In Colorado, USA, there is still an active volcano. It last erupted about the same time as the pyramids were being built in Egypt.
100 Mind-Blowing Still Facts
The lead singer of The Offspring started attending school to achieve a doctorate in molecular biology while still in the band. He graduated in May 2017.
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.
Until 2007, slavery was legal in Mauritania. Even still, 1-4% of the population is still living as slaves.
The longest unbroken alliance in world history is between England and Portugal. It has lasted since 1386 and still stands today.
The first X-rated animated movie was Fritz the Cat. It is still the most successful independent animated feature to date.
There was a snail glued to a specimen card in the British Museum mid-1800s. It spent four years glued there before scientists realized it was still alive.
Tupac was the first U.S. artist to have an album reach Billboard #1 while still in prison. It was his third studio album, titled “Me Against the World“.
Long ago, people chewed on tree bark as a method of pain relief. Willow bark has a high amount of salicylic acid, an ingredient still used in aspirin today.
Vernor’s Ginger Ale is the oldest soda still being sold. It was created by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor in 1866.
If you were to have your picture taken by the very first camera, you’d need to sit still for 8 hours.
When tea started being sold in bags, originally, it was intended to be removed from the bags by customers, but they found it easier to brew the tea still in the bag.
Jada Smith formed a metal band called Wicked Wisdom in 2002, which is still active today.
The same brain cycles that occur when asleep, still happen when you’re awake, but in smaller sections. Meaning that parts of your brain are always “falling asleep.”
If a snake has its head chopped off – that chopped-off head can still bite and unleash a huge amount of venom.
As of May 2015, 2.3 Million Americans still subscribed to AOL Dial-Up Internet.
Most maps of the world are wrong. On most maps, the Mercator projection – first developed in 1569 – is still used. This method is wildly inaccurate and makes Alaska appear as large as Brazil and Greenland 14 times larger than it is. For a map to be completely accurate, it would need to be life-size and round, not flat.
Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. On average, Mercury is 1.04 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth compared to the 1.14 AU average distance between Earth and Venus. One AU is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Venus still comes closest to Earth as part of its orbit around the Sun, however.
Bats aren’t blind. Despite the famous idiom, bats can indeed see, but they still use their even more famous echolocation to find prey.
The first college chartered in the United States was done so in 1782, with 50 guineas (a type of coin) donated by George Washington toward its founding. Washington College is still open today.
The first oranges weren’t orange. The original oranges from Southeast Asia were a tangerine-pomelo hybrid, and they were green. Oranges in warmer regions, such as Vietnam and Thailand, still stay green through maturity. Speaking of which, ever wonder which “orange” came first: the colour or the fruit? We found out!
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.
Ice pops were invented by an 11-year-old by accident. In 1905, an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson left soda powder and water outside overnight with its wooden stirrer still in the cup. The mixture had frozen in the chilly nighttime weather, and so the Epsicle was born. He sold the treat around his neighbourhood and a nearby amusement park and even patented the recipe. Years later, he changed the name to Popsicle because that’s what his kids called their pop’s concoction.
Netflix spent $0 on marketing its DVD rental business, but over 6 million people still used it. Remember how compact disks feel in your hand? The frustration of wiping it clean when it starts to skip? Nowadays, it’s all Netflix and chill. However, one of the coolest fun facts about Netflix is how it owned the marketing game in 2014. Despite spending nothing on marketing, sales for DVD rentals soared at an all-time high that year.
A man once won a horse race after he died. This one will have you saying, “What the fact?!” but this dark fun fact takes “winning spirit” to another level. Frank Hayes was a jockey who suffered a fatal heart attack mid-race. However, his horse still led and finished the race in first place. As such, Hayes was the first and only jockey to win a race posthumously in 1923.
When the first Star Wars movie came out, France was still executing people with the guillotine. The first Star Wars movie, Episode IV, came out in 1977. France used the guillotine for capital punishment until it was abolished in 1981.
A blue whale’s heartbeat can be heard from two miles away. Contrary to popular belief, a blue whale’s heart isn’t as big as a Volkswagen beetle. However, it is still huge at 5 ft in length, 4 ft in width, and standing at 5 ft tall. This massive organ weighs about 181 kg.
