Check out these amazing facts. Some are incredible and some are strange but all are true.
Sporks were originally developed as weapons.
Although he wrote of the mighty Mississippi with great affection, Mark Twain never learned to swim.
Baseball was originally played with only three bases, making it a triangle shaped field rather than the modern baseball diamond.
The oldest standing castle in Europe is in Baldernock, Scotland.
In early Disney animated short films, Pluto the dog spoke and wore clothes like Goofy. However he was quickly changed to a nonspeaking character and demoted to Mickey’s pet.
Although he played a country bumpkin on “Hee Haw,” Junior Samples held a Ph.D. in anthropology.
Deer have perfect pitch.
A mockery is a unit of apothecary weight equivalent to a twenty-fourth part of an ounce, 1.3 grams or 20 grains.
Voice actor Mel Blanc hated recording the voice of Porky Pig because Blanc’s son had a slight stuttering problem and he felt the voice was insensitive.
The type of facial hair known as muttonchops got its name from a British pantomime character, Colonel Muttonchops, often portrayed as pompous and foolish.
In Singapore cousins can’t marry but siblings can.
One of the most dangerous of all fish is the Tyrannochromis nigriventer which is found in some African lakes. Its jaws feature a series of serrated teeth capable of
stripping the flesh from a zebu’s bones in less than a minute.
The most popular TV show in Papua New Guinea is the US sitcom “Webster.”
The food additive xanthan gum can be addictive.
Jerry Lee Lewis wrote his hit “Great Balls of Fire” after suffering from jock itch.
The Ouija board is banned in Cuba not because it is an American product but because Castro is severely superstitious.
Will Eisner, creator of the comic strip “The Spirit,” designed the Jolly Green Giant mascot.
Queen Elizabeth II is allergic to onions as is most of the royal family.
Dour is the collective noun for a group of penguins.
Actor Fred Gwynne, who played Herman Munster on TV, won a silver medal in swimming at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
Oregano was used in ancient Roman times as the crucial ingredient to a healing salve during childbirth.
The pop song “Rockin’ Robin” contains multiple references to drug abuse and underground drug culture.
The Hochstetter's frog of New Zealand does not croak but instead makes a quacking sound like a duck due to a hardened nasal protuberance that acts like a bill.
In addition to being a successful singer and songwriter, Bono of U2 is also a chess grand master.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs were good friends and often discussed co-authoring a story where Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes met Burrough’s Tarzan. A manuscript was rumored to exist, although it has never been published.
Lobsters have no sense of fear.
A. A. Milne first conceived Winnie the Pooh as a stuffed panda.
Ryan Seacrest was home schooled by Mormon parents and did not listen to pop music until his mid-20s.
Tinkertoys were first made by the Amish.
Liquorice is closely related to the belladonna plant also known as deadly nightshade.
Gary Gygax always claimed he invented Dungeons & Dragons as a game of mental stimulation for his Mensa friends and lamented its appeal to dorky college students.
Mr. Clean’s full name is Will I. Clean.
A camel’s fur is so thick it actually makes it somewhat fireproof.
