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Fun Facts
Last updated Wednesday, July 06, 2005
The term 'sit around and chew the fat' came from medieval times. Bacon was extremely expensive, and a status symbol to own. When distinguished guests visited, the stock of bacon was brought out and chewed during conversation.
The fastest wind speed ever recorded is 318 mph in one of the May 3, 1999 tornadoes to hit Oklahoma.
The construction documentation for a Boeing 747 weighs more than the plane itself.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'.135 million cars travel the nation's streets, roads, and interstates each day.
Benjamin Franklin invented swim-fins, and created daylight savings time.
Back during the ice age, there were 'mammoth penguins' which stood up to 6' tall.
The Space Shuttle main engine weighs 1/7th as much as a train engine, but delivers as much horsepower as 39 train engines.Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.
The names Donner and Blitzen stand for thunder and lightning, respectively.
Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Today’s average household in the USA contains more computer power than existed in the world before 1965.Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour.
Elephants are capable of swimming twenty miles a day. They use their trunks as natural snorkels.
Broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower.
Annual growth of WWW traffic is 341,000%!There are almost 800 different brands of bottled water for sale in the United States.
A U.S. House subcommittee determined that the chances your doctor is a phony are 1 in 50.
The word most said in the 1998 James Cameron movie 'Titanic' was 'ROSE'.
Steel Drums are the only non-electric musical instrument invented in the 20th century.California consumes more bottled water than any other product.
The Human brain has a capacity of 1 trillion bits or about 116.4153 gigabytes.
During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times; exercise 7 million brain cells; and speak 4,800 words.
On average, 136 MacDonalds burgers are eaten, anywhere in the world, every second.The amount of energy produced by the sun in a 2 week period equals the combined stored energy of all the coal, iron and natural gas reserves known to man.
Need to know measurements but don't have a tape measure? All U.S. paper currency is 6 inches long.
The highest hill is in Oklahoma, towering 1,999 feet- the maximum height for a hill.
The first traffic light was installed in England in 1868 in front of the Houses of Parliment.The Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean holds more than half of the world's volcanoes.
Today’s average household in the USA contains more computer power than existed in the world before 1965.
Coca Cola can be used as a toilet bowl cleaner.
The six most hazardous occupations in America are firefighter, race-car driver, astronaut, football player, police officer, and fisherman.The top of the Empire State Building was originally intended as a mooring place for dirigibles.
The duration record for a face-slapping contest was set in Kiev, U.S.S.R., in 1931 when a draw was declared between Bezbordny and Goniusch after 30 hours.
Dr. Miles Compound Extract of Tomato, a patent medicine, went on the market in the 1830s - it was ketchup.
One pound of wool can make ten miles of spun yarn.Woodrow Wilson's picture is on the $100,000 bill.
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different!
During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food; that's the weight of about 6 elephants!
More people are killed every year from donkeys than from airplane crashes.
There are more people alive today, than have EVER died!
Elephants are capable of swimming twenty miles a day. They use their trunks as natural snorkels.
Blue whales are not only the largest animals but also the loudest. They have been recorded making noises at 188 decibels.
It would take 13 years and eight months to stay one night in every room at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes.
On average, 80 people shoot at the Goodyear blimp each year.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses, some of them just didn't like to be seen with them in public.
Armadillos can be house broken.
Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles's Compound Extract of Tomato.
When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickle the company once had.
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
The mother of Monkees' Mike Nesmith invented White Out.
Al Gore did not invent the Internet.
Shirley Temple always had 56 curls in her hair.
The record number of people crammed into a 1998 Volkswagen Bug and still able to close all doors is 18. They were college students.
There are about 5,000 different languages spoken on Earth.
Only 1 in 50 people in the U.S. do not watch television.
The youngest Olympian to win a Gold Medal was Marjorie Gestring aged 13 years and 268 days at the 1936 Berlin Games.
The voice for Maggie Simpson's (of the Simpson's cartoon) first words was played by Elizabeth Taylor.
Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991.
Turning off your monitor when you are not using the computer saves over 80% of the total power consumed.
Today, a new car costs the equivalent of 26 weeks pay for an average wage earner, up from 18 weeks 20 years ago.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's 'Its A Wonderful Life'.
U.S. households do 35 billion loads of laundry annually.
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream contributes 7.5 percent of pre-tax profits to charity.
Casey Casem did the voice for Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.
The speed of light is 186,282.297miles/sec.
In the 1860's the average salary was less than $10 a week.
Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg.
William Howard Taft was the first president to throw out the first baseball in a game.
In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters.
Dunkin' Donuts sells 3,055 donuts every minute.
The letter 'Q' is the only letter which doesn't appear in the names of the fifty states in the U.S.A.
The earth's lowest point is the Dead Sea. Its surface is 1,312 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.
Illinois is home to the world's only 'Chicago'.
