Elvis was originally blonde. He started colouring his hair black for an edgier look. Sometimes, he would touch it up himself using shoe polish.
100 Mind-Blowing Black Facts
Houston is the most diverse city in the United States. As of 2010, 43.8% are Latino, 25.6% are White, 23.1% are Black, and 6% are Asian.
The black-footed cat is the smallest wild cat, at just 20 inches long.
August 17th is known as Black Cat Appreciation Day.
Frederick Douglass was the most photographed man of the 19th Century. He wanted to ensure an accurate depiction of Black Americans during the Civil War.
Wonder Woman has a black sister, Nubia. She was sculpted from black clay-like Diana was sculpted from white clay.
Cards Against Humanity celebrated Black Friday by digging a hole as long as people donate. They raised over $100k.
Wind turbines kill between 10,000 and 100,000 birds each year in the UK. Interestingly, painting one of the blades of a wind turbine black can reduce bird deaths by 70 per cent.
Bananas glow blue under black lights.
M&M’s Chocolate Candies were introduced in 1941, and one selling point is that they wouldn’t melt in warm weather. In 1950, a black “M” was added to the candy so consumers could tell the difference between the real deal and imitations. The “M” was changed to white in 1954.
Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long. Their dark, bluish-black colour is probably to prevent sunburn.
Bananas glow blue under black lights. To the everyday eye under normal conditions, ripe bananas appear yellow due to organic pigments called carotenoids. When bananas ripen, chlorophyll begins to break down. This pigment is the element that makes bananas glow, or fluoresce, under UV lights and appear blue.
There’s a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding. Can we get in on this? There’s a fruit native to Central and South America called black sapote that tastes like chocolate and sweet custard.
One part of Istanbul is in Europe and the other is in Asia. Part of it neighbours Greece and Bulgaria (therefore sitting in Europe) and the other part neighbours Syria, Iran, and Iraq beyond Turkey’s borders (therefore classing as Asia). The Bosphorus Strait runs between them – a narrow body of water that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea via the Sea of Marmara.
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.
Sailors consider black cats good luck. Some sailors use black cats as the ship’s cat in hopes of a safe voyage. Some fishermen’s wives would even keep a black cat at home as well in hopes of their husband’s safe return.
Black taxis in London are tall for a reason. This is so that gentlemen can ride in them without having to remove their top hats. For many, this is considered to be very convenient.
Vantablack has a trademark. Anish Kapoor had won the executive rights to the world’s darkest shade of black and stated that only they could use it. Outraged, the creator of the pinkest pink made the colour available for everyone but Kapoor. Now that’s a colourful war.
August 17th celebrates Black Cat Appreciation Day. This was declared by Wayne Morris as a way to remember his sister and her black cat. This day is meant to symbolize the bond between black cats and their owners.
Around 70% of virus programmers are said to allegedly work under a strict contract for crime syndicates. Their jobs are to constantly detect vulnerabilities within their own company and try to find a way to block unwanted breaches out. There is often a black-or-white scale in the world of virus programming.
Rabbits eat their faeces. After eating them, they will digest them again like normal food. Rabbits have two kinds of droppings, little black round ones and softer black ones known as cecotropes. The cecotrope droppings are the ones that they eat and they do this so they can re-absorb any undigested nutrients from their food. This process is normally done once a day.
White is considered the safest colour for a car. This is because white cars typically stand out against the black roads. Statistics state that white cars are 12% less likely to get into an accident compared to black cars.
The urine of cats glows under a black light. Cat urine will glow brightly underneath a black light because it contains phosphorus. Shining a black light around your household will also make it easier for you to clean after your cats.
People used to dream in black and white. The world may not be black and white now, but there was a time when even dreams were. Before colour TV was invented, 75% of people said their dreams were in black and white. However, only 12% do now.
Bananas glow blue under UV light. Bananas may be associated with yellow, but according to one study, the fruit glows an “intense” blue colour under black light (or UV lights). Scientists later found that the degradation of chlorophyll as the fruit ripens causes the blue glow.
The most expensive hotdog is priced at almost US$200. Tokyo Dog in Seattle, Washington, USA, sells the “Juuni Ban” hot dog for $169. It is the most expensive hot dog in the world to date. The hotdog comes with smoked-cheese bratwurst, butter-teriyaki-grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, wagyu beef, foie gras, black truffle, and caviar.
A black hole can destroy a star if it passes too close to it.
