When you take education and sprinkle in a healthy dose of entertainment on top, you get something special. Whether or not you’re a fan of learning like us, you’ll probably agree that adding a good hook can make history, science, psychology, and other subjects more appealing.
The ‘Weird Facts’ project is widely known on social media for sharing interesting and cool facts about the world. We’ve picked out some of the most unusual ones to share with you. You’ll find them below.
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#1
During the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, each worker received a daily ration of four to five liters of beer, which provided both nutrition and refreshment and was crucial for the pyramids’ construction.
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#2
When trains were introduced in the U.S, many people believed that “women’s bodies were not designed to go at 50 miles an hour,” and that their “uteruses would fly out of [their] bodies if they were accelerated to that speed.”
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#3
An orangutan named Fu Manchu repeatedly escaped from his cage at the zoo using a key he had fashioned from a piece of wire. Every time his zookeepers inspected him, he hid the key in his mouth.
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In this day and age, when the internet and social media are so easily accessible, information can spread lightning-fast. Unfortunately, it’s not just real facts that get shared and reshared but misinformation and fake news as well. That’s why media literacy is such an important skill to develop, no matter your age: it allows you to see what’s biased, politicized, and opinionated and what’s grounded in the truth.
Verywell Mind explains that media literacy essentially lets you detect, analyze, and evaluate negative or false media messages. In other words, you can make better and more informed decisions as you start taking control of media again, allowing you to enjoy it more. Furthermore, research shows that you may become happier and healthier as a result.
#4
You can hire a “coffin confessor” in Australia, who will gatecrash your funeral and reveal all your secrets to your loved ones.
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#5
A couple in Japan divorces and remarries every three years to take turns using their family’s names, as they cannot agree on which last name to use.
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#6
A family lost their dog during hurricane sandy. After searching for 1.5 years and giving up hope, they decided to adopt another dog. The adoption counselor brought in the first candidate … and it was actually their lost dog.
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When you get into the habit of thinking critically about the content you come across online, you are less likely to reshare something that may be false without first analyzing it. A good rule of thumb is to think about the intent of the person or organization posting the information. If something sounds too good or bad to be true, it very often might be biased, subjective, or warped to promote someone’s goals.
Because most of us are super busy with work, studying, chores, family, and all the other adult responsibilities in our lives, it’s unfeasible to double-check every single fact. So, it’s best to evaluate the reliability of the sources. All news and media sources make mistakes from time to time, but they’re not all equal. Trustworthy sources will provide references for any claims they make and will admit to any mistakes they’ve made while reporting something.
#7
A hiker was lost on a mountain for 24 hours and ignored calls, texts, and voicemail messages from rescuer teams because he didn’t recognize the phone number.
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#8
A boy dying of an incurable illness wanted to meet Luke Skywalker (in character). His mental state devolved to the point where he did not realize Luke was fictional. Mark Hamill agreed to dress up in character and meet the boy. He spent hours answering questions.
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#9
In ancient Athens, there was a practice known as ostracism, where once a year, the citizens could vote for the politician they disliked the most. The politician with the most votes was exiled from the city for the next 10 years.
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Cornell University points out that one of the signs of an unreliable source is lots of spelling and grammar errors in the text. On the flip side, credible news sources tend to have very rigorous editing processes. (Though, how easy access to generative AI will affect this is still to be seen.)
Meanwhile, where serious claims are concerned, you should take a bit of time to cross-check the information with multiple reputable sources so you get a broader perspective on the issue, instead of sticking to just your echo chamber and reading what you want to be true. Generally speaking, diversifying your ‘diet’ of new sources is healthy.
#10
There was a man so dedicated to April Fools’ Day that he flew hundreds of tires into a dormant volcano in Alaska and set them on fire, fooling the local public and the Coast Guard into thinking the volcano was active.
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#11
In 1914, a 4-year-old girl named Charlotte May Pierstorff was shipped via parcel post. Her parents found sending her this way cheaper than buying a train ticket, costing only 32 cents. Just under the 50-pound weight limit, May rode in the mail car. She had a stamp attached to her coat.
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#12
In the middle ages, people thought farting in jars and sniffing them would help prevent death.
