Facts

Check out our short but sweet collection of random facts to learn something new today. Enjoy and don't forget to spread the word!

1. There is a star just 50 light years away from Earth, which has a pure diamond core of 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

2. Donkeys kill more people each year than plane crashes.

3. The first bomb dropped on Germany in World War II, killed only an elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

4. In 1911, pigtails were banned in China because they were seen as a link with its feudal past.

 5. When anaesthetic was employed for the first time during childbirth in 1847, the mother was so surprised at how painless the birth was that she named her child Anaesthesia.

 6. During the battle of Stalingrad, a local railway station changed hands from Soviet to German control and back again fifteen times in 6 hours.

7. Napolean Bonaparte was just one inch shorter than today's average French men. He stood at 5'6.5'', while the average height of today's French men is 5'7.5''.

 8. Out of all the 3,500 years of civilization, there have been only 230 years of peace.

 9. In 1598, potatoes were banned in Britain by Queen Elizabeth. The ban lasted for 100 years.

10. Nobody knows who invented a fire hydrant. The patent was burnt in a fire.

11. Google was originally named 'BackRub'. It was because of its algorithm based on site's backlinks for ranking in search results.

12. The first Google storage was made from Lego. The Google guys needed an easily expandable, and cheap way to house ten 4GB hard drives, and LEGO was the answer.

Google's Lego Storage

13. Rapper 2 Chainz was a geek at college. He graduated in 3 years from a 4 year course with a CGPA of 4.0. Never judge a book by its cover!

2Chainz graduated with  CGPA of 4.0

14. Chickens can live without a head. There is a a documented case of a headless chicken named 'Miracle Mike' or 'Mike the Headless Chicken' which lived for 18 months without a head.

Headless Chicken Miracle Mike

15. Jupiter has radio storms so strong that they can be picked up on Earth with an AM radio.

16. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and paint with the other, at the same time.

17. Modern humans appeared more than 200,000 years ago but record keeping started only 6000 years ago. This means more than 97% of human history is lost.

18. If you eat a polar bear's liver you will die. Humans cannot digest too much vitamin A.

19. Only Asians have black hair. All the other people that have black hair are actually dark brown.

20. Anatidaephobia is a fear that somewhere in the world, a duck is watching you.

21. The longest movie made is 85 hours long. It is titled, "The cure for insomnia".

22. When the Mount Everest was first measured at exactly 29,000 ft. The surveyors thought that no one will believe them. So, they added an extra 2 ft making it 29,002 ft.

23. There is a man who holds a record for holding the most world records. Ashrita Furman set this record by having 120 Guinness World Records to his name.

24. King Tutankhamun's penis was mummified erect -- that's one of the several weird, unexplained details about the best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

25. Kopi Luwak is the world's most expensive coffee at $600 per pound. Believe it or not, it's the beans excreted by a Sumatran wild cat.

Kopi Luwak

26. In 16th Century, Coffee was banned by Muslim rulers because of its stimulating effect.

27. Before, a black bear eats so much that its weight gains 30 pounds per week.

28. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

29. The skin of a female shark is much thicker than the males. This is to protect the female when the male bites it during mating.

30. Crows will crush an ant and rub it all over themselves like perfume. The Formic Acid in the ants helps ward off parasites. This is called Anting.

31. The smallest adult bicycle ever created had wheels made from silver dollars.

32. Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest professional road racing cyclists, has a heart that is one-third larger than normal. Now you know from where all that stamina comes from.

33. The manchineel tree is so poisonous that the water dripping from its leaves could burn your skin.

34. 1 out of 8 Americans have worked at McDonald's.

35. Only 11% of the world's population is left-handed.

36. There are about 7 octillion atoms in the human body. That is, 7 followed by 27 zeros (7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).

37. The brain consumes as much power as a 10-watt bulb.

38. Blondes have more hair than others. Blondes have an average 146,000 follicles while people with black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. 39. Women's heart beat faster than men's.

40. In a lifetime, you'll make enough saliva to fill two olympic size swimming pools. Imagine swimming in your own saliva...

41. Comparing weights, a human baby is stronger than an ox.

42. Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green colorblindness and sees the color blue best, which is why blue dominates Facebook's color scheme.

43. Adding a number 4 at the end of Facebook URL (http://www.facebook.com/4), automatically takes you to Mark Zuckerberg's wall.