Marie Curie’s belongings still have radioactive residue in the present day. Marie Curie’s contributions to science had her named by many as the mother of modern physics. One of the works she was most known for was her study of radioactive materials and the discovery of elements such as polonium and radium. However, her research took a toll on her health. Radioactive exposure not only led to her death due to aplastic anaemia – but her clothes, furniture, and books remain radioactive to this day. Now, over a century later, her notebooks have to be stored in a lead box, as they will still be radioactive for another 1,500 years.
Arnold Schwarzenegger once forgot to take off the Terminator look. During a break in filming Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger went to a restaurant in downtown L.A. to get lunch. However, he realized too late that he was still in Terminator makeup – missing eye, exposed jawbone, burned flesh, and all.
The Kingsman underwater scene was not scripted. One of the most gruelling scenes in Kingsman is the underwater escape scene. The actors delivered a scene that even had you panicking. However, it’s closer to life than you think. The flooding was a technical mishap that derailed the rehearsed flow of the scene. Director Matthew Vaughn recalls it as a horrible first day of filming. The cut was still used in the film.
Starbucks flopped in Australia. Starbucks may be a staple in many countries, but Aussies couldn’t care less. Since opening dozens of locations in Australia in 2000, 70% have already closed down, leaving only 23 cafes still operating in the country. This is only one of the many fun facts about Australia.
Avocados never ripen on the tree. Farmers can use the trees as storage units. As long as avocados are still attached to their parent tree, they can stay fresh for up to seven months.
Human fingers are really sensitive. The nerve endings on fingers are so sensitive that if your fingers were the size of Earth, you could still feel the difference between a house and a car.
Bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper. Bubble wrap was born in 1957 when engineer Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes tried creating a textured wallpaper. However, their product was rejected. They also tried marketing it as a greenhouse insulator, but the material still fell short. However, when IBM released a new computer, Fielding and Chavannes pitched their concept as a protective covering for computer shipments. From then on, bubble wrap was adopted as the go-to protective wrap. The third time’s the charm, I guess.
Sign language has tongue twisters. They are called finger fumblers. Many who have practised sign language over the years still fumble over certain sequences in ASL.
Indians read the most in the world. On average, they spend 10 hours more of their time during the week just reading. In the age of digital media, this country still prefers an old-fashioned book rather than their phones.
You can burn calories just by standing. The average 150-pound person can burn 114 calories an hour just by standing still. Did this motivate you a little?
England and Portugal still maintain their alliance until today. This is also known as the longest unbroken alliance in world history. This treaty began in 1386 between the two countries and they remain strong allies today.
The Goodyear blimp is the official bird of Redondo Beach. While it may not be a bird per se, the coastal city still named it as such. Redondo Beach is situated near the Goodyear Blimp’s home airport in California.
A human being can live with only one kidney. A person may have one kidney removed to treat an injury or disease. Even with one kidney, they may still be able to lead normal and healthy lifestyles.
The longest musical performance in history still occurs today. This is taking place right now at the church of St. Burchardi in Germany. The performance of John Cage’s Organ ‘as slow as possible’ isn’t scheduled to be finished until the year 2640.
Australia is the only continent without an active volcano. The nearest active volcanoes are located off the continent of Australia but are still within its territory. One is located on Head Island and the other on McDonald Islands. The reason why Australia does not have any active volcanoes located on the continent is that it isn’t on a plate boundary.
You share your birthday with 19 million people. On average, a person will share a birthday with 19 million other people from a population of over 7 billion. If you were born on the least common day of the year, you would still share the same birthday as 18 million people.
The oldest English word is ‘town’. This is one of the oldest words in the English language that is still in use. The first dictionary took note of this in 1755.
Water expands when frozen. When freezing water, the molecules lose their energy and hold still. This causes more stable hydrogen bonds that form between the water molecules. These additional molecules are what cause the water to expand when frozen.
The thigh bones of humans are stronger than concrete. The thigh bones support the weight of the entire body and are approximately eight times stronger than concrete. However, they are still prone to break when serious injury is inflicted on the bone.
Wine spoils when exposed to light. This is why wine bottles are often tinted to protect the quality of the wine. Ideally, despite the dark-tinted bottles, they should still be stored in a cool and dark place like a cellar.
Disneyland serves 2.8 million churros a year. The churro was introduced to South America in the 1500s during the Spanish Inquisition. Around the same time, the Spanish brought cocoa to Europe, which they thickened with cane sugar to make hot chocolate. That probably explains why churros and hot chocolate are still a go-to pairing to this day.
