Shaq only made one three-pointer in his whole career. Shaquille O’Neal may be one of the most iconic NBA players in the game, but you’d be surprised that he only made one three-point shot in his entire career.
100 Mind-Blowing His Facts
The most blueberries eaten in a minute are 86 blueberries. On January 16, 2018, Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya of India crammed 86 blueberries in his mouth in one minute. That’s not where the WTF facts end: this was his 4th time breaking the record!
The biggest tooth ever recovered from a human is 1.4” long. The Guinness World Record for the biggest human tooth goes to Indian cricketer, Urvil Patel. He had his large canine extracted and came home from the procedure to find that his 3.67cm long tooth was a record breaker. His tooth was nearly double the size of an average human tooth.
The most teeth extracted from a person is 526. A 7-year-old boy in Chennai, India had 526 teeth removed from his mouth after complaining of severe jaw pain and swelling. When doctors examined his mouth, they found a sac in his lower jaw filled with abnormal teeth, which they had to surgically remove. The entire procedure took 4-5 hours, and it took 3 days for the boy to be discharged from the hospital.
A headless chicken survived for 18 months. Mike The Headless Chicken, also known as Miracle Mike survived for 18 months without his head. According to scientists, his brain stem and jugular remained intact, and a clot prevented him from bleeding to death. His owner would feed him through a dropper and his trachea. Eventually, though, he choked to death.
Neil Armstrong’s astronaut application arrived past the deadline. One of his friends just slipped the tardy form in with the others.
The first-ever winner of Survivor got jail time for tax evasion. Richard Hatch won US$1 million after the first-ever season of Survivor. However, he failed to declare his winnings on his taxes. As such, he served four years in prison.
Corn Flakes were invented to prevent masturbation. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg believed that sex was a sin (he didn’t even sleep with his wife). He invented cornflakes because he believed that foods such as meat increased sexual desire, while cereal and nuts fought against it.
The U.S. flag was designed by a 17-year-old for school. In junior high school, Bob Heft designed the U.S. flag. He made a 50-star flag for the class project. However, the U.S. only had 48 states at the time, so Heft got a B minus for his work. However, his prediction that two more states would be added ended up being true. Heft wrote 21 letters and called the White House 18 times. Eventually, President Eisenhower called to tell him his design would be used. The design for the current U.S. flag was made official on July 4, 1960.
Abraham Lincoln’s dog was also killed. Another one for unfortunate WTF facts: President Abraham Lincoln’s dog suffered the same fate as his owner. For 14 years, Abraham Lincoln had a yellow mongrel named Fido. A year after the president was assassinated, Fido was stabbed by a drunkard and later found dead.
The universe is officially coloured “Cosmic Latte.” In 2002, scientists determined that all light in the universe has the average shade of beige colour coined the “Cosmic Latte.” The astronomer Peter Drum came up with the name while he read an article about the experiment in a Starbucks and realized that the colour was similar to his latte.
The longest ear hair in the world may be longer than your actual hair. At 25 cm, the world record for the longest ear hair in the world belongs to Radhakant Bajpai of India. His wife highly disapproves of the hair, but he believes it brings him good luck and refuses to get rid of it.
The most Big Macs ever eaten by a person is 26,000 burgers. The most Big Macs eaten in one lifetime is a whopping 26,000 Big Macs eaten by Donald A. Gorske of the U.S. He hit his big milestone on October 11, 2012, after eating Big Macs daily for 40 years.
The stretchiest skin in the world can stretch over 6 inches. Garry Turner of the U.K. can stretch the skin on his stomach up to 6.25” due to a rare medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The collagen in his skin and muscles becomes defective and loosens his skin and joints.
The longest distance covered while lifting a table with teeth is 38 feet. Georges Christen of Luxembourg ran 38 feet and 8 inches while carrying an 11.79 kg table (with a 50 kg woman sitting on it) using in his mouth in Spain, on February 9, 2008.
The longest metal coil inserted through the nose and mouth is 11 feet long. In March 2012, Andrew Stanton of the U.S. inserted an 11 ft 10 in. coil of metal into his mouth and out of his mouth.
