Obscure Trivia #11

Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, France (French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands), India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka. (Source: timeanddate.com)

(Source: Wikipedia)

The bumblebee bat weighs 2 grams and measures 1 to 1.3 inches. It lives in western Thailand and southeast Myanmar, in limestone caves along rivers. (Sources: Live Science, Wikipedia)

(Source: almanac.com)

The Antarctic Polar Desert has a surface area of 5.5 million square miles. (Source: science.howstuffworks.com)

(Source: University of Wisconsin Marathon County Library Restroom Reader, vol. 6, No. 3)

Football was in danger of being banned after 18 fatalities in the 1904 season alone. In 1905, there were 19 fatalities and 135 injuries. Amid the public outcry for a ban, Roosevelt worked with the coaches of premier colleges to reform the game. An intercollegiate conference approved the proposed changes, resulting in a significant decrease in fatalities and injuries for the 1906 season. After a spike in deaths in 1909, a second round of reforms was put in place, laying the foundation for the modern game. (Source: Library of Congress Blogs)

Police in Buenos Aires used a bloody thumbprint in 1892 to prove that Francisca Rojas murdered her two children. Systematic use of fingerprints in law enforcement began in the U.S. ten years later, but there is evidence they had been used for personal identification in China (300 BCE) and Japan (702 CE). (Source: Office of Justice Programs)

(Sources: Open Oregon Educational Resources, University of Houston)

A shark’s skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. (Source: The Natural History Museum, London)

American mozzarella is made almost exclusively from cow’s milk, and would be sold in Italy as fior di latte, not as mozzarella. Water buffalo may have been introduced to Italy by Arabs or Goths. (Sources: 6ABC, naplesldm.com, Wikipedia)

Following a disastrous conflict (1955-1975) the nations of North Vietnam (capital at Hanoi) and South Vietnam (capital at Saigon) merged. In 1976, Saigon was renamed to honor a former communist leader of North Vietnam. (Sources: worldatlas.com, Wikipedia)

Proposed in 1905. (Sources: Google Translate, Wiktionary)

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is the largest. (Source: USGS)

(Source: Oxford Languages)

Sales in more than 140 countries total more than $1.5 billion. (Source: hpsauce.co.uk)

(Source: Wis. Stat. § 97.18)

Los Angeles (1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics) and Squaw Valley (1960 Winter Olympics). Missouri (summer 1904), New York (winter 1932 and 1980), Georgia (summer 1986), and Utah (winter 2002) have also hosted. (Source: architectureofthegames.net)

Apollo astronauts reported that lunar dust found inside their landers smelled like burnt gunpowder. (Source: BBC Science Focus)