44. There is a man named Michel Lotito holds the dubious record of eating an entire airplane. Dubbed as Monsieur Mangetout meaning 'Mr. Eat it all', suffered from an unusual medical condition named Pica which causes unusual cravings.

45. During First World War, British soldiers used semen as invisible ink.

46. From 1912 to 1948, painting was an olympic event.

47. Russian scientists in the 1920s conducted experiments where they tried to make a “humanzee”, a hybrid between a human and chimpanzee. The experiments obviously failed.

48. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

49. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

50. Elvis Presley was naturally blond. His familiar black hair are the product of dye.

Sochi Olympics 2014: 25 Fun Facts about Winter Olympics

The world is all excited about Sochi Winter Olympics. Let's look at some of the most amazing facts about Winter Olympics history and the Sochi Olympics.

Facts About Winter Olympics

1. The first winter Olympics were held in 1924 at Chamonix, France.

2. 10,004 people paid to watch the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix.

3. Winter Olympics has never been held in the Souther Hemisphere.

4. The first Winter Olympics saw 16 nations compete in 16 events.

5. Winter Olympics have 7 categories of sports, namely biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing.

6. The last time Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year was in 1992. The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain and the Winter Games were in Albertville, France.

7. USA has hosted the most number of Winter Olympics with 4. It is followed by France with 3.

8. Norway has won the most medals at Winter Olympics with a total of 303. The Norwegians also have a record 107 Winter Olympics gold medals.

9. There have been four deaths at Winter Olympics. Two lugers and two skiers, both died during practice sessions.

10. Artificial snow was first used during Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, USA in 1980.

11. Norwegian cross country skier, Bjorn Daehli has won the most medals at Winter Olympics. In the three
Winter Olympics he has competed, Daehli has won 12 medals including 8 gold medals.

12. Cross country skier Raisa Smetanina (USSR) is the winningest woman medalist, taking 10 medals (four gold; five silver; one bronze).

13. American athlete, Eddie Eagan is the only person in Olympic history to have one gold medals at both Summer and Winter Olympics.

Eddie Eagan

14. The opening ceremony of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, USA was organized by Walt Disney.

15. Great Britain won the Gold at the Curling event at the 1924 Winter Games, although it wasn’t recognized until 2006, 82 years later.

Facts About Sochi Olympics, 2014

Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 Logo

1. This year's winter Olympics in Sochi costs around $51 billion, making it the most expensive in event in Olympics' history. Just to make a comparison, the last Winter Olympics at Vancouver cost just around $8 billion.

2. Sochi is the warmest city ever to host Winter Olympics. The temperatures at Sochi in winter remain around 12 degrees. So, snow events will be held at Krasnaya Polyana which is already equiped with artificial snow machines.

3. Sochi is the longest city in Europe, spanning over 90 miles along the shores of the Black Sea.

4. Sochi Olympics will include twelve new events. One of them being women’s ski-jumping.

5. Sochi has also been home to the tennis star, Maria Sharapova. She moved to the Russian town when she was 2 and played tennis in a local park.

6. Mascots for the Sochi Winter Olympics are a polar bear, a hare and a leopard.

The Sochi Olympics Mascots, a polar bear, a leopard and hare

7. The gold medals which will be given at Sochi Olympics will contain 516 grams of silver and 6 grams of gold. 

8. 88 countries will take part in Sochi Olympics. Some nations will make their debut, including Zimbabwe and Paraguay.

9. Athletes who win gold on February 15 will be given special gold medals with pieces of a recent meteorite in them. It crashed in Russia on February 15, 2013.

10. The Sochi Olympics will also feature the debut of Team BMW as they jump into sled-building business.The speed pros will be designing bobsleds for the American team as they hope to win an Olympics gold after 78 years.

25 Amazing Earth Facts You Should Know

Planet Earth is undoubtedly the most incredible planet in the entire universe. Learn about the most amazing Earth facts that makes our planet such a wonderful place to be. 

1. The Earth is the only planet that is not named after a Greek God. The name 'Earth' comes from Anglo-Saxon, originally meaning ground or soil.

2. Earth is not round. The Earth is not flat either. Rather it is an oblate spheroid. This only means that the earth is not a perfect sphere but is flat at the North and South poles.

