The Bagheera kiplingi spider was discovered in the 1800s and is the only species of spider that has been classified as vegetarian.
100 Mind-Blowing Been Facts
The voice actors of SpongeBob and Karen, Plankton’s computer wife, have been married since 1995.
The youngest Pope in history was Pope Benedict IX, who was either 11 or 20 years old when he was elected in 1032. He is also the only person to have been the Pope more than once.
The Hobbit has been published in two editions. In the first edition, Gollum willingly bet on his ring in the riddle game.
It snows metal on planet Venus! Two types have been found, galena and bismuthinite.
By the time they have been retired for 2 years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.
Over 290 people have died climbing Mount Everest since 1922. Most deaths occur because of avalanches, and not all bodies have been recovered.
Four Nile crocodiles have been found in Florida. They are the second-largest crocodile and are more dangerous than the native crocodiles and alligators in Florida.
Pope Francis has been given many extravagant gifts over the years, and one of them was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. However, rather than keeping it for his pleasure and adventures, he sold it off and used the money to benefit homeless people.
There is an insurance policy issued against alien abduction. Around 50,000 policies have been sold, mainly to residents of the U.S. and England.
Batman and Predator exist in the same fictional universe. Since 1991, they have been featured together in three comic books.
The British Pound is the world’s oldest currency still in use at 1,200 years old. The pound has been an identity as a symbol of British sovereignty.
So far, two diseases have successfully been eradicated: smallpox and rinderpest. The last case of smallpox was in 1977, and the last of rinderpest was in 2001.
The full Bible has been translated into over 3,000 languages. Among those include fictional languages like Elvish, Klingon, and Na’vi.
Humans have been performing dentistry since 7000 BC, which makes dentistry one of the oldest professions.
There is a geocache on the International Space Station placed in 2008. It has since been visited four times by other astronauts.
A Dutch start-up company has been able to start training wild crows so that they pick up cigarette butts and put them in bins for a peanut as a reward.
Credit card EMV chip technology has been around since 1986. It was first implemented in France, with Germany following shortly after.
To protect themselves from poachers, African Elephants have been evolving without tusks, which unfortunately also hurts their species.
Comedian Mitch Hedberg never passed on a job, having been told “no” so often early in his career that he felt like if he didn’t say “yes,” he might not be allowed to perform again.
When the Titanic sank in 1912, 3 dogs survived. They had all been travelling with their owners in the First Class cabins.
The oldest “your mom” joke was discovered on a 3,500-year-old Babylonian tablet in Iraq in 1976. The tablet has since been lost, but the text remains preserved.
Alongside Sudoku, chess has been named one of the best ways to improve the mind and memory.
Alexander Hamilton was shot and mortally wounded by Aaron Burr on the same spot where his son had been killed 3 years before and by the same set of pistols.
Sunflowers can help clean radioactive soil. Japan is using this to rehabilitate Fukushima. Almost 10,000 packets of sunflower seeds have been sold to the people of the city.
The whole Harry Potter series contains 199 chapters, 4,224 pages, and 1,090,739 words and has been made into 19 hours and 39 minutes of the film.
Chocolate ice cream has been proven to significantly reduce emotional and physical pain.
Even though smoking has been banned on aeroplanes, ashtrays are mandatory on every plane. This is for safe disposal in case someone breaks the law.
Playboy has been publishing braille versions of its magazines since 1970; however, no pictorial representations are included.
Makeup has been used by women since before Cleopatra’s time. They would use berries and other fruits to give their faces some colour.
Evangeline Lilly is a notoriously bad driver. She has been in at least 8 car accidents, and none of them were with another car.
In 2000 the first permanent crew inhabited the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, there’s always been a human presence in space.
The oldest webcam stream online today is The San Francisco FogCam which has been operational since 1994.
Finland is the happiest country on Earth. According to the World Happiness Report, it has been for six years in a row. It’s not surprising, given that Finland is the home of Santa Claus, reindeer and one sauna for every 1.59 people.
Somebody has been constipated for 45 days. In 2013, an unfortunate Indian woman had to undergo surgical removal of a faecal mass as large as a football.
Insects can fly up to 3.25km above sea level, at least. Alpine bumblebees have been found living as high up as 3.25km above sea level and could even fly in lab conditions that replicate the air density and oxygen levels at 9km – that’s just higher than Mount Everest.
Giraffes hum to communicate with each other. It’s thought that the low-frequency humming could be a form of ‘contact call’ between individuals who have been separated from their herd, helping them to find each other in the dark. Some researchers think they sleep talk too.
Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for 7 years straight.
