Interesting Facts - Page 189

Early American settlers used corn cobs instead of toilet paper.

The shortest war in history was 38 minutes long. Tensions rose between the sultan of British-protected Zanzibar and the British when he refused to step down from office. The British warships took less than 40 minutes to bombard the palace and force the sultan to flee, making it the shortest war in history.

A piece of paper folded in half 103 times would have a thickness of approximately 1,014,120,480,182 trillion km, which is longer than the length of the observable universe.

James Garfield, the 2nd president to be assassinated, could've survived his gunshot wound. The doctors kept on prying open the wound to look for the bullet that had hit him, but this caused infection which would end up in Garfield's death on September 19, 1881.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

There is a hill in New Zealand named "Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu." It's the longest name of place still in use.

If an elephant is left tied to a parking meter in Florida, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle.

The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer infamous for sparing those who played jazz music in their home. One day, he vowed not to kill anyone attending a jazz performance in the city—later that night, all of the city's jazz halls were filled to the brim.

I wonder if interesting fact 941 was inspired by Tom Scott.

Alectryomancy is a type of divination where corn kernels encircled a chicken, with each kernel being one of the letters of the alphabet. The order of eating would determine the prophecy.

are these discontinued in favor of word of the day

In 1876, the Methodists of Swan Quarter, NC were trying to find a place to build a new church. They wanted land on high ground because the town was subject to flooding due to heavy rain and high tides. They were unable, however to get land on high ground and had to settle for lower ground. Just three days after the church was completed, a storm rolled in and flooded the town. The residents came outside the next day and discovered that the church had been lifted up and started floating down the street! People tried roping the church to keep it from floating off, but to no avail. The church curiously took a few turns through the town and eventually ended up in the lot that was the church's first choice of land. The land was deeded to the church shortly after.

Sources:

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/07/11/church-floated-down-streetand-around-corner

https://www.visitnc.com/listing/cjRR/the-church-moved-by-the-hand-of-god

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-floating-church

J.D. Salinger wrote Catcher in the Rye, which quickly catapulted to the status of classic American novel. He was famously reclusive, however, and did not make public appearances. His son, Matt Salinger, on the other hand, was a semi-famous actor who appeared in Revenge of the Nerds and, oddly, starred as Captain America in a super-low budget Marvel movie from 1990.

There are only 28 hair cutting styles allowed in north Korea. While woman are allowed to choose from one of the fourteen slightly longer hairstyles.

If i did my math right, all DNA in every human on earth would stretch for 13,000 light years

As with all my facts, if you need a source i can provide one

the longest wedding veil was 4.3 miles long

The guy who invented the frisbee was turned into one when he died

Sweden, Finland and Norway together have more islands than the rest of the world.

Some rejected proposals on where a Jewish state could be are places like Madagascar, Uganda, Alaska, Crimea, and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia.

Did you hear that MatPat is leaving Game Theory?

This man has been living rent-free in my head because he is just INSANE.

His name is Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, and he was an anti-communist and pro-monarchist Baltic-German living in the Russian Empire. As a kid, he was a big bully and claimed descendant of Batu Khan, founder of the Golden Horde (he had small Hungarian roots).

He attended military school, and was absolutely fascinated by Mongol culture. So much in fact that he became a valiant cavalry soldier, and became general at his request in Mongolia.

When WW1 happened, he fought Ottomans in the Caucasus, which isn't important for his story, but during the Russian Revolution, he fled to Mongolia after losing battles against the Bolsheviks and formed a guerilla group from his old battalion, and then OVERTHREW CHINESE RULE IN MONGOLIA. He then became Buddhist, and put religious leader for Mongolia Bogd Khan in charge so he could help him reform the MONGOL EMPIRE,

Martin Van Buren married his first cousin once removed. However, she died before he took office.

There is a song called "Entertain Me" that has a time signature of 256/32

Buffalo wings are named for the city, not the animal.

The design for the Bilbao Guggenhein was originally intended to be for the museum in Wellington, New Zealand, but the government rejected the proposal.

Tokelau's .tk internet domain is the second-most used top-level domain (after .com with 123 million websites). According to some sources, it is even used twice as much as the second most used CCTLD (country internet domain, like .us, .de, .uk). It makes up 31 million of the 314 million websites on the planet and the revenue of the .tk domain makes up one SIXTH of the territory's GDP, so much more than Tuvalu

Me when I try to return a full banknote to the australian bank for change:

(they wont take it)

Interesting fact: Today I picked up a chicken tender, took a bite out of it, and then when I pulled it away from my face I realized it looked EXACTLY like Mongolia.

There is a family in eastern Kentucky with blue-colored skin. It is caused by methemoglobinemia, a blood condition.

The world record for longest elevator fall was achieved by Betty Lou Oliver, an elevator operator who was thrown from an 80th story elevator car and suffered severe burns when a B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Although she didn't fall down 80 floors, first aid workers placed her in another elevator to take her to the ground floor to be treated for the burns, but the cables were damaged and they snapped, plummeting her down 75 stories. She miraculously survived with a broken pelvis, back, and neck.

We'll need to think of a really really good fact for fact #1000. Any ideas?

Winnie-the-Pooh's was initially named 'Edward Bear'

Pronghorn antelopes have 10x vision which means on a clear night they can see the rings of Saturn.

In medieval Scandinavia, political assemblies were known as "things".

941 - in germany you just get your money back, if you can return more than half the bank note