In the past, doctors believed that the plague was transmitted through harmful air vapors, and they thought that a foul-smelling substance could help neutralize the contamination. As a result, some locals began storing their farts in jars, just in case they needed a quick whiff to combat the situation.
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Content shared by ‘Weird Facts’ is something that you’ve probably stumbled upon in your social media feeds at some point in time. It’s that widespread. Though it’s far from the only project to share interesting facts online (there are tons and tons!), it is one of the most well-known ones.
On Facebook alone, the curators of the project have amassed a whopping 6.9 million followers. Meanwhile, 1.2 million people follow the ‘Weird Facts’ page on Instagram, while another 301k follow it on Threads.
#13
In 1995, a man robbed a bank with lemon juice on his face. He believed that because lemon juice can be used as invisible ink, it would make his face invisible on camera. He tested this method by applying juice to his face and taking a photograph with a Polaroid camera. Since he was absent from the resulting image, he trusted that the method was effective. Detectives believed his absence in the photograph could be attributed to a faulty film.
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#14
In 1984, a boy wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan asking for federal funds to clean his bedroom after his mother called it a “disaster area”.
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#15
A guy made a fictional restaurant the #1 restaurant in London by using trip advisor and fake reviews. He then set up tables in his yard and served microwaved food. The customers gave excellent feedback.
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#16
In 2021, Italian artist Salvatore Garau sold an invisible sculpture for £13,000 ($18,000), providing the buyer with a certificate of authenticity to confirm its existence.
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#17
Andreas Mihavecz, an Austrian man, holds the record of surviving the longest without any food or liquids. He was taken into custody and forgotten in his cell for 18 days by three police officers. Each of them thought that the two others had already freed Mihavecz. As his cell lay in the basement, nobody could hear his screams. He lost 24 kg (53 pounds) of weight.
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#18
While filming ‘Tokyo Drift,’ the crew was unable to obtain a permit for a scene. They filmed it anyway, and the studio hired someone to pose as the director to take the blame and spend a night in jail.
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#19
On October 24, 1975, 90% of Iceland’s female population went on strike to demand equal rights. For an entire day, they refused to work, do housework, or take care of their children. In 1980, Iceland elected its first female president, who credited her victory to the impact of that significant day.
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#20
Rats can squeeze through holes or gaps the size of a quarter because their skulls are not plated together, allowing them to change the shape of their heads and fit through tiny openings. They can leap four feet sideways, fall from a height of five stories without sustaining injuries, and tread water for up to three days.
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#21
In 2011, an Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his account balance. In a bender that lasted some five months, he spent around $1.6 million of the bank’s money. He threw lavish parties, chartered private jets, and paid off his friends’ university fees. Later, he felt guilt and turned himself to the police.
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#22
A psychology study of more than 4,000 millionaires found that people with more wealth are indeed happier in life. They also found that people who earned their wealth were happier than those who inherited it.
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#23
In 2008, Nebraska implemented a law allowing parents to drop off unwanted newborns at safe-havens. The law did not specify an age limit, resulting in nearly all of the abandoned children being over ten years old, with some as old as 17.
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#24
In 2015, a woman who tied the knot with herself revealed that she had cheated on herself with a man, who was also married to himself.
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#25
Margaret Mitchell’s husband said to her “For God’s sake, Peggy, can’t you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?” She went on to write “Gone with the Wind.”
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#26
A software company hid a $1,000 prize deep within its Terms of Service to test if anyone actually read them. After five months and over 3,000 sales, someone finally inquired about the prize.
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#27
Keanu Reeves gave up $66 million in potential earnings from the Matrix sequels to boost pay for the special effects and costume teams. He also surprised his stunt performers with new Harley Davidson motorcycles on the last day of filming for The Matrix Revolutions.
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#28
An off-duty nurse saved a boy’s life with CPR after he was hit by a baseball bat during a Little League game. Seven years later, the boy saved her by using the Heimlich maneuver when she choked in a restaurant.
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#29
In 2011, a Brazilian man rescued a starving penguin covered in oil on the beach near his home. The penguin stayed with him for approximately 11 months before returning to the sea. Remarkably, for at least the next five years, the penguin returned to visit the man for a few months each year.