Last year people spent more than $32 billion on lottery games - more than they spent on the theater, movies, and recorded music combined.
In 1931 'The Star Spangled Banner' was adopted as the national anthem, the Empire State Building opened, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty flew around the world, and the Ford Motor Co. produced its 20 millionth auto.
In 1945 Grand Rapids became the first city to add fluoride to its drinking water to prevent cavities in peoples' teeth.
The average person sees more than 20,000 TV commercials in a year.
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jell-O.
Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
The largest pearl in the world was found in the Philippines which is located in Palawan. It is a size of a tennis ball.
A billion seconds is 32 years.
The toothbrush was invented in China in 1498.
The term 'Cops' originated with the copper shields and buttons of early police uniforms.
Chicago's Mercantile Exchange building was built entirely without an internal steel skeleton, as most skyscrapers; it depends on its thick walls to keep itself up.
It takes eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth.
In 1904 St. Louis was the first U.S. city to host the Summer Olympics.
All of the clocks in "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
If she were life size, Barbie's measurements are: 39-23-33.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt"
Almonds are members of the peach family.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
Everyday 0.5 percent of the worlds population visits a McDonalds.
It takes a lobster approximately 7 years to weigh one pound.
An elephant can smell water up to 3 miles away.
In 1910, magician Harry Houdini was the first solo pilot to fly a plane in Australia. He taught himself to drive an automobile just so he could drive out to the airfield- and he never drove again.
The fastest wind speed ever recorded is 318 mph in one of the May 3, 1999 tornadoes to hit Oklahoma.
Minnesota may be known as 'The land of 10,000 lakes' but neighboring Wisconsin has 14,000 lakes and Alaska has over 3,000,000.
The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
U.S. Interstates that run north-south are numbered sequentially starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even numbers.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.
The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have one syllable.
Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed.
The blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived, reaching 100 feet in length and weighing 150 tons. The largest dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, was estimated to weigh 110 tons.A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
The growth rate of some bamboo plants can reach three feet (91.44 cm) per day.
In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run.
The "Hallelujah Chorus" fits into the Easter portion of Handel's Messiah, not Christmas.
The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."
The allele for six fingers and toes is dominant in humans. (Watch out Inigo Montoya...)
While drug-sniffing dogs are trained to bark like crazy, go "aggressive" at the first whiff of the right powder...bomb-sniffing dogs are trained to go "passive" lest they set off a motion sensor or a noise sensor or any number of other things that might go kablooie.
The Ragdoll is the largest breed of domesticated cat in the world, with adult males averaging 22-25 pounds.
Everyone is familiar with the RCA logo with Nipper the dog listening to the RCA gramophone. But the original picture had both the dog and the gramophone sitting on his dead masters casket. The idea being that the closest thing to his dead master's voice was the RCA gramophone. The ad was eventually considered too morbid and they removed the casket.
The Honey Badger can withstand hundreds of African bee stings that would kill any other animal.
Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Halley's Comet came into view. When he died in 1910, Halley's Comet was again in the sky.
The movie playing at the drive-in at the beginning of "The Flintstones" was the The Monster.
If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.
In an episode of The Simpsons, Sideshow Bob's Criminal Number is 24601, the same as the Criminal number of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds.
It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.
Ancient Egyptians shaved their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.
Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.
Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
The sport with highest ratio of officials to participants is tennis. A singles match should have 13; ten linesmen, one net, one foot-fault, plus an umpire.
A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.Siberia means "sleeping land."
Manholes are built circular because no matter what way you turn or twist it it cannot fall in.
One of the most popular soups in 1929 was Peanut Butter soup.
On average, females hear better than males at every age.
In its heyday, the Roman Empire stretched from Britain to Iraq.
At almost six billion miles away, Pioneer 10 is the most distant object built by humans.
"Whale harassment" is a federal offense. It's punishable by up to $10,000 in fines.
The Pyramids in Egypt contain enough stone and mortar to construct a wall 10 feet high and 5 feet wide running from New York to Los Angeles.
Ants have five noses. Each one smells a different odor.
Moscow is closer to Washington D.C. than Honolulu is.
The ratio of adult bookstores to McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. is 3-to-1.
The last horse of the U.S. Cavalry, Chief, died in 1968 at the age of 36.
Termites cannot see.
240 of the world's 450 different types of cheese come from France.
The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps.
Baby pigs can be housebroken in as little as 3 days.
The average U.S. annual income at the start of World War II was $1,070.
Pearls are made of calcium carbonate, the active ingredient in antacids.
Cats have two sets of vocal chords: one for purring, one for meowing.
New York's Time Square was originally know as "Acre Square."
Some breeds of vultures can fly at altitudes as high as 36,900 feet.
In the United States, Illinois has the highest number of personalized license plates than any other state.
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