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23 Random Facts You Probably Didn't Know

Impress your friends with these random facts.

By Sheera LeePublished 7 years ago 2 min read
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Are you the next contestant on Jeopardy? Do you want to impress your friends at your next dinner party? This list of random facts will educate you on the bizarre and wonderful things you probably didn't know about the world.

  • John and Clarence Anglin were two of the only three men to have ever escaped from Alcatraz. Officially, they were reported to have drowned in the bay during their escape. However, their family received hand-written Christmas cards and photographs and two very tall unknown women were reported at her funeral. (Pix 11)
  • Researchers from McGill University in Montreal found that listening to your favorite music is one of the fastest ways to get rid of a bad mood. (BBC)
  • Harvard University library collection has four books bound in human skin. (CNN)
  • In Finland, fines are based on income and in 2002 a Finnish businessman was caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone and was fined with a U.S. $103,000 speeding ticket. (The Atlantic)
  • Some turtles can breathe through their butts and pee through their mouths. (Buzzfeed)
  • Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital. (History)
  • Adolf Hitler's only nephew sent a letter in which he begged to be allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army to fight against his uncle's facist regime. (Daily Mail)

  • When a cat died in Ancient Egypt, their human family would go into a deep mourning and shaved off their eyebrows, and continued to mourn until their eyebrows grew back. (National Geographic)
  • By the time Mozart was five years old he had mastered the keyboard and violin, and had written his first five compositions. At six, he toured Europe as a child prodigy; by 16, he'd already written three operas and 25 symphonies. (Biography)
  • When we shiver our bodies are doing the opposite of sweating. Sweating cools the body by putting a layer of liquid on the skin. Shivering tightens the skin and shakes the muscles, which conserves and generates heat. (Fact Monster)

  • Giraffes not only have long necks, they also have enormous tongues, which can be 18 inches long. It is thought that the dark color of their tongue protects them from getting sunburned while reaching for leaves. Giraffes can also eat up to 75 pounds of food per day. (San Diego Zoo)

  • There is a biological reason why we cannot resist puppy dog eyes. Sustained eye contact significantly raises oxytocin levels in both humans and dogs, which encourages love, trust, and bonding. This can be the reason that therapy dogs are seen to help individuals feel less anxious and more at peace. (Phys.org)

  • According to Jeff Norman, Master Taster for Jack Daniel’s, employees get a free bottle of Jack Daniels every month. (Total Wine)

  • Instead of searching around you, the Along the Way app searches along your route making it easy to find cool attractions along the way of any road trip. (Along the Way App)

  • Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech so captivating that it caused every single reporter present to forget to take notes. There is no copy of this speech in existence and we can only guess at the content. This speech is widely known as the "Lost Speech." (Daily Beast)

  • You can make cheap wine taste better by putting it in a blender on high for 30 seconds or so. This is a type of hyperdecanting, which speeds up the process of aerating wine and makes it taste great. (Bustle)

  • In case of emergency, a crayon will burn for 30 minutes. (Snopes)
  • There is a fruit that tastes like a strawberry and a pineapple had a love child and its called a pineberry. (Thrillist)
  • Hooters Restaurants offer a special deal to customers who bring in photographs of their exes on Valentine's Day. You can shred their photo and get 10 free boneless wings. (Hooters)
  • Stephen King sells the rights to some of his short stories for $1 so that film students can use them to make movies. He calls them "Dollar Babies."
  • Elvis Presley once asked his limo driver, "do you own this limo or do you work for the company?" And he replied, "I work for the company." Elvis then said, "you now own it." The limo driver's tip was the limo. (CNN)
  • Cigarette butts continue to be the number one most littered item in America and the problem is they do not biodegrade. They are loaded with carcinogens, metals, and other toxins that are then left to seep into our soil and water over time. (CBS)

  • If you want more fun facts you can type "I'm feeling curious" into the Google search engine to find more interesting trivia topics! (Google)

fact or fiction
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About the Creator

Sheera Lee

Social media consultant and avid lifehacker. I spend most of my days curating Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram. "A picture is worth a thousand re-blogs."

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