“Schindler’s List” was released in 1993. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this powerful black-and-white film tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.
The movie was shot entirely in black and white. Spielberg made the deliberate decision to shoot the film without colour to evoke a sense of historical authenticity and emphasise the starkness of the Holocaust.
Henry Ford produced the Model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.
February is Black History Month.
Cat urine glows under a black light. Black lights can be used to detect any body fluids, but cat urine glows particularly bright under ultraviolet light primarily because it contains the element phosphorus.
There’s a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding. Native to Central and South America, the fruit is called black sapote and it tastes like a combination of sweet custard and chocolate.
In the 16th century, it was fashionable to have black teeth. As the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I set the trends of the 1500s. She was known for her sweet tooth, but years of sugary treats took its toll on her teeth. Incredibly, her mouth full of rotting teeth inspired other women to blacken their teeth to match!
Cat urine glows under a black light. Due to containing phosphorus, cat urine glows brighter under an ultraviolet light.
There is a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding. Black sapote, native to Central and South America, tastes like chocolate and sweet custard. This is surely a weirdly delicious fact.
Polar bears have black skin, which helps them absorb heat from the sun to stay warm in an Arctic climate, and it likely protects the bears from harmful UV rays.
Cats and horses are highly susceptible to black widow venom, but dogs are relatively resistant. Sheep and rabbits are immune.
Polar bear skin is black!
Ripe bananas look blue under black lights.
Black holes have theoretical opposites known as white holes. Black holes are known for their voracious appetites; their influence is so strong that even light can’t escape their gravity. But they have a theoretical converse – white holes. They are effectively the opposite of their dark relatives, spitting out light and matter instead of trapping it. So far, they are purely hypothetical objects; astronomers are contemplating how they could form in reality.
Vast amounts of water have been found in space. Earth’s oceans may not be that unique. Three of Jupiter’s moons (Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) and two of Saturn’s (Enceladus (pictured above) and Titan) are thought to have underwater seas. Europa’s ocean may contain over twice the volume of water found on Earth. However, the most water ever discovered surrounds a black hole some 12 billion lightyears away. This region contains vast amounts of water vapour, the equivalent of 140 trillion times the volume of water in Earth’s oceans. There is more water in space than you might think.
Black holes give off light. Venture beyond the event horizon and you’ll not be able to escape the powerful gravity of a black hole. Black holes are objects so dense that not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Yet despite this, black holes can shine brightly, and this may be one of the most contradictory-sounding facts about space on our list. Supermassive black holes can illuminate the centre of galaxies and are known as active galactic nuclei. How can this be? As cosmic material falls into a black hole, it forms an accretion disc that swirls around it. This material gets very hot and glows: it can even power jets of material that shoot out of the black hole into space. This all occurs just outside the event horizon and is one of the ways astronomers can detect black holes even though they can observe them directly.
The Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta caraya) are native to eastern Bolivia, northeastern Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
Black Howlers eat they eat leaves, fruit and vegetable matter.
Black Howler Monkeys do not have opposable thumbs.
Panthers are not a separate species of cats. They’re just leopards or jaguars with a black colour mutation.
A polar bear’s hair is not white – it’s colourless. Each thick strand of hair is hollow and reflects the light, making the polar bear appear white. Beneath this transparent fur, the skin is black, to soak up any warmth from the sun and keep the bear as warm as possible.
Sand comes in lots of different colours. Sand isn’t always golden, although that is the most common colour. It also comes in lots of different colours including red, brown, pink, orange, gold, purple, green, and black! The colours depend on the minerals and rocks the sand has been formed from. There are black beaches in the Canary Islands. This is because the sand comes from volcanic minerals.
Polar Bears trying to blend in with the ice will cover up their black nose with their paws.
Christopher Lee released three metal albums. Sir Christopher Lee was a fan of metal from its very beginning and was particularly fond of Black Sabbath. That being said, it wasn’t until 2010, when he was well into his eighties, that he recorded his first album: Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross. Lee’s second and third albums were released in 2013 and 2014, but he also dabbled in several metal-inspired Christmas carol parodies.
When London taxi drivers tried to protest against Uber, they drove more customers towards their competitors. In 2014 as many as 10,000 London black cab drivers took to the streets and blockaded much of the city to protest against Uber. The drivers claimed not to be protesting against having competition. They protested because Uber drivers didn’t have to go through the 4-7 years of training a black cab driver must go through. In the end, Uber stated that the protest annoyed Londoners so much that, on the day of the strike, the Uber app was downloaded 850% more than normal.
