Cool, strange and interesting facts page 1

Fact 1. The theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters is “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

Fact 2. The thickness of the Arctic ice sheet is on average 10 feet. There are some areas that are thick as 65 feet.

Fact 3. The thing that hangs from the top of the beak of a turkey is called the snood.

Fact 4. The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

Fact 5. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

Fact 6. The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

Fact 7. The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma.

Fact 8. The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that it breaks the sound barrier. The crack of the whip is actually a tiny sonic boom.

Fact 9. The titan arum flower is the largest flower in the world and gives off a horrible odor that smells like rotting flesh when it blooms.

Fact 10. The Tonle Sap River in Cambodia flows north for almost half the year and then south for the rest of the year.

Fact 11. The Toronto Maple Leafs used to be called the Toronto Arenas, then the St. Patricks and finally the Maple Leafs.

Fact 12. The total mileage driven by all U-Haul trucks in a year is enough to move a person from the Earth to the moon five times a day for an entire year.

Fact 13. The total number of episodes for the sitcom “I Love Lucy” was 180.

Fact 14. The total number of steps in the Eiffel Tower are 1665.

Fact 15. The total volume of mail that went through the Canadian postal system in 1950 was 1,362,310,155 items.

Fact 16. The town of Churchill, Manitoba, located in Canada, is known as the “Polar Bear Capital of the World”

Fact 17. The town of Olney, Illinois celebrates a “Squirrel Day” festival to honour the 200 albino squirrels that live in the town. The festival includes a squirrel blessing by a priest.

Fact 18. The town with the most stop signs per capita than any other in the US: LaConner, Washington

Fact 19. The triangular shape that Toblerone chocolates are packaged in, is protected by law.

Fact 20. The tridacna clam can grow up to four feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds.

Fact 21. The trunk of an elephant can hold up to two gallons of water.

Fact 22. The tuatara lizard of New Zealand has three eyes, two in the center of its head and one on the top of its head.

Fact 23. The turkey was once nominated to be the official bird of the United States.

Fact 24. The TV show “Saturday Night Live” made its debut on October 11, 1975.

Fact 25. The TV show Doctor Who, when it was popular, had an audience of 110 million people.

Fact 26. The two factories of the Jelly Belly Candy Company produces approximately 100,000 pounds of jelly beans a day. this amounts to about 1,250,000 jelly beans an hour.

Fact 27. The two top toys in 1950 were Silly Putty which sold for $1, and Crayola crayons which sold for 50 cents.

Fact 28. The typical lead pencil can draw a line that is thirty five miles long.

Fact 29. The U.S. army packs Tabasco pepper sauce in every ration kit that they give to soldiers.

Fact 30. The U.S. paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska in 1867.

Fact 31. The Uape Indians, who live in the Amazon, mix the ashes of their recently cremated relatives with alcohol, then all members of the family drink the mix with fond memories of the deceased.

Fact 32. The unique characteristics of Barbie dolls in Japan are that they have their lips closed with no teeth showing.

Fact 33. The United Parcel Service shipped the killer whale Keiko (star of Disney movie “Free Willy”) from Mexico City to Newport, Oregon in 1998.

Fact 34. The United States has paved enough roads to circle the Earth over 150 times.

Fact 35. The United States Mint once considered producing donut-shaped coins.

Fact 36. The United States produces enough plastic film annually to cover the entire state of Texas.

Fact 37. The University of Plymouth was the first university to offer a degree in surfing.

Fact 38. The USA bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre.

Fact 39. The USS Abraham Lincoln has five gymnasiums on the ship and a basketball league with 22 teams.

Fact 40. The USSR launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957.

Fact 41. The vegetable that is eaten most by Americans is potatoes. On average, a person eats about 140 pounds of potatoes annually.

Fact 42. The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one bite can kill twenty people or one elephant.

Fact 43. The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100-watt bulb for five hours.

Fact 44. The watch was invented by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg in 1510.

Fact 45. The water displacement product, WD-40, can be found in 80% of American homes.

Fact 46. The water inside of a coconut is identical to human blood plasma. Many lives in third world countries have been saved from coconut water fed through an IV.

Fact 47. The WD in WD-40 stands for Water Displacer.

Fact 48. The Welwitschia plant can live up to 1,000 years.

Fact 49. The wheelbarrow was invented by the Chinese.

Fact 50. The White House has 35 bathrooms, 3 elevators, 132 rooms, and 412 doors in it.