Flowers grow faster with music. We’ve all encountered the age-old question of, “Do plants have feelings?” Fellows with a green thumb would argue yes, but it’s still being studied in science. However, plants have been shown to respond to certain stimuli in the most interesting ways. For example, playing a lullaby to plants makes them grow faster. However, they tend to wilt or die with heavier music. Plants may or may not have feelings, but they sure are gentle souls.
The feeling of falling when half asleep is called a ‘hypnic jerk.’ It sounds like an insult, but I’m sure we’ve all experienced being startled awake because of the feeling of falling. Scientifically, there is still no explanation for why we get hypnic jerks. However, anxiety, caffeine and physical activity close to bedtime make a hypnic jerk more likely. They are also more frequent in younger people.
The blue meth in Breaking Bad is rock candy. Yup, they’ve been snorting rocks this whole time, but a confectionery kind: Crystal Sky is cotton candy-flavoured rock candy. It may have been fake drugs, but the cast and crew were still getting a different kind of high from it – they’d eat the sugary mixture to keep them up during shoots.
Dogs like squeaking toys because they sound like their prey. Dogs are known to have a fixation on squeaky toys. Although dogs have been domesticated by man, they still retain some of their animal instincts – which is why squeaky toys stimulate them. Squeaky toys almost sound like small prey screaming for their life. Now that’s one of the WTF facts you could’ve lived without ever knowing.
Mammoths were still alive when the Egyptians were building the Great Pyramids. Woolly mammoths were alive until 2550 to 2490 B.C.
There is only one Blockbuster store left in the world. Video rental services may be a thing of the past, but there’s still one Blockbuster store left standing. This Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon is now considered an American tourist site.
The Katzenklavier was a piano made out of cats. No, it wasn’t made out of their skin or bones, but it’s still one of the most disturbing WTF facts: Designed in the 17th century by Athanasius Kircher, it was a piano that had a row of caged cats with different pitches. This cat piano would then be played with the traditional keyboard that drove nails into their tails instead of into strings.
LEGO has an underground vault with all the LEGO sets ever made. Yup, you read that right. One of the fun but still WTF facts: LEGO has an underground bunker that holds all the LEGO sets made since the company started in the mid-90s. The Memory Lane vault contains 4,720 sets.
A 17-year-old once struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. At 17 years old, Jackie Mitchell pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game and struck out baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. One of the more inspiring but still WTF facts.
Dentures used to be made of dead people’s teeth. In other dark WTF facts: the things we associate with old people used to be made of dead people or animal teeth. Can you still smile after this?
Beethoven could still hear after going deaf. If you’re wondering how Beethoven still managed to be a great composer even when he was deaf, it was because of this method: He bit onto a metal pole connected to his piano. He then felt or heard his music through the vibration in his bones.
America accidentally dropped an atomic bomb on South Carolina in 1958. Talk about clumsy. Here’s one of the scary WTF facts: In 1958, a B-47 plane was headed to the United Kingdom with an atomic bomb even bigger than the Nagasaki bomb. During the flight, one of the pilots accidentally released the emergency pin. However, the critical part of the bomb needed to activate it was still on the plane. If it were already equipped with the bomb, it would have obliterated the entire state and even more.
Dead women can still give birth. In a phenomenon called “Coffin Birth,” a pregnant woman may deliver a child spontaneously after her death. Post-mortem birth occurs due to the gases that build up in the abdominal area forcing the baby out of the womb.
Vampire bats drink half their body weight in blood. For each meal, bats consume an ounce of blood. By the end of the 20-30-minute process, a bat will have consumed almost its entire weight in blood. However, bats can still fly after a meal because their stomach lining absorbs the liquid as quickly as possible.
Chalk is edible. Chalk is not toxic, but digesting large amounts is still not advisable. Eating your classroom chalk is also not advised. Check out these edible chalk brands instead.
Bangkok has the world record for the longest name. Bangkok’s full name is “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.” Why it was eventually called Bangkok is still unconfirmed, but some theories point to the Thai word for “island village” or that it is named after a certain plant.
Play-Doh was invented as a wallpaper cleaner. Play-Doh was initially invented to remove soot and dirt from wallpaper. Antique restorers still use it for refurbishing antique pieces. However, Play-Doh was officially recognised as a toy in 1954.