3. Our Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. At an average density of 5.5 g/cm, our world beats all the other planets when it comes to being the densest. Scientists believe that the massive amounts of iron in our planet’s core is what makes it so dense.

4. Earth's rotation is slowing down with time. This means that days are getting longer and longer. Thus an extra second, called a leap second is added after every few years to account for the Earth's slow rotation.

5. The Earth actually has two moons. The second moon which is actually the asteroid 3753 orbits the earth. It was discovered in 1986 and is dubbed as the "Earth's Strange Companion". The asteroid is unique in the fact that it has a horse shoe orbit.

6. Life on Earth is largely due to the Moon. According to a theory, life originated in tidal waves which are created by the Moon's gravitation. Another one suggests that tides may have set up conditions for sea creatures to transition and become the first land animals. Yes, we all should be thankful to the Moon.

7. The Earth had a twin brother, Theia. It was roughly the size of Mars and the two planets shared a single orbit until they both collided. Theia was absorbed by Earth and the remaining mass created the Moon. The mass donated by Theia gave Earth the gravity necessary to sustain a substantial atmosphere.

8. Earth's core is made up of a solid ball of iron 1,500 miles wide. Although, it is white hot, the enormous pressure at the planet's heart is what keeps the iron ball solid.

9. Everybody knows the great Mount Everest. Standing at an impressive 29,035 feet, it is the tallest mountain on Earth. However, due to fact that the earth is not really a perfect sphere, anything at the equator is at a slightly greater distance from the Earth's center. This means that Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, at 20, 564 feet, is taller than Mount Everest by about 1.5 miles.

10. If you could evaporate all the water out of all the oceans and spread the resulting salt over all the land on Earth, you would have a five hundred-foot layer coating everything.

11. Our Earth is the only planet in the milky way that comes with tectonic plates.

12. The Earth is dubbed as the 'Blue Planet'. This is because of the blue color of the oceans that cover almost 70% of our planet.

13. The Earth is not only a planet that supports life, it itself is a living organism. According to the Gaia Hypothesis, the Earth is an organic system which has the ability to self-regulate in order to maintain life. Researches are on the way to prove the hypothesis and with the recent advancements, we are very close to know if the Earth is really alive or not.

14. The driest place on Earth is the Atacama desert in South America. The average rainfall in the Atacama is 0.004 inches per year. Which means that it gets only 4 inches of rain in a thousand years. The last time rain was recorded in the area was in the mid 1700's.

15. The deepest point on Earth is the Mariana Trench. The trench is so deep, that even the Mount Everest can sink in it.

16. The longest place name in the world is Krung thep maha nakorn amorn ratana kosin­mahintar ayutthay amaha dilok phop noppa ratrajathani burirom udom rajaniwes­mahasat harn amorn phimarn avatarn sathit sakkattiya visanukamprasit (155 letters) in Thailand. It means:

The land of angels, the great city of immortality, of devine gems, the great angelic land unconquerable land of nine nobel gems, the royal city, a pleasant capital place of the Royal Palace, eternal land of angels and reincarnated spirits predestined and created by the highest Devas.”

If you think you never knew this place, then let me tell you that it is one of the most famous cities in the world. The one we call, Bangkok.

17. Earth is the brightest planet in the solar system. This is because sunlight is reflected off the water in our oceans. That's probably why it is called the 'Blue Marble'.

18. The Amazon Rainforest is the most bio diverse place on Earth. One in ten of all species on Earth are found here.

19. The vast oceans that cover about 70% of our Earth are filled with riches. These mighty seas hold more than 20 million tons of gold. But unfortunately the precious metal is so heavily diluted that each litre of seawater contains 13 billionths of a gram of gold. So, think again before you dive in for the treasures.

20. Antarctica is the Earth's ice box. The frozen continent contains almost 90% of all the ice and 70% of all the fresh water on the planet. It has as much ice as the Atlantic ocean has water.

21. Earth grows 1 cm every 100 years. This is because of the dust from space.

22. Only 1% of the total land is inhabited by humans.

23. Earth's gravity varies from place to place. This is due to the uneven distribution of the Earth's mass.

24. Our atmosphere is not just a bunch of gases. It is much more than that. The atmosphere is made up of seven layers, each with its own particular function. For examples, the first one is the troposphere. This is where all the weather activities take place.