The oldest stripper started at 60 years old. Age is just a number, and Bernie Barker proved it to a tee. The former real estate agent) got into stripping in 2000 when he was 60. To him, stripping was a way to get in shape after beating prostate cancer. Throughout his career, he won over 40 contests. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 66 in 2007.
Reindeer love grass. If you want to meet Santa on Christmas Day, you might want to consider keeping your lawn fresh instead of leaving cookies. Rudolph and his kind love greens such as willows, birches, and sedges. However, they would occasionally eat their old antlers for calcium.
Edgar Allan Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin. Edgar Allan Poe was 27 when he got married to his 13-year-old cousin. Now that’s one of the useless facts that are a lot to unpack.
J.D. Salinger drank his urine. Most known for his classic novel, Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger had a reputation for being strange. However, you wouldn’t think it was this bad: According to his daughter, Margaret Salinger, her father would drink his urine and speak in tongues.
The Super Soaker was designed and invented by a NASA engineer. Lonnie Johnson used the royalties from his 1989 invention to fund research on solar power.
Pepsi is named after indigestion. When Caleb Bradham created Pepsi in 1965, he named it after the word “dyspepsia,” or indigestion. Bradham believed that his fizzy drink would help cure indigestion, hence the name, Pepsi.
Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have a belly button. He wasn’t born without a belly button, but Alfred Hitchcock lost his belly button due to multiple gastrointestinal surgeries.
The S in Harry S. Truman does have a meaning. Harry S. Truman may have said that the “S” doesn’t mean anything, but, likely, he was just trolling the media. The “S” stands for two names: his grandfathers Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.
The remote control was invented earlier than the television. 30 years before the first digital television, Nikola Tesla invented a “teleautomaton” that could control certain devices at a distance through radio waves. His first remote-controlled device was a remote-controlled boat in 1898. Since then, people adapted the wired remote for television. However, due to injuries, they developed it further to be a wireless remote.
His parents were German-American, and he was raised in a strict Lutheran household.
He lost his job at a bank in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1971 due to downsizing.
Despite his qualifications, he struggled to find stable employment afterwards.
List secretly withdrew money from his mother’s bank account to cover expenses.
On November 9, 1971, John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children in their home in Westfield, New Jersey.
List wrote a five-page confession letter to his pastor, explaining his actions.
He believed killing his family would save their souls from the perceived evils of the world.
List drove to Kennedy International Airport, abandoned his car, and took a train to Denver, Colorado.
List settled in Denver, where he found work as an accountant under his new identity.
A former neighbour recognised List and contacted authorities, leading to his arrest.
He initially denied his true identity but eventually confessed to being John List.
During his trial, List claimed he was suffering from severe depression at the time of the murders.
List expressed remorse for his actions during interviews but maintained that he believed he was saving his family.
He spent his time in prison reading, writing, and participating in religious activities.
His case is often studied in criminal psychology courses to understand the mindset of family annihilators.
The director, Rob Reiner, has a cameo appearance in the film. Rob Reiner, known for his roles in both directing and acting, makes a brief appearance in The Bucket List.
Ralph Fiennes played the role of Amon Goeth. Fiennes portrayed the cruel SS officer who oversaw the operation of the Plaszow concentration camp. His exceptional performance was widely praised.
The movie sparked interest in the life of Oskar Schindler. After the release of the film, there was a surge in research and publications about the real-life Schindler, furthering awareness of his heroic actions.
Spielberg received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on the film. In 1998, he was honoured with the highest civilian award in the United States for his contributions to cinema and for raising awareness of the Holocaust through “Schindler’s List.
The movie’s success led to the establishment of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Spielberg used a portion of his proceeds from “Schindler’s List” to establish this foundation, dedicated to recording and preserving the testimonies of survivors and witnesses.
The movie’s success propelled Spielberg’s career. Following “Schindler’s List,” Spielberg went on to direct several more critically acclaimed films, further solidifying his status as one of the industry’s most influential directors.
In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack mid-race. His horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death.
IKEA is an acronym that stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd: the founder’s name, the farm where he grew up, and his hometown.
Helen Keller is related to Robert E. Lee—her paternal grandfather was his second cousin.