Rice is the oldest food we still eat today. In 2003, scientists recovered 15,000-year-old burnt rice grains in Korea. This makes rice the oldest known food that we eat till the present.
Pencils are yellow because of Chinese royalty. In the 1800s, the best graphite in the world came from China. The Americans wanted to pay tribute to the Chinese for the graphite used in their pencils. Yellow means royalty and respect in China, which is why the Americans manufactured their pencils in yellow. To this day, the default colour for pencils is still yellow.
It was said that Einstein couldn’t speak fluently until he was 9 years old. The validity of this claim is contested, but the medical term for late talkers is still called the Einstein Syndrome. It was coined by social theorist Thomas Sowell to describe children who developed speech later than normal.
When you die your hair still grows for a couple of months.
Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are thousands of years old and still perfectly edible.
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.
You can still see traces of Neil Armstrong’s footprints on the moon.
The Milky Way smells of rum, raspberries and booze. In 2009, astronomers exploring a giant cloud of gas and dust at the centre of the Milky Way made a surprise discovery – the cloud was packed full of a chemical known as ethyl formate, which has a couple of intriguing properties: it is responsible for giving raspberries their flavour, and has the smell of rum. Another nearby region is also notable as it’s full of ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, the type we use to make alcoholic beverages. It contains enough alcohol to supply every person on the planet with 300,000 pints of beer per day for the next billion years! If bottled at the source, the proof for this beer would be very low, with an alcohol content of less than 1%, but as the cloud also contains plenty of other nasty chemicals, among them carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, it would still leave you with quite a headache the next morning.
The heat from the Big Bang is still around today. The early Universe consisted of a hot soup of ionised gas: a sort of opaque plasma. About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, this gas cooled sufficiently enough that atoms were able to form. Radiation left over from the Big Bang is still around us today and is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It can’t be seen with the naked eye, but various missions over the years have been able to study it in microwave light, including ESA’s Planck satellite and the WMAP mission.
Manatees live in the water but they need air to survive. They surface every few minutes when active and can stay under for as long as 20 minutes if still.
Narwhals are still hunted today for their tusks, and in addition, face other environmental threats like pollution. You can help by adopting a narwhal (bonus: you get a plush narwhal as a keepsake!).
Earth has a squishy interior. Earth’s interior is not solid but rather has a semi-solid or ‘squishy’ consistency owing to high temperatures and pressures. This squishy consistency allows the mantle to flow and move over geological timescales, which is responsible for phenomena such as plate tectonics, volcanic activity and Earthquakes. One consequence of this squishy interior is a process known as post-glacial rebound. During the last ice age, large portions of Earth’s surface were covered by glaciers, causing the underlying mantle to deform and sink. As the glaciers melted and receded, the mantle slowly rebounded back to its original position over thousands of years, causing the land above it to rise. This process is still occurring today in places such as Canada, Scandinavia, and Greenland, where the land is still rebounding from the weight of the glaciers that once covered the region. Recent research has found that West Antarctica is rising faster than anywhere else in the world, thanks to data from ESA’s GOCE gravity mission. The study of post-glacial rebound provides important insights into the structure and behaviour of Earth’s interior, and how it responds to changes in the surface environment over long timescales.
The Moon is drifting away from Earth. You read that correctly! The Moon is gradually drifting away from Earth at a rate of approximately 4 cm per year. This phenomenon is caused by the Moon pulling on Earth’s oceans creating tidal forces that produce a bulge of water on the side of Earth facing the Moon. This bulge in turn creates a gravitational pull on the Moon, causing it to accelerate slightly and move further away from Earth. Over time, this process has caused the Moon to move farther away from Earth each year. This gradual drift is not noticeable on a day-to-day basis, but over millions of years, it can have significant effects on Earth’s rotation. Today, most scientists believe the Moon is ‘Earth’s child’ – a large body collided with Earth, destroying our planet’s mantle and sending material into orbit from which the Moon formed. This ‘big splash’ theory would explain why the Moon’s rocks are similar to those on Earth. Bonus fun fact: Australia is wider than the Moon. The Moon sits at 3400 km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000 km. The Moon, as a sphere, has more surface area, but it’s still pretty impressive.
During Prohibition, the United States government became so frustrated citizens still consumed alcohol, that leaders took drastic measures. Bootleggers often stole industrial alcohol, so the government poisoned these alcohols. By the end of Prohibition, scientists estimate nearly 10,000 people died from this tactic.
