Fact 1. The Roman emperor Commodus was at one time going to change the name of Rome to Colonia Commodiana.
Fact 2. The Roman emperor Domitian took great pleasure in being secluded in his room for hours and catching flies and stabbing them with pens.
Fact 3. The Romans used to clean themselves with olive oil since they did not have any soap. They would pour the oil on their bodies, and then use a strigil, which is type of blade, to scrape off any dirt along with the oil.
Fact 4. The ruby red slippers in the movie “The Wizard of Oz” were sold off at an auction for $660,000.
Fact 5. The Saguaro Cactus, found in South-western United States does not grow branches until it is 75 years old.
Fact 6. The same amount of calories are burned by doing 6 sessions that are 5 minutes each of an activity and doing 1 session of that activity for 30 minutes.
Fact 7. The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments
Fact 8. The Sanskrit word for “war” means “desire for more cows.”
Fact 9. The sap of a banana plant leaves serious stains on hands and clothes that is extremely hard to remove.
Fact 10. The scarlet tanager, a songbird native to Illinois, can eat as many as 2,100 gypsy-moth caterpillars in one hour.
Fact 11. The sea cucumber spills its internal organs out as a defense mechanism.
Fact 12. The Sea of Tranquility on the moon is deeper than the highest mountain on Earth.
Fact 13. The search engine Google got its name from the word “googol,” which refers to the number one with a hundred zeros after it.
Fact 14. The Sears Tower consists of nine framed tubes, which connects nine skyscrapers as one building.
Fact 15. The Sears Tower in Chicago contains enough steel to build 50,000 automobiles.
Fact 16. The Sears Tower located in Chicago, Illinois is made up 76,000 tons of steel.
Fact 17. The second best selling game of all time is Jenga. Jenga is a Swahili word, meaning “to build.”
Fact 18. The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the english language.
Fact 19. The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” uses every
letter in the alphabet. (Developed by Western Union to Test telex/twx
communications)
Fact 20. The seventeenth president of the United States, Andrew Johnson did not know how to read until he was 17 years old.
Fact 21. The sex of a baby crocodile is determined by the temperature in the nest and how deeply the eggs are buried.
Fact 22. The shark cornea has been used in eye surgery, since its cornea is similar to a human cornea.
Fact 23. The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar an England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
Fact 24. The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
Fact 25. The Shroud of Turin is the single most studied artifact in human history.
Fact 26. The silk that is produced by spiders is stronger than steel.
Fact 27. The silkworm moth has lost the ability to fly ever since it has been domesticated.
Fact 28. The Simpsons is the longest running prime-time animated series on television history.
Fact 29. The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Fact 30. The size of a raindrop is around 0.5 mm – 2.5 mm, and they fall from the sky on average 21 feet per second.
Fact 31. The size of a red blood cell is 708 microns. This is equivalent to one millionth of a meter.
Fact 32. The skeleton of a spider is located on the outside of the body. The name for this is exoskelton.
Fact 33. The skin of a shark is made up of “tiny teeth” which are called dermal denticles.
Fact 34. The sloth moves so slowly that green algae grows in the grooves of their hair.
Fact 35. The slowest growing finger nail is on the thumb nail and the fastest growing is the finger nail on the middle finger.
Fact 36. The small intestine in the human body is about 2 inches around, and 22 feet long.
Fact 37. The smallest bird in the world is the bee hummingbird. The bird is 2.24 inches long.
Fact 38. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes bone which is located in the ear.
Fact 39. The smallest bone in the human body is the stirrup bone, which is located in the ear.
Fact 40. The smallest frog is the “Brazilian baby frog”, which is smaller than a dime.
Fact 41. The smallest man ever was Gul Mohammed (1957-1997) of India, who measured 1 feet, 10? inches.
Fact 42. The smallest stamp in the world was issued in 1863 by the Columbian state of Bolivar and measured 9.5 x 8mm.
Fact 43. The smallest will ever written was 3.8 cm in diameter. It had 40 words written on it and was signed by two witnesses.
Fact 44. The smile is the most frequently used facial expression. A smile can use anywhere from a pair of 5 to 53 facial muscles.
Fact 45. The smoke that is produced by a fire kills more people than a burn does because of carbon monoxide and other dangerous gases.
Fact 46. The Snickers chocolate bar was invented in 1930.
Fact 47. The snow leopard protects itself from extreme cold when it sleeps by wrapping its 3-foot-long tail around its nose.
Fact 48. The sole purpose of a drone bee is to mate with the queen bee.
Fact 49. The song “Happy Birthday” brings in about $2 million in licensing revenue to Warner Communications who hold the copyright to the song.