New York City mob boss Vincent Gigante used to avoid arrest by wandering around in his bathrobe to convince the police he was insane.
Mario, of Super Mario Bros. fame, appeared in the 1981 arcade game, Donkey Kong. His original name was Jumpman but was changed to Mario to honour the Nintendo of America’s landlord, Mario Segali.
The earliest recorded case of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679, when Johan Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary “I quit smoking tobacco.” He died one month later.
King Charles was born at 9:14 pm on November 14th – we wonder if 14 is his lucky number?
Brazilian legend Pele claims he scored over 1,200 goals in his career, though not all were officially recorded.
Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. A Swedish politician nominated him in 1939 as a joke and subsequently withdrew his nomination.
Someone held their breath underwater for almost 25 minutes. On March 27, 2021, Budimir Šobat of Croatia held his breath for a total of 24 minutes 37.36 seconds.
Deaf people use sign language in their sleep. During a 2017 case study, a 71-year-old man with severe hearing impairment and “rapid eye movement disorder” was observed using fluent sign language in his sleep.
The inventor of the Frisbee became one after he died. After Walter Morrison died and was cremated in 2010, his family turned him into the very toy he invented in 1955. It was known as the Pluto Platter before Wham-O renamed it the Frisbee.
Once a chicken lived without its head for 18 months. Perhaps you’ve already heard of Mike the Chicken. Well if you haven’t, you’ll be surprised to find out that in the 1940s, Mike survived because his jugular vein and brainstem were still functioning. But don’t expect this for every chicken. It’s a weird animal fact, but a rare one.
The current American flag was designed by a high school student named Bob Heft in 1958. He originally got a B- on the project. After President Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to use his design for the new flag, Bob’s teacher changed his grade to an A.
The Wright Brothers only flew together once (though both piloted the planes individually): on May 25, 1910, they took a six-minute flight piloted by Orville with Wilbur as his passenger.
Pablo Picasso entered art school around the age of 10. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain includes many “early works” from his childhood.
Babe Ruth began his career as a pitcher: Ruth was both a left-handed pitcher and a left-handed batter.
Lincoln had a bodyguard on duty on the night of his assassination. John Frederick Parker had already arrived late for his shift. Then, he decided to take a break and get a drink at a nearby saloon during the show. During his absence, John Wilkes Booth entered Lincoln’s box and shot the President.
Most people are aware that Beethoven was deaf. However, the musician figured out a way to hear even after losing the ability to hear sounds. If Beethoven bit into a metal pole that he connected to his piano, then he could hear through a process called bone conduction.
One Japanese man, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was in Hiroshima for a business trip on August 6, 1945. This just happens to be the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He somehow survived with burn injuries and went back home to Nagasaki. Then, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb hit that city. Yamaguchi and his family survived this attack, as well.
Bart Simpson’s name is an anagram of BRAT. His full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson.
A female chicken will mate with many different males. If she decides later that she doesn’t want a particular rooster’s offspring, she can eject his sperm. This happens most often when the male is lower in the pecking order.
The last man to walk on the moon, Gene Cernan, promised his daughter he’d write her initials on the moon. He did, and her initials, “TDC,” will probably be on the moon for tens of thousands of years.
Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” to win a bet against his publisher who thought that he could not complete a book with only 50 words.
In 1926, Arctic explorer Peter Freuchen was trapped under an avalanche while on an expedition. He escaped from death by fashioning a shiv out of his faeces and amputating his foot.
Elvis Presley got a ‘C’ in his 8th grade music class.
The doctor who claimed there was a link between autism and vaccines created fraudulent data for his study and lost his medical license.
Louis Armstrong played the trumpet so much that he got callouses on his lips. He cut them off with a razor blade.
Genghis Khan strategically married off his daughters to expand his empire. Genghis Khan only gained his title by the time he reached his forties, at which point he had more than ten children. Khan married his daughters to allied kings, who he would send out to war. His new sons-in-law rarely returned alive, and his daughters took control of their new kingdoms for Khan.