Friends is a well-loved show that airs on many channels and is still branded on merchandise today. The cast still receives a percent of everything the show makes resulting in each of the main six cast members getting a check for around $20 million each year.
WE STILL DON’T KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT OUR FORESTS. We don’t know how many tree species there are on Earth, but scientists estimate there are about 63,000 known species. There could be as many as 9,000 tree species still unknown to science.
There are no male or female Earthworms. All Earthworms have both male and female parts – but it still takes two of them to reproduce.
Madame Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive. Researchers wishing to study them must sign a waiver to do so.
Fish eggs can survive being eaten by a duck. The fish eggs can still hatch after going in one end and coming out the other. Not all fish species can survive such a journey, and even then, not all eggs eaten are pooped out in a pristine condition. Still, it’s a good explanation for how seemingly disconnected pools and lakes can suddenly become teeming with fish!
Velociraptors were feathered dinosaurs. If you know about velociraptors from Jurassic Park, then this may come as quite a surprise. While scientists have been able to figure out that these vicious hunters used to have feathers, the question of how feathered they were is still unanswered. It’s possible that they just had tufts of feathers on their arms, head, or possibly all over!
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.
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.
Research has found that people who swear tend to be more honest. While society rejects those who utilise profanity on a general level, many people still swear worse than sailors if given the opportunity. A researcher from Stanford University was inquisitive about the connection between swearing and expressing one’s true feelings. Eventually, he concluded that there was a direct link between those who swear to their heart’s content and those who are generally more honest.
The 1927 Liberian general election was the most rigged in world history. People are quick to claim an election was rigged when their ideal candidate isn’t chosen, but the people of Liberia had something to complain about back in 1927 genuinely. While there were only 15,000 registered voters, Charles King of the True Whig Party somehow managed to rake in 243,000 votes! Despite the results being falsified, the True Whig Party still won the election.
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!
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.
In 1969, the “Moon Museum” became the first piece of artwork to go to the moon and may still be there today.
One of President John Tyler’s grandsons is still alive today—and he was born in 1790. How is this possible? President Tyler, the 10th US president, was 63 when his son Lyon Tyler was born in 1853; Lyon’s son was born when he was 75. President Tyler’s living grandson, Harrison Tyler is 94. Lyon’s other son Lyon Jr. passed away in 2020 at the age of 95. The Tyler family still maintains the President’s home, Sherwood Forest Plantation in Virginia.
This is one true animal myth: Eating parts of a pufferfish can kill you because, in a defence mechanism to ward off predators, it contains a deadly chemical called tetrodotoxin. There’s enough in one pufferfish to kill 30 people—and there’s no antidote. Still, pufferfish, called fugu, is a highly-prized delicacy in Japan, but can only be prepared by well-trained chefs.
You can still stay at the world’s oldest hotel, Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, which was founded in 705 AD.
The first product scanned was a packet of chewing gum in 1974. Norman Joseph Woodland invented the barcode and received a patent in October 1952. It wasn’t until 22 years later when he was employed by IBM, that the barcode was developed to be used for product labeling. Known as the Universal Product Code (UPC), a system that is still used today.
Nintendo didn’t start as a video games company. Founded in 1889, Nintendo was around long before computers! So what did they sell? From 1889-1956, Nintendo was a playing card company. They still manufacture playing cards in Japan and even have a bridge tournament called the “Nintendo Cup.”
People are still using dial-up. As of 2017, 2.1 million people still use AOL’s dial-up service. Mainly, these customers live in rural America, where it can be expensive and unreliable to get high-speed Internet. Meanwhile, dial-up is only $20 per month.
Yahoo’s original name was a mouthful. The original URL for Yahoo was akebono.standford.edu. The name Yahoo was selected because it was derived from Gulliver’s Travels slang, “Yahoo,” which was a fictional race of beings in the book. Bonus Fact: Amazon wasn’t always Amazon, either! Originally named “Cadabra.com,” Cadabra was an online bookstore only. CEO Jeff Bezos explored other options in the ’90s, some of which still redirect to Amazon, like Relentless.com. Amazon was registered in 1994 and has grown into the monolith that it is today.
The first webpage is still running. In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee was working on developing the World Wide Web. There are no graphics and no background, just plain text and links on how to use the Internet!