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#30
The record for most babies born to one woman is 69. Mrs. Vassilyeva, from Russia gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.
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#31
In Scotland, a group of students went to a modern art gallery and left a pineapple in an empty exhibit to see if people would think it was art. When they returned four days later, not only was the pineapple still there, it had been covered with a glass case.
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#32
In 1978, a researcher played the recorded calls of a deceased elephant from a hidden speaker. The elephant’s family responded by frantically searching for her and calling out in distress, with the daughter continuing to vocalize her grief for several days. Moved by their sorrow, the researcher decided never to repeat the experiment.
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#33
In 2013, an American woman lost all her teeth due to fluoride poisoning from tea. She’d been having a pitcher of ice tea made with 100-150 tea bags every day for 17 years.
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#34
In 1990, the high school dropout rate in Sevierville, Dolly Parton’s hometown, was over 30%. In 1991, she launched The Buddy Program, offering 7th and 8th graders $500 if they graduated. The dropout rate for those classes dropped to 6% and has generally retained that average to this day.
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#35
Dolphins have been known to protect humans when they’re in trouble. A California surfer was once being attacked by a shark when a group of dolphins surrounded him and escorted him safely to shore. Dolphins have similarly saved many people, and reports date back to Ancient Greece.
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#36
A guinea pig named Randy broke into a female enclosure and impregnated over 100 female guinea pigs.
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#37
A man secretly outsourced his job to China, spent his time at work surfing the internet and watching cat videos, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars before being caught and fired.
It turned out that the work done in China was of high quality; the employee’s code was clean, well-written, and submitted on time. In fact, his performance reviews consistently recognized him as the top developer in the building, quarter after quarter.
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#38
When he was 37, actor Jack Nicholson found that his sister was actually his mother.
Jack Nicholson grew up believing his mother was actually his sister. His mom, June, was 17 years old and unmarried when she gave birth to him. Her parents agreed to raise Jack as their own child with June acting as his sister. Reporters from Time magazine revealed this to Jack in 1974.
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#39
A man named Joel Burger married a woman named Ashley King in 2015. Burger King paid for their wedding.
The couple contacted Burger King for permission to use the company’s logo on their wedding favors. When the chain learned about their request, it decided to support the couple by funding their wedding and providing branded merchandise to help create “a whopper of a wedding.”
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#40
In India, a woman filed a lawsuit against her husband for showing more affection and care towards their cat than towards her.
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#41
The average woman overpacks her suitcase by about double. A study of 2,000 women showed they need an average of 34 clothing items for a week-long trip but will pack 60 “just in case.”
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#42
In 2017, police in Frankfurt found a car belonging to a 76-year-old man who had forgotten where he parked it two decades earlier.
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#43
Shakira was removed from her school choir because her music teacher believed she could not sing and thought she ‘sounded like a goat.’
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#44
Sir Ben Kingsley, born Krishna Bhanji, changed his name and observed an immediate increase in job offers, shifting from “We don’t quite know how to place you” to “When can you start?”
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#45
A 12-year-old French boy faked his own kidnapping, lying to police that he was taken by a cheek-scarred villain, all so that he wouldn’t have to go to the dentist.
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#46
A South African girl was kidnapped when she was two days old. Seventeen years later, she was reunited with her real family when she coincidentally started going to the same school as her younger sister. The girls formed an almost immediate friendship and had a strong resemblance. A DNA test confirmed their relation.
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#47
In 2016, a rat broke into an ATM in India and ate $19,000 worth of cash.
Police say at least one rat slipped through a hole in the back of an ATM in northeastern India and started eating. By the time it finished, more than US$19,000 in bills were shredded.
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#48
Hugh Jackman was unaware that wolverines are real animals; he mistakenly studied wolves while preparing for the iconic superhero role.
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#49
The person who invented the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the traffic circle, the one-way street, the taxi stand, and the pedestrian safety islands, William Phelps Eno, never learned how to drive.
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#50
There are more kangaroos in Australia than there are people, at 50 million compared to about 25 million. Australians are encouraged to eat more kangaroo meat as a way of controlling the growing numbers.