25. Our Earth is at a distance of approximately 93 million miles from the sun. This means that light from the sun takes about 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach us.

Top 15 Valentine's Day Fun Facts

Valentine's day is the festival of love and emotions. Check out our weirdest Valentine's day fun facts to make the day more special for you and your loved one.

1. More than 50 million roses are exchanged worldwide on Valentine's day each year.

2. 73% of the flowers bought on Valentine's day are by men. While only 27% are bought by women.

3. Valentine's day is named after Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine is the patron saint of lovers. But few people know that he was also the patron saint of greetings, travelers, young people, and even epilepsy, plague and bee keepers.

4. The letter 'X' first symbolized a kiss in medieval times. It is believed that people who could not write their names, signed with an 'X'. The 'X' was then kissed to show their emotions.

5. 15% US women send flowers to themselves on Valentine's day.

6. Survey shows that most girls prefer a good dinner over any other gift. So, book a table and score points!

7. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of telephone, patented his invention on the Valentine's day. So, Valentine's day gave us telephones. Penicillin was also introduced on Valentine's day.

8. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew the names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned on their sleeves for one week. This was done so that it becomes easy for other people to know your true feelings. This was known as "to wear your heart on your sleeve".

9. Red roses are the most popular gifts on Valentine's day. Red has traditionally been the color of love and symbolizes strong emotions. Thus, red roses are thought to be the perfect objects to show off the adornment on the special day.

10. If you're a teacher, then we have a good news for you on Valentine's day. According to a study, Teachers receive the most number of Valentine cards. Each year, children between 6 and 10 give about 650 million cards to their teachers.

11. In Germany, young girls would plant onions in a pot on Valentine's Day, and place the name of a boy next to each onion. They believed that they would marry the boy whose name was nearest to the first onion to grow.

12. During the 1700's, girls in England would eat a hard boiled egg, along with the shell, on Valentine's day eve. Doing so, they hoped that they would dream their future husband that night.

13. Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare's play lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters every year sent to Juliet on Valentine's Day.

14. Contrary to the common conception, more than 50% women don't find Valentine's day romantic at all. Even worse, more than 75% doesn't like being proposed on Valentine's day. So, think twice if you're planning to do so.

15. Recent surveys revealed that on average, men spend about $158 dollars on Valentine's day. This is twice as compared to the $75 spend by women. Now, whose got the bigger heart? ;)

20 Christmas Fun Facts You Never Knew

The Holiday Season is on your doorstep. Enjoy these truly amazing fun facts about Christmas you never knew.

1. The Greeks celebrated Christmas on January 7. Until in A.D. 350, Pope Julius I proclaimed December 25 the official date for Christmas.
2. In Greek, 'X' stands for Christ. This is from where the word 'Xmas' originated.

3. If you wait for Santa to bring you a gift on every Christmas Eve, then keep these facts in mind. According to US scientists, if Santa is to deliver all the world's gifts on Christmas eve, then he would have to visit 822 homes a second, while travelling at no less than 650 miles per second. That has to be fast...
4. The legend of Santa Claus comes from a real saint, St. Nikolas of Myra, who lived in today's Turkey around the fourth century. The term 'Santa Claus' is itself derived from Sankt Niklaus, German name for Saint Nicholas.
5. According to a story, the tradition of Christmas stockings have been originated from three sisters who could not afford a marriage dowry. They were helped by Saint Nicholas, who crept down their chimney and filled their stockings with gold coins.
6. Apples were the first known Christmas tree decorations. Until they were replaced by lights, a trend first started by protestant reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546). According to a story, he got the idea after watching stars shining between the branches of a fir tree.

7. In Britain, people wear paper crowns on Christmas. The origins of this tradition can be traced back to the Roman Saturnalia Celebrations.
8. The term 'Christmas' has been derived from the Old English word "Cristes maesse" which means "Christ's Mass".
9. Christmas was first celebrated in Britain in 521 in York.
10. An average Christmas tree takes 15 years to grow.
11. An average household in America mails out 28 cards on Christmas and see 28 Christmas cards return to their place.
12. In Canada, Santa Claus has his own postal zip code, H0H 0H0.
13. In 1647, Christmas was made illegal by the English Parliament. The Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting on a holy day to be immoral, banned the Christmas festivities. The ban was lifted only when Cromwell lost power in 1660.
14. The song "Jingle Bells" was originally written for Thanksgiving in the year 1857.