Stephen Hawking was rumoured to run over the toes of people he didn’t like. The world-renowned physicist used a wheelchair from the age of 22 due to a severe form of motor neuron disease. This didn’t stop this from having a bit of fun, crushing the toes of many who drew his ire – including the UK’s Prince Charles himself! When confronted about this tendency, Hawking passed it off as a “malicious rumour” before jokingly threatening to run over the toes of anyone who repeated it.
Samuel L. Jackson was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral. Jackson studied at Morehouse College, where Dr. King and other prominent civil rights activists would often visit and have debates. When King was assassinated, his funeral was held in Morehouse College, which is how Jackson was able to be one of the funeral ushers. After this experience, Jackson became much more heavily involved in the civil rights movement.
There’s a restaurant in New York that employs grandmas instead of chefs. The menu at Enoteca Maria is a little unconventional, as half of it is a fixed Italian menu while the other half changes daily. This is because a different grandmother comes in every day with not just a new menu but a completely new cuisine! The owner decided to run his restaurant like this as he had lost all maternal figures in his life and wanted to re-create the feeling of eating in his grandmother’s kitchen.
The Titanic wreckage was discovered during a top-secret mission to search for sunken nuclear submarines. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic wreckage, originally went to the US Navy to request funding to develop an advanced robotic submersible that would allow him to search for the wreckage. The navy liked his idea but decided to use it to search for two lost US nuclear submarines. The mission finished early, and Ballard was able to use the extra time to discover the lost ship.
Jim Carrey was the first actor to star in three consecutive box-office hits. Jim Carrey didn’t have much success in the acting world until he hit his thirties, but that changed in 1994. In the space of eleven months, Carrey starred in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, And Dumb and Dumber, which truly kicked his acting career into gear. The Mask, in particular, took the world by storm, grossing $350 million and showcasing Carrey’s ability to explore a range of roles and emotions.
The first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song was Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” It rapidly became one of Eminem’s most successful singles, staying at the top of the charts for 23 weeks running (that in itself won the song a Guinness World Record!). Eminem didn’t attend the Academy Awards as he thought he wouldn’t win, so instead spent the evening at home sleeping and watching cartoons with his daughter. One of his producers ended up accepting the award on Eminem’s behalf.
Tom Cruise got divorced from each of his three ex-wives when they reached the age of 33. Tom Cruise’s first wife was Mimi Rogers, he parted ways with her in 1989. Later he married Nicole Kidman, but they were not meant to be as they divorced in 2001. Cruise got married once again in 2006 to Katie Holmes but split with her just six years later in 2012. Fun Fact: Each of Tom Cruise’s ex-wives is successively eleven years younger than the last.
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.
Shrek originally had a thick Canadian accent. The titular character of the instant classic was voiced by Mike Myers, who spoke in an amped-up version of his Canadian accent. When Myers watched the first rough cut, he loved everything about it, except his voice! He thought that Shrek would be better off with a Scottish accent to counter the English-accented villain, Lord Farquaad – a change that ended up costing about $4 million!
George Clooney had a pet pig called Max. In the late 80s, George Clooney bought a Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig for his then-girlfriend, Kelly Preston, but he ended up keeping the pig after they split up. Max, the pig, ended up living for another eighteen years, only passing away in 2006. Clooney often jokes that his relationship with Max was the longest he ever had.
In Japan, when a train leaves the station at the wrong time, the rail company apologizes. Back in 2018, a train in Japan left the station a full 25 seconds early, which probably sounds like nothing out of the ordinary to most people worldwide. The train operator admitted his mistake, exclaiming, “The great inconvenience we placed upon our customers was truly inexcusable.” Japanese trains are known for their punctuality, so there were a few passengers who missed their train that day!
Bill and Melinda Gates have given away more than $45 billion since 1994. Bill Gates alone has ranked among the world’s richest for decades now, amassing much of his vast fortune from Microsoft, which he co-founded. Bill and Melinda Gates founded the “Giving Pledge” in 2010 to encourage other wealthy people like themselves to donate much of their wealth either during their lifetimes or afterwards. Despite giving so much away, Bill Gates is still worth over $110 billion.
Psy didn’t want to upload Gangnam Style to YouTube because he didn’t want to be humiliated. The Korean pop superstar didn’t even really know much about YouTube when his friends recommended uploading his music video. Psy felt he would be humiliated with low views because he wasn’t very well known internationally. He couldn’t have been more wrong, though, as Gangnam Style became the first music video to reach 1 billion views on YouTube!