The building One Times Square was built in 1904 as the headquarters for the New York Times. It’s been home to the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Celebration since 1907, when the first New Year’s Eve ball was made of iron and wood, one hundred 25-watt bulbs and weighed 700 pounds. Today’s ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs almost six tons with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles bolted to 672 LED modules attached to the aluminium frame.
The world’s oldest wooden wheel has been around for more than 5,000 years. It was found in 2002, approximately 12 miles south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and is now housed in the city’s museum. Radiocarbon dating was used to determine the wheel’s age, which is somewhere between 5,100 and 5,350 years old.
Sudan has more pyramids than any country in the world. Not only does Sudan have more pyramids than Egypt, but the numbers aren’t even close. While 138 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt, Sudan boasts around 255.
Lemons float, but limes sink. Because limes are denser than lemons, they drop to the bottom of a glass, while lemons float at the top. Out of all these random fun facts, this one’s been in front of our faces (or rather, in our glasses) this whole time!
Some fungi create zombies and then control their minds. The tropical fungus Ophiocordyceps infects ants’ central nervous systems. Once it has been in an insect’s body for nine days, it has complete control over the host’s movements. According to National Geographic, it forces the ant to climb trees, then convulse and fall into the cool, moist soil below, where fungi thrive. Once there, the fungus waits until exactly solar noon to force the ant to bite a leaf and wait for death.
Most Disney characters wear gloves to keep animation simple. Walt Disney might have been the first to put gloves on his characters, as seen in 1929’s The Opry House, starring Mickey Mouse. In addition to being easier to animate, there’s another reason for the gloves: “We didn’t want him to have mouse hands because he was supposed to be more human,” Disney told his biographer in 1957.
There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs were alive. Most of the volcanoes probably stopped erupting about a billion years ago, but NASA findings have suggested there might still have been active lava flow 100 million years ago when dinosaurs were still roaming.
The French have their name for a French kiss. Is there something extra interesting about this kissing fact? The word hasn’t been around for long. In 2014, galocher—meaning to kiss with tongues—was added to the Petit Robert French dictionary.
Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch. He’s also been called out for only having the bars of a Navy commander, but the so-called Cap’n held his ground on Twitter, arguing that captaining the S.S. Guppy with his crew “makes an official Cap’n in any book!”
Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs. People have been playing baseball since the mid-19th century. In the early days, umpires would officiate the games while reclining in a rocking chair located 20 feet behind home plate. By 1878, the National League also declared that home teams must pay umpires $5 per game.
170-year-old bottles of champagne were found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The bottles of bubbly are believed to have been travelling from Germany to Russia during the 1800s when they sank to the bottom of the sea, according to New Scientist. It turns out that the bottom of the sea, where temperatures are between two and four degrees Celsius, is a great place for wine ageing. Wine experts sampled the champagne and described it as “sometimes cheesy” with “animal notes” and elements of “wet hair.” Mmm.
Most wasabi paste isn’t real wasabi. Wasabi is expensive, so most companies use horseradish instead. Real wasabi is milder than what you’ve been getting with your sushi.
Queen Elizabeth II had a stand-in to make sure the sun wouldn’t get in her eyes. Ella Slack has a similar height and stature to the queen, so before big events, she’ll rehearse to avoid any royal pains like the sun getting in Her Majesty’s eyes. Slack had been doing it for three decades but wasn’t allowed to sit on the throne, so she had to squat above it.
The TV show Big Brother originated in the Netherlands. It was created by John de Mol in 1999 and has since been franchised in 54 countries.
The office chair is believed to have been invented by Charles Darwin. The scientist had the idea to attach wheels to his chair so he could move around between his many tables.
Beyoncé is the most awarded artist at the Grammys. She’s been nominated for 88 awards and won a whopping 32.
Sheffield FC is the oldest football club recognised by FIFA, having been founded in October 1857.
Bangkok is the world’s most visited city. With 22.78 million international visitors, Bangkok has been named the most visited city in the world for the fourth year in a row – beating Paris, London, Dubai, and Singapore.
The first novel in the world ended mid-sentence. The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is the world’s oldest novel. Towards the end of 54 chapters, the story is stopped abruptly mid-sentence. Some translators believe the work is complete and intended to end that way, but others say a few pages haven’t been recovered yet.
The Big Ben in London is leaning so much that the incline is visible to the naked eye. Weathering has not been kind to the Big Ben. Experts estimate that it will have the same incline as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 4,000 years.
Jack Daniel was believed to have died from kicking a safe. Another morbidly funny fact: Jack Daniel was said to die from kicking a vault. According to the tale, he broke his toe after kicking the safe in anger due to not remembering the combination. It was then that he contracted sepsis. However, this admittedly ridiculous story has since been refuted by some experts.