15. The Norwegians believed that witches come out on Christmas eve to look for brooms to ride. Thus, all the brooms in the house were hidden and men went outside and fired a shotgun to frighten the evil spirits away.
16. 56 percent Americans say that they always sing Christmas carols to their pets.
17. During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards are swiped an average of 5340 times every minute in the United States.
18. There are two islands in the world named 'Christmas'. One in the Pacific ocean and the other in the Indian ocean.
19. According to a study, two weeks before Christmas is the most popular time for couples to break up.
20. The Germans made the first artificial Christmas tree out of dyed goose feathers.

More Christmas Fun Facts

Here is a great book to dive deeper into Christmas facts. You may find some questions in this book that will stump you. Some of the answers may even surprise you. A fun read for the whole family. Buy Christmas Facts for Fun from Amazon

10 Fun Facts about America and its History

Did you know how America became Uncle Sam? How the Democrats became donkeys and the Republicans elephant? Let us walk you through the weirdest fun facts you never knew about history of America.

The first American President

John Hanson

Most people believe that the first American president was George Washington. This is what we've been taught at school. But the truth is completely different. George Washington was not the the first American President. Instead, it was John Hanson.
The Article of Confederation is known to be the first American attempt at self governance. John Hanson was the first president under this article. The Article of Confederation was replaced by the U.S Constitution in 1789, under which Washington became the first president.

The birth of the Democratic Donkey and Republican Elephant

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant? Well, it was Andrew Jackson who was first associated with the Donkey.
It all started in the presidential elections of 1828 when politics got too personal. The Democrat candidate Andrew Jackson was called a Jackass (Donkey) by his opponents. Jackson, instead of taking the statement humiliating, adopted the image of the strong willed animal in his campaign posters.
The Republican elephant was also born out of ridicule. The cartoonist, Thomas Nast, published a cartoon in an 1874 edition of the Harper's Weekly in which he labeled an elephant as the Republican vote. Thus, giving the Republicans their strong and dignified image.

"Teddy" Bears and Roosevelt

“Teddy Bears” were so named when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919) refused to shoot a small bear cub one day. The incident was reported in the news, which inspired a toy manufacture to come out with the cute stuffed animals.

The Bush Thing

After President Bush Sr. vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister, a new word entered the Japanese language. Bushusuru means “to do the Bush thing,” or to publicly vomit.

First American Flag

The first American flag was a little different from the one you see today. It contained 13 stars instead of today's 50. The stars were designed in a circle in the corner section. The circular arrangement declares the equality of each state and that no state has any power over the other.
It was designed by Betsy Ross during the American Revolution.

The undiscovered Japanese bombs

During World War II, Japan bombed the United States using balloons. Although, many of them never reached USA, some actually did damage including one incident in 1944 in which a family in Oregon was killed.
According to some people, there are many such bombs in the US which are yet undiscovered. Be prepared, as you may come face-to-face with one of them some day.

Marijuana legal in the US

Marijuana haven't always been an illegal crop. Instead, marijuana was Kentucky's major crop in the 1800's. Marijuana was not used for smoking then, rather for it was valued for its fiber, called hemp, which was used in ships' sails, rope, twine, paper and canvas. Even George Washington personally grew the crop.

How America became "Uncle Sam"

Did you ever know who actually was "Uncle Sam"? Uncle Sam, or Samuel Wilson, was a butcher in New York who shipped pork to the Army during the war of 1812.
He never looked like the "Uncle Sam" we see in posters. The man who posed in posters was actually Dan Rice, a professional clown. Dan Rice even fought the election for the presidency, but lost.

Smiths VS Vietnam

American soldiers with the surname "Smith" suffered the most casualties during the Vietnam war with 667 deaths. Johnson was the second with 557 and William stood third with 406. A total of 58,152 soldiers were killed in the war.

Why Tuesday, Why November...

The US presidential election is always held on a Tuesday, in November. It all comes down to weather, harvest and worship.
Back when voters traveled to the polls by horse, Tuesday was an ideal day because it allowed people to worship on Sunday, ride to their county seat on Monday and vote on Tuesday - all before market day, Wednesday.
And the month of November fit nicely between harvest time and brutal winter weather - which can be especially bad when you're trudging along by horse and buggy.