The Best Interesting Random Facts
Shakespeare mentioned America once in his plays. In The Comedy of Errors, during a discussion between Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse, Dromio describes a woman, a rather large woman, who, in his mind, is globe shaped. During the course of the conversation, Antipholus urges Dromio to keep pinpointing geographic locations on her large […]
Of the world’s famous painters, Rembrandt painted the most self portraits, with 62 self-portraits. Vincent van Gogh is number two, with 40. He had a good excuse, though, while institutionalized for madness, he didn’t have models or landscape views available. One of his portraits is Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, painted in the mental institution not […]
Here’s how Dr. Seuss got the ideas for some of his classic books. Green Eggs and Ham was written on a bet with the founder of Random House, Bennett Cerf. Geisel wagered that he could write a good book using only 50 words, and Cerf was sure it was impossible. Geisel won the bet but […]
Shoeless Joe Jackson and eight other White Sox players were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against Cincinnati, and were thrown out of baseball forever, even though they were acquitted of criminal charges. For 10 years afterward, Jackson, one of the best baseballers ever, played semipro around the country under various assumed names. When […]
Anne Carter Lee, the Southern general’s mother, suffered from cataleptic spells that caused her to fall unconscious and grow rigid with tremors. As the story goes, she was mistaken for dead during one of these spells and buried in the family plot in Virginia. Hearing a noise a while later, one of the servants called […]
Disney World has only been closed for one day on September 15, 1999 since it opened in 1971. Although Disney World has shut down early or opened late for many reasons over the years, Hurricane Floyd in September 1995 has been the only event compelling enough to close down Disney’s Florida amusement park for an […]
Before the electronic age, ticker tape was a thin paper ribbon of information fed mechanically to the brokers on Wall Street. At day’s end, floors were ankle deep with ticker tape. On October 28, 1886, the elaborate dedication of the Statue of Liberty was visible from the brokers’ windows, causing such excitement that they began […]
The Buick Motor Company originated as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company in 1899, and was named after David Buick. He had the bad luck and poor business sense to found two successful companies and sell them both before reaping the rewards. By the end of his life, he couldn’t even afford a telephone in […]
There really was a record called “Three Minutes of Silence”, and it was not so much a joke as a tribute to how ubiquitous and popular jukeboxes once were. Sometimes in a crowded bar or restaurant, you’d be willing to pay money for just a few minutes of relief from the constant music. You could […]
Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who also invented the now common kitchen trash can with a step-on opening lid, invented the electric food mixer. She was a pioneering efficiency expert and incidentally was also the mother in the book Cheaper by the Dozen, written by two of her twelve children. Lillian Gilbreth was was born in […]
Before magician Harry Houdini died, he promised his wife he would contact her if possible from the spirit world. During his life, Houdini had spent quite a bit of time running to psychics in an attempt to contact his dear departed mother, to no avail. He desperately wanted to find out once and for all […]
It’s true that the Ford Company was offered the Volkswagen plant for free after World War II, but turned it down. The occupying British army offered the Volkswagen factory and car model first to British firms and then to the Ford Motor Company. They all turned it down. Company president Henry Ford II wanted to […]
The story of Frankenstein came from a ghost story party in 1816. Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley, her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, her pregnant stepsister, Claire Clarement, Lord Byron (father of Claire’s unborn child), and Byron’s physician, John Polidori, were all staying together on holiday in Geneva, Switzerland. To fill the long, rainy nights during this stay, […]
Although many believe that the word loony came from the loon’s laugh-like call, the word loony, or looney, is just a short version of the word lunatic. Lunatic has been in use for almost 1,000 years and comes from luna, the “moon,” based on the belief that insanity was affected by the moon’s phases. In […]
Elvis Presley did no give any encores for any of his concerts. Instead, the lights would come up and an announcer would say, “Elvis has left the building.” Perhaps this is a good idea, why should audience members have to beg and applaud in order to finally hear a performer’s best song?