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs thought he didn’t have body odour. Steve Jobs, genius as he was, had some interesting beliefs. For example, he was vegetarian and flirted with being a vegan and a fruitarian at various points for much of his life. He believed that his vegan diet prevented any form of body odour – something that his co-workers were quick to disagree with!
Chris Pratt stole his costume from the set of Guardians of the Galaxy. Pratt pinched the costume in the hopes that the film would be successful. He didn’t steal it for any nefarious purposes but a delightfully noble one. The lovably goofy movie star simply hoped to cheer up sick kids in hospitals by wearing the iconic costume.
The Internet has its very own patron saint. St. Isidore of Seville may not seem at first to be the best patron saint of the Internet, considering he lived back in the 7th Century. While he certainly lived well before the Internet was invented, he shared many values with it. He tried to record all the knowledge he could get his hands on during his life, which isn’t that far from what the Internet is – a great big collection of knowledge!
J. R. R. Tolkien invented the languages of Middle Earth before he even thought of writing stories in the fictional universe. Tolkien was without a doubt a natural polyglot, learning more than 35 languages throughout his life. When he was a teenager, he invented his first language, which would inspire the 20 or so languages he ultimately created for Middle Earth. Once he began inventing the languages, he realized that he needed people to speak them, and it was only from this point that he thought to write The Lord of the Rings and his other works.
One of Fleetwood Mac’s founding guitarists disappeared just before a show and was found days later as a newly initiated cult member. Jeremy Spencer was with Fleetwood Mac from the very beginning, but during a tour to the US in the 70’s he became quite disillusioned with his career and life in general. He met members of Children of God, a religious cult in California, and decided to join them instead of continuing on the road to stardom. Jeremy Spencer is still affiliated with the cult, now known as Family International.
Michael Jackson once had an entire supermarket closed so he could shop “like a normal person.” Being famous from a very young age, Michael Jackson was never able to do many completely normal (and rather tediously boring) day-to-day activities. When he mentioned that it was his dream to go shopping and put things in a basket, one of his friends shut down his store for a day and filled it with Jackson’s friends and family posing as employees. The superstar donned a single latex glove and went about his business up and down the supermarket’s aisles, later likening it to a trip to Disneyland.
Charles Dickens’s novels were so popular in his day that poor people who couldn’t read would collectively pay someone to read his stories out loud. Charles Dickens was undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest novelists, at least in the Victorian era. While his works filled the shelves of aristocrats’ libraries worldwide, one of his greatest feats was his ability to reach out and inspire all classes of society. Masses of impoverished and illiterate fans would each pay a halfpenny (£0.25/$0.35 today) to have each of his monthly updates read out to them.
8th-grade students from a town in Alaska must spend two nights on an uninhabited island as part of their science exam. The tradition began forty-six years ago when a school teacher in Ketchikan, Alaska, made it his goal to educate the town’s youth on how to survive in the harsh climate of Alaska. He also just wanted kids to have more fun at school, as there wasn’t much fun going around back in his schooling days. Despite not being mandatory, most of the town’s grade eights eagerly make the trip each year.
Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone let his fans vote on what he should change his middle name to. The famous Home Alone child star has faded away a little into obscurity these days, but he’s still manageing to stay relevant. In November 2018, he asked the world to give him a new middle name, as his name was “something dumb.” Out of a wide range of ridiculous finalists, he ended up changing his middle to his full name and is now officially known as Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin!
The author of the James Bond novels wrote the first book to take his mind off the fear of getting married. Ian Fleming was a bachelor of 44 years when he wrote Casino Royale in 1952, the first in a long series about the devilishly handsome British spy. Many years later, Fleming wrote in his memoirs that he was so terrified at the concept of finally getting married that he wrote his first Bond novel. Some authors doubt this dismissal, claiming he simply wrote it as a quick cash job, but it makes a hell of a good story!
FDR’s portrait was on the dime because of his association with the March of Dimes charity.
One of the NBA’s top scorers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made only one 3-point shot his entire 20-year career.