Fact 50. The song “Strawberry Fields Forever” sung by the Beatles refers to an orphanage located in Liverpool.
Fact 51. The song with the longest title is “I?m a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin? Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues” written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1945. He later claimed the song title ended with ?Yank? and the rest was a joke.
Fact 52. The sound made by the toadfish when mating underwater is so loud that it can be heard by humans on the shore.
Fact 53. The sound made by the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe is so loud that it can be heard 40 miles away.
Fact 54. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
Fact 55. The space between your eyebrows is called the Glabella.
Fact 56. The speed at which honey bees fly is at 15 miles per hour.
Fact 57. The speed of sound must be exceeded to produce a sonic boom.
Fact 58. The sperm count of an average American male compared to thirty years ago is down thirty percent.
Fact 59. The spider used in the 2002 movie Spider-Man was a Steatoda spider, not a black widow. The spider was given anaesthesia, and was then painted blue and red.
Fact 60. The sport Lacrosse was initially played by Native American Indians. They played the sport to prepare for war.
Fact 61. The sport of surfing originated in Hawaii.
Fact 62. The spray WD-40 got its name because there were forty attempts needed before the creation of the “water displacing” substance.
Fact 63. The Spring peeper (a frog) can survive the winter season with 65% of its body water as ice.
Fact 64. The stage were the television sitcom “Friends” is shot on is said to be haunted.
Fact 65. The Stanley Cup originally was only seven and a half inches high.
Fact 66. The stapler was invented in Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Fact 67. The state of Alaska has almost twice as many caribou as people.
Fact 68. The state of California has more 7-Eleven stores than any other state. There are approximately 1,200 stores.
Fact 69. The state of Tennessee was known as Franklin before 1796.
Fact 70. The state that grows the most cranberries is Wisconsin. More than 300 million pounds of cranberries are grown in Wisconsin.
Fact 71. The state that has the most diners in the world is New Jersey, which is referred to as the “Diner Capital of the World.”
Fact 72. The steepest street in the world is Baldwin Street located in Dunedin, New Zealand. It has an incline of 38%.
Fact 73. The stomach of an adult can hold 1.5 liters of material.
Fact 74. The story of Mulan had been told in China for almost 1,500 years before Disney decided to make it into an animated movie.
Fact 75. The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written in 1939 for a store promotion by an advertising employee of the department store Montgomery Ward.
Fact 76. The strike note of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is e-flat.
Fact 77. The stringy thing that is seen in egg whites is called “chalazae.”
Fact 78. The strongest gust of wind was recorded at the Mount Washington Observatory on April 12th, 1934, and measured 231 miles per hour.
Fact 79. The study of ants is called Myrmecology.
Fact 80. The study of the iris of the eye is called iridology.
Fact 81. The study of twins is known as gemellology.
Fact 82. The substance that gives red wine and dark beer its color is said to have a positive effects on cholesterol and blood pressure.
Fact 83. The sun is approximately 149 million kilometres from the earth.
Fact 84. The sun is approximately 75% hydrogen, 25% helium by mass.
Fact 85. The sun shrinks five feet every hour.
Fact 86. The Super Bowl is broadcast to over 182 countries in the world.
Fact 87. The Super Bowl is so popular that it is the number on at-home party event of the year.
Fact 88. The Taj Mahal was actually built for use as a tomb.
Fact 89. The Taj Mahal, located in Agra, India, was actually built for use as a tomb by Mogul ruler Shah Jehan for his wife, Arjuman Banu Begum.
Fact 90. The tallest freestanding sculpture in the world is Chief Crazy Horse in South Dakota, USA.
Fact 91. The tallest mammal in the world is the giraffe.
Fact 92. The tallest tree recorded is located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California. It is a coast redwood and has been measured at 117 metres high.
Fact 93. The tallest woman in the world is American Sandy Allen who is 7 feet 7 inches.
Fact 94. The tallest woman that ever lived was Zeng Jinlian who was 8 feet 2 inches tall of China. Shed died at the age of 17.
Fact 95. The temperature of lightning bolts is sometimes hotter than the surface of the sun.
Fact 96. The temperature of milk when it is coming out of a cow is about 36 degrees celsius.
Fact 97. The temperature of milk when it leaves the body of a cow is 101 degrees Fahrenheit. The milk is then quickly chilled and stored at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fact 98. The term “The Big Apple” was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang expression “apple” for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time – The Big Apple.
Fact 99. The term “the whole 9 yards” came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got “the whole 9 yards.”
Fact 100. The term “the whole 9 yards” came from WWII fighter pilots in the
Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber
machine gun
ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the
fuselage.
If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got “the whole 9
yards.”
Page topic: Cool, strange and interesting facts page 3