Zebras are black with white stripes. There are three different species of zebras, which can be found in Africa’s southern and eastern regions. Their overall coat of hair is dark in colour, broken up with stripes of white, unpigmented hair. We’re still unsure why they have stripes, but scientists suggest it may be some form of protection against predators.
The black dot on the inside surface of a monarch’s wing distinguishes the male monarch butterfly from the female, which has no spot.
Ripening bananas glow blue under black lights.
Polar bears have black skin. And actually, their fur isn’t white—it’s see-through, so it appears white as it reflects light.
The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt. After he refused to shoot a captured black bear on a hunt, a stuffed animal maker decided to create a bear and named it after the president.
There is an opposite of albino animals, which aren’t white, but black. These are known as Melanistic animals.
Graffiti writers have what’s called a “black book,” which is a sketchbook where they draw and plan out prospective graffiti artwork. Writers use their black books to fine-tune their style and retain any ideas they may have for potential future use as a graffiti piece.
A black book, or piecebook, is a graffiti artist’s sketchbook. It’s often closely guarded from authorities because it could be used as evidence in vandalism cases.
Race at war. In World War One, France’s black soldiers suffered a death rate 3x higher than their white comrades, because they were so often given suicidal tasks.
Not so golden age. In her later years, Queen Elizabeth I‘s teeth were black from too much sugar.
What is a quarantine? The word “quarantine” comes from quarantena, meaning “forty days” in 14th century Venetian. The Venetians imposed a 40-day isolation of ships and people arriving in their lagoon during the Black Death.
Einstein’s theory also states that gravity can warp time. If you’ve seen the 2014 movie Interstellar, this concept may seem familiar. The closer you are to a massive body—which, in the case of Interstellar, is a giant black hole—the slower time will pass for you.
27 per cent of COVID-19 cyberattacks target banks or healthcare organisations and COVID-19 was credited for a 238 per cent rise in cyberattacks on banks in 2020. (Carbon Black)
A handful of world-renowned scientists were born in England: Another intriguing fact about England is that it’s been the birthplace of several iconic scientists! Sir Isaac Newton, a household name, was born in Lincolnshire in 1643 and went on to write the laws of motion, gravity and the theory of colour. More recently, Stephen Hawking was born in 1942 in Cambridgeshire. The professor is best known for his theory of exploding black holes which has revolutionised the field of astronomy. These English scientists’ findings are still very relevant for science to this day, with their works being used frequently in education and the industry.
The top 5 dishes in England are… Whilst Chicken Tikka Masala may be the national dish, England’s top five most popular dishes include: 1. Full English Breakfast – The ultimate, fried classic that is bursting with a mixture of flavours. Including those from tomatoes, eggs, sausages and bacon. 2. Black Pudding – A blood sausage that consists of a mixture of pork or beef blood, cereal and fat. The English county of Lancashire is often associated with savoury pudding. 3. Devilled Kidneys – This dish has ties to the Victorian period, originating from gentlemen’s clubs in London. It comprises lamb kidneys simmered in a spiced sauce. 4. Eggy Bread – Inspired by French toast and believed to date back to the medieval period, eggy bread comes as it’s described! You can enjoy this as a sweet or savoury dish for breakfast/brunch. 5. Kedgeree – This meal is the English take on an Indian dish, khichdi. It is packed with different flavours, including spiced rice, eggs and fish.
Stamps originated in the United Kingdom: Sending letters was expensive before postage stamps were introduced. In May 1840, the first stamp was issued in the UK, it was called ‘the Penny Black’, and featured Queen Victoria. The advent of the postage stamp made it cheaper to send letters and caused an increase in sending postcards, letters and Christmas cards.
The first Black president of the United States was Barack Obama.
The United Kingdom First Invented Stamps: Before the introduction of postage stamps, mail delivery was expensive. The first stamp ever released in the United Kingdom was called “the Penny Black”, and it showed Queen Victoria. It was released in May 1840. With the invention of the postage stamp, sending letters, postcards, and Christmas cards became more affordable.
There’s a Reason US Dollars Are Green: Dollar bills weren’t always green. Colonial money, for example, was tan with black or red ink. It wasn’t until the Civil War the government started using green ink to print paper money that it got the name greenbacks. The colour was selected because the ink didn’t fade or easily decompose, which protected against counterfeiting.