No one knows for sure how dinosaurs mate. It’s easy to get caught up in a dinosaur’s grotesque features, but have you ever wondered how dinosaurs mated in the first place? With all those spines and armour, how did they do it enough to roam the world before us? So far, no dinosaurs have been found with their reproductive organs intact. Until then, only cross-referencing from existing descendants (birds and reptiles) as well as computer modelling can give us hints as to how they’d done the deed.
Polar bears aren’t purely left-handed. Although it has been said that all polar bears are left-handed, it has been discovered that they use both hands equally for activities.
Napoléon Bonaparte’s penis was stolen. Posthumously, if that makes it any better. The genitalia were removed from his body by his doctor during the autopsy. Allegedly, it was given to a priest in Corsica. However, his junk was not properly preserved, so now it has been compared to dried leather and beef jerky. It was first displayed in a museum in 1927. Currently, the daughter of a urologist (who bought it for US$3,000 to keep under his bed) keeps it. Bids for the shrivelled genitalia have reached US$100,000.
The oceans contain 200,000 different kinds of viruses. Dive deep into this next fun fact: Marine viruses have been found in the ocean from the surface down to 4,000m deep and from the North to the South Pole. Most of these viruses are harmless to humans. However, they can infect marine life such as whales and crustaceans.
The Netherlands has a squirrel bridge. One of the most interesting fun facts about humans’ relationship with animals: After a few squirrel casualties, Netherlands officials built a squirrel bridge across the N44 motorway. The two-year project cost a hefty £120,000. However, to date, only five squirrels have been seen using it.
Henry Cavill’s muscles are the real deal. Henry Cavill refused to take steroids for his role as Superman. He also refused digital enhancements, so the hulking physique you see in the films is all-natural. He reasoned that it would have been dishonest to manipulate the Superman look.
There were 25 snakes found on The Maze Runner set. The grassy plains of the first Maze Runner film create a fearful anticipation of what lies within – and for the film’s cast and crew, it would have been snakes. Before shooting, the production team had to hire snake wranglers to clear out the area. They located a total of 25 venomous snakes – with the biggest one they found at 5 feet long.
Crushed vitamins have been used for cocaine scenes in movies. For The Wolf of Wall Street, the actors inhaled crushed B vitamins in cocaine-snorting scenes. In fact, after so much inhaling, Jonah Hill contracted bronchitis and had to be hospitalized.
The foil seals on medicine bottles were placed due to poisoning incidents. The Tylenol poisonings of 1982 were a widespread crisis that involved U.S. consumers dying or falling ill from Tylenol. It was later found that the bottles had been laced with potassium cyanide. To restore the faith of the public in the product and the company, Johnson & Johnson patented the seal to prevent further tampering incidents. This is also the thought behind the “Do not accept if seal is broken.” warnings that we see with other products.
You could buy a town from eBay. Since eBay was founded in 1995, many unusual items have been placed on the online auction site. One of the weirdest fun facts is that someone even tried to sell the country of New Zealand on eBay. Turns out, it was part of the long-known rivalry between Australia and New Zealand – and Australia jokingly posted the auction. However, the bidding was stopped once the bid reached $3,000.
The people who are currently alive are only 7% of the total number of people who have ever lived. One of the fun facts that’ll make you realize how long humans have been around: According to the Population Reference Bureau, over 108 billion people have ever been born. At 7.5 billion, that’s only a meagre 7% of the people who have ever lived.
Superman used to leap places instead of flying. Superman’s flying was only a somewhat recent development. In the 1940’s, Superman would only leap onto tall buildings. Thinking it looked silly, the animators of Superman’s first animated show requested permission to give him flight. Superman’s been flying high ever since.
All the Professors in Pokemon have been named after trees. If you’ve played or watched Pokemon, you’d notice that through all generations, the Professors are named after trees: Professor Oak of Gen I, Professor Elm of Gen II, Professor Birch of Gen III, all up to Professor Sycamore of Gen IX.
All Froot Loops have the same flavour. Yup, you’ve been lied to.
Black cats are good luck in Britain and Japan. Black cats may have been universally seen as bad luck, but that isn’t the case for Great Britain and Japan. New brides are given black cats to bless their marriage in the English Midlands. In Japan, black cats are a symbol of good luck for single women.
Goats have rectangular pupils. Have you ever looked at a goat and thought, “Man, why do you look so weird?” Goats have been used for different religious imagery and have been associated with satanic or demonic themes. (Hello, Insidious demon.) One of the fun facts about goats is that their weird, rectangular pupils give them a wider range of vision to look out for predators.
The world’s longest musical piece lasts 639 years. Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage that has been playing since 2001 at the St. Burchardi church in Germany. As Slow As Possible is scheduled to have a duration of 639 years, set to end in 2640.