Fact 51. The White House has a movie theater, swimming pool, bowling lane, jogging track, and a tennis court.

Fact 52. The width of a tornado can range from less than ten yards to more than a mile.

Fact 53. The windiest place in the world is Mount Washington, New Hampshire, USA. The highest wind was on April 12, 1934 when it reached 231 mph.

Fact 54. The word “America” comes from the European explorer “Amerigo Vespucci.

Fact 55. The word “checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah-Mat,” which means the king is dead.

Fact 56. The word “comet” comes from the Greek word “kometes” meaning long hair and referring to the tail.

Fact 57. The word “Denim” comes from the French phrase “serge de Nimes” which is a fabric made in a town located in southern France.

Fact 58. The word “dexterity”, to do with skill is related to the right hand. The opposite of the word “deter” is “sinister”, to do with evil, it is related to the left hand.

Fact 59. The word “diamond” comes from the Greek word “adamas,” which means “unconquerable.”

Fact 60. The word “diastema” is the word for having a gap between your teeth.

Fact 61. The word “laser” stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission by radiation.”

Fact 62. The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

Fact 63. The word “limelight” that is used in theatre to refer to the performers on the stage originated because before electricity was available lime was burned in a lamp, which created a white light that was directed at the performers.

Fact 64. The word “maverick” came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan, refused to brand his cattle. Eventually any unbranded calf became known as a Maverick.

Fact 65. The word “moose” comes from the native Algonquian Indian word meaning “twig eater.”

Fact 66. The word “Nazi” is actually an abbreviation for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which refers to the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Fact 67. The word “nerd” was first coined by Dr. Suess in the book “If I Ran to the Zoo.”

Fact 68. The word “sophomore” means “sophisticated moron.”

Fact 69. The word “super” to a beekeeper refers to the hive box where the honey is stored.

Fact 70. The word “toy” comes from an old English word that means “tool.”

Fact 71. The word “umbrella” is derived from the Latin root word “umbra”, which means shade or shadow.

Fact 72. The word “vamp” is used to describe the upper front top of a shoe.

Fact 73. The word “walkman” was included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986.

Fact 74. The word alligator comes from the Spanish word El Lagarto, which means “The Lizard.”

Fact 75. The word assassination was invented by William Shakespeare.

Fact 76. The word breakfast was coined due to the fact that after sleeping for hours, we are “breaking our fast.”

Fact 77. The word Cotton originates from the Arabic word “Qutun.”

Fact 78. The word Himalayas means the “home of snow.”

Fact 79. The word housekeeping was invented by Shakespeare.

Fact 80. The word Karate means, “empty hand.”

Fact 81. The word Lethologica describes the state of not remembering the word you want to say.

Fact 82. The word Nike comes from Greek Mythology. Nike is the goddess of victory and was often depicted as a small winged figure whom the goddess Athene carried.

Fact 83. The word Popcorn is derived from the middle English word “poppe,” which means “explosive sound”.

Fact 84. The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

Fact 85. The word Spain means “the land of rabbits.”

Fact 86. The word Thailand means “land of the free.”

Fact 87. The word tulip comes from the Turkish word for turban.

Fact 88. The word vaccine comes from the Latin word “vacca,” which means cow. This name was chosen beacause the first vaccination was derived from cowpox which was given to a boy.

Fact 89. The word witch comes from the word “wicca” which translates to the “wise one.”

Fact 90. The word, tattoo originated from the Tahitain word “tattau” which means “to mark.”

Fact 91. The words “abstemioius,” and “facetious” both have all the five vowels in them in order.

Fact 92. The words moron, imbecile, and idiot are not interchangable. The one with the highest level of intelligence is a moron, followed, by an imbecile, and then idiot.

Fact 93. The world camel population is close to 19 million.

Fact 94. The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.

Fact 95. The world record for donut eating is held by John Haight, who ate 29 donuts (52 ounces) in a little over six minutes.

Fact 96. The world record for rocking non-stop in a rocking chair is 480 hours held by Dennis Easterling, of Atlanta, Georgia.

Fact 97. The world record for the number of body piercings on one individual is 702, which is held by Canadian Brent Moffat.

Fact 98. The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965.

Fact 99. The world’s first underground was the London Underground in1863. It has 275 stations and 253 miles of track.

Fact 100. The world’s termites outweigh the world’s humans 10 to 1.

Page topic: Cool, strange and interesting facts page 1