You would think that Chock Full o’Nuts would be called Chock Full o’ Beans, wouldn’t you? Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee got its name from the fact that the company used to be a nut business. William Black sold nuts from a street pushcart in the mid-1920s, but sales slowed to the point where he […]
The word computer first appeared in the seventeenth century as the job title of a person who did calculations as an occupation. Most human computers weren’t paid very much, just like the Information Technology workers of today, even though their job descriptions are slightly different. Although slide rules were sometimes called computers, it wasn’t until […]
As long as the matador does not harm or kill the bull, bullfighting is legal in the United States. Detroit is one city that has featured bloodless bullfighting, bringing in some of the best Spanish and Mexican bullfighters to demonstrate their skills, speed, and courage without doing overt harm to the animals. In Portugal it […]
Superman first appeared in Action Comics in June of 1938. Superman is widely considered to be an American cultural icon, and helped to create and establish the superhero genre within the American comic book industry. The Great Depression of the 1930s was a huge influence on early Superman stories, and Superman took on the role […]
It would be best not to complain about how basketball got its name, it could have easily been called “box ball” or even “trash can ball.” In 1891, when James Naismith was inventing the game for bored, snowbound students at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, he intended to use wooden boxes for his targets. But […]
Cold filtered beer is just an advertising term and clever marketing. All beer is “cold filtered”, it just means using fine screens to remove particulates, including microbes. If combined with sterile handling, the filtering eliminates bacteria, which means that the beer doesn’t have to be pasteurized. Unpasteurized beer can legally be labeled “draft” beer, even […]
To protect against themselves against theft of idea and business, any clown can register their face with the National Clown and Character Registry for about $20, sort of a trademark locale for clowns. A clown sends photos of his or her made-up face and a replica is painted onto a goose egg for archive purposes. […]
There are several pitfalls of ordering a bottle of wine in a restaurant. First of all, trying to figure out whether to go with red, white, or Blue Nun, and then what type, label, year, and price. Just when you think you’re home free, the sommelier arrives, opens the bottle, and hands you the cork. […]
Like so many Old Testament characters, Lot lived a long and eventful life. However, his wife didn’t fare so well, and his daughters seemed to be pawns in a terribly twisted tale. The story began when God decided that the town of Sodom, Lot’s hometown, was so evil that it must be destroyed. Since Lot […]
The name “root beer” is pretty much consumer fraud, pure and simple. In the early 1870s, Charles Hires was served a root and herb tea at a country inn on his honeymoon, and liked it so much he decided to market it as a soft drink. As an anti-alcohol prohibitionist, Hires hoped that drinkers would […]
Mayonnaise is typically made from egg yolks, oil, water, vinegar, and some optional sweeteners, preservatives, and thickeners. Mayonnaise got its name from Port Mahon on Minorca, one of the islands of Spain. The word mayonnaise is believed to be a corruption of moyeunaise, from the very old French word moyeu, which means “yolk of egg”. […]
During medieval times, most people could neither read nor write. Even those who could sign their names were required to follow it with an X, symbolizing the cross of St. Andrew, or the contract would be invalid. Those who couldn’t write their names still had to end the contract with the X to make it […]
An equestrian statue is a statue of a horse-mounted rider, and the term comes from the Latin word “eques”, meaning “knight” and a derivative of “equus”, which means “horse”. Statues of horse and rider are exclusively of monarchs or great warriors and are usually found in places of honor. The tradition is that if the […]
Pepsi got its name from one of its main ingredients, pepsin, a substance used to relieve indigestion. When pharmacist Caleb Bradham concocted the kola nut, pepsin, sugar, and vanilla mixture in 1893, he called it Brad’s Drink. When it became popular, he changed the name in 1903 and began the PepsiCola company. Bradham, who was […]
Japan’s population is expected to drop to 95 million by 2050. In 2011 about 127,960,000 lived in Japan, and in the 2010 census the population of Japan was 128,056,026. Yup, that means the country’s population decreased. The main reason for the decline can be blamed on a low birth rate, Japan’s birth rate has been […]
Two different studies indicate that bright yellow and bright blue are the most visible colors for a car. The University of California found that of the two colors, yellow shows up best at night, blue in fog and daylight. A test by Mercedes-Benz same conclusion, but came up with the suggested that white might be […]
There are at least two stories about the origin of the word of the word blimp. One is that a British naval officer coined the term while trying to duplicate the sound the giant airbag made when he flicked his fingernail against it. The other story is that the early airships were marked AIRSHIP MODEL […]
Traditionally, sailors on a ship considered seeing an albatross to be a sign of good luck. Probably this came from early days of navigation, when sailors mistakenly thought the bird sighting meant that land was near. Little did they know that an albatross can live for years on the sea without setting foot on land. […]
Started at pudding and ended at pie is a British saying that has come to mean anything all-encompassing or far-reaching; figuratively, from one end of town to the other. The origin of the phrase dates back to the Great Fire of London on September 2, 1666, which started in the royal baker’s house on Pudding […]
The statistic that 75% of all fatal auto accidents occur within 25 miles of home is quite alarming. It does make it sound like there’s a bubble of danger around your own home, or that you’ll be safe if only you’re willing to stay more than 25 miles from your house. The truth behind the […]
Here is the order in which Snoopy’s brothers and sisters were introduced in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip: Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, and Andy. Once, Snoopy’s father received a Father’s Day card from “all eight” of his kids, so there are two more whose names we don’t know. The original drawings of Snoopy were inspired […]