Humans have jumped further than horses in the Olympics. The Olympics has been a good measure of humanity’s physical limits and capabilities. You’d be surprised that the world record for the longest human long jump is even greater than the record for the longest long jump done by a horse. When Mike Powell jumped 8.95 meters, he beat the record of Extra Dry who jumped at 6.10 meters.
An espresso maker has been sent to space. When an Italian astronaut requests an espresso machine in orbit, who are we to deny her? The Italian Space Agency worked with Lavazza to create the cleverly named ISSpresso – the first espresso coffee machine designed for space. As a result, the first espresso coffee was drunk in space by Samantha Cristoforetti on May 3, 2015.
Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs. Baseball has been around since the 19th century. However, in the early games, umpires would sit in a rocking chair 20 feet behind the home plate.
The French Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French Nigel Richards of New Zealand memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary (386,000 words) in nine weeks to bag the title. Richards had been playing Scrabble for 20 years since.
170-year-old champagne was found under the Baltic Sea. The bottles would have been travelling from Germany to Russia in the 1800s before sinking into the sea. With temperatures between 2-4°C, the ocean floor was perfect for wine ageing. Oenologists described the flavor profile as “sometimes cheesy,” with “animal notes,” and elements of “wet hair.”
75 burgers are sold at McDonald’s every second. You can view how many burgers have been sold in real-time on the McDonald’s website. You can also track the number of other products that have also been sold from all over the world.
The bones of the human body can multiply in density. This occurs in very extreme cases. People who have been discovered to have this rare gene mutation have cases of walking away from car accidents and other impact injuries without fractures.
Flipping a shark will render it temporarily immobile. Certain types of sharks enter a state of tonic immobility due to the shock when flipped over. Some killer whales have been recorded to exploit this weakness and purposely flip them over.
Ioannis Ikonomou has been the chief translator of the European Parliament since 2002. This Greek translator has 32 languages under his belt and even knows languages outside of the EU. How’s that for a hidden talent?
An encrypted monument stands outside of the CIA headquarters in Virginia. This monument was created by artist Jim Sanborn and features four inscriptions. Three of four of the inscriptions have been cracked already. However, no one seems to be able to crack the final code to this day.
Tap water in Manhattan is not Kosher. Very small crustaceans have been found in the tap water within New York City. Automatically, this cannot be considered kosher water.
Timothy Leary escaped prison. Rather than break out, he simply walked away from the minimum-security prison he had been placed in since 1970. He then later changed out of his prison uniform at a nearby gas station.
Incan people used knots to keep track of records. These knots were also tied to pendants and cords. The knots are better known as quipu and their meanings would depend on their position on the cord. Over 600 examples of quipu have been discovered already.
The state of Virginia may contain hidden treasure. The Beale CIphers are a set of coded texts that are said to reveal the location of hidden treasure. Research believes that this is worth over $43 million in gold, silver, and jewels. Only one of three texts has been encoded so far.
The KKK was taken down with help from Superman. A 16-episode series titled’ The Adventures of Superman’ was aired on the radio during the 1940s. This series incorporated the findings that activist Stetson Kennedy had been able to get while undercover in the KKK.
Only two diseases have been completely eradicated. These are smallpox and rinderpest. The last naturally occurring outbreak of smallpox was recorded in 1977.
Space travel makes mice run in circles. NASA once sent 20 rodents to the International Space Station to see how the effects of space affected mice. Not long after they got there, the mice all started running in loops inside their cages. No one is exactly sure why this occurred, but researchers stated that the critters might’ve just been enjoying their time in space.
The first service animals were established in Germany. Service animals were more commonly used by the time of the First World War. However, references in history suggest that the use of service animals has been practised since the mid-16th century.
Sourtoe cocktails are served in Yukon. The drink has been served since the 1970s and contains a shot of whiskey and a human toe floating inside the glass. All toes that are served with the drink have been mummified beforehand.
There are over 6,000 species of grass. The most common examples are rice, wheat, oats, and sugarcane. Some of these species have been on our planet for more than 1,000 years already.
The Titanic included dogs as their passengers. When the ship sank in 1912, 3 dogs were able to survive. Before the ship sank, they had all been travelling with their owners in first-class cabins.
Tanning beds increase your risk of developing melanoma. If you were to use one of these machines before the age of 30, your chances increase by 75%. Tanning beds and lamps have been proven to be the highest cancer risk according to research.
Dueling is legal in Paraguay. It is legal so long as both parties have been registered as blood donors.
A giant tortoise that was believed to be extinct was found in the Galapagos. Previous to this, this species of giant tortoise had not been spotted for over 100 years. Scientists had believed them to be extinct already until 2019.