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#51
After being denied rights to use “Another One Bites the Dust” for Rocky III, Sylvester Stallone hired Survivor to write an original song instead, which turned out to be “Eye Of The Tiger.”
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#52
A 75-year-old woman took shelter from a tornado by hiding in her bathtub. The tornado ripped off the roof of her house, lifted the tub, and transported it to the woods with the uninjured woman still in it.
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#53
In Churchill, Canada, many locals leave their cars unlocked in case someone needs to make a quick escape from the polar bears in the area.
#54
In 2013, a dog named Killian saved a baby boy from an ab*sive babysitter. He alerted his owners by growling and standing between the baby and the sitter whenever she was there. Suspicious, the parents left an iPhone under the sofa recording audio. The sitter was later convicted on what they heard.
#55
There are 10 million more women than men in Russia.
#56
In 1948, a farmer named Cecil George Harris got trapped under his own tractor & carved a will into the tractor’s fender. It read, “In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris.” He did die, and the message was accepted in court. It has served as a precedent ever since for cases of holographic wills.
#57
Every year during the last weekend of August, redheads from all over the world flock to the Netherlands for the Redhead Days International Festival. It was founded by a blonde.
#58
Three bird species in Australia deliberately help spread wildfires so they can find prey more easily.
#59
A study involving 80 pairs of jeans found that women’s pockets are generally half the size of men’s pockets for the same brand. Only 40% of women’s pockets can comfortably fit an iPhone X, and just 10% can accommodate an entire hand. In contrast, 100% of men’s pockets can fit both.
#60
A study has shown that male robins make the best bird husbands because they can predict what their mates want to eat. Even if they did not see what the females ate last, they can still provide exactly what their partners desire. Additionally, male robins are monogamous.
#61
A Roman merchant who sold fake jewels to the empress was sentenced to face a lion in the arena. However, when the gate finally opened, a chicken walked out instead. Emperor Gallienus proclaimed, “He practiced deceit, and then it was practiced on him.” The Emperor allowed the jeweler to go home.
#62
A 60-year old truck driver sued the Tokyo hospital where he was born after discovering that he was accidentally switched with another newborn in 1953. He ended up with a poor single mother while the other baby grew up to own a real estate company under his rich biological parents.
#63
In 2010, a man in England was arrested for recording his neighbor’s noisy dogs and replaying the noise at full volume over the neighbor’s fence.
#64
In Denmark, if you are unmarried at 25, you’ll get cinnamon thrown all over you on your birthday.
#65
In Japan, some restaurants and tourist attractions charge higher prices for foreign tourists compared to locals to manage increased demand without overburdening local residents.
#66
A sheep once jumped off a cliff in Turkey, and 1,500 other sheep followed. Only about 450 died because the others fell onto a soft pile of wool or other sheep.
#67
In 2012, an 11-year-old boy disappeared while shopping with his mom. He managed to make his way to an airport and passed through five security checks without a passport or boarding pass by following a family. As a result, he was able to board a flight from Manchester to Rome alone. He was discovered after takeoff.
#68
Ancient Egyptians performed a pregnancy test where potentially pregnant women would urinate on barley and wheat seeds. If the plants grew, it indicated pregnancy: barley suggested a boy, while wheat indicated a girl. Later studies have shown that urine from pregnant women resulted in plant growth 70% of the time, while urine from non-pregnant women did not.
#69
The creator of the Budweiser beer started a tradition where a couple of drops of the beer were put onto the tongue of each first-born son before he even tasted his mother’s milk.
#70
Every Christmas since 1952, the US Air Force has airdropped gifts over the islands of Micronesia, making it the oldest ongoing Department of Defense mission and the longest-running humanitarian airlift in the world.
#71
In 1979, the Italian punk band Skiantos brought a kitchen, a table, a TV, and a fridge on stage at a music festival. They boiled some spaghetti and then ate it without playing any music.
#72
The Navajo have a tradition centered around celebrating a baby’s first laugh. When a baby is about three months old, family members closely observe the child for that first genuine giggle. The person who successfully makes the baby laugh for the first time is then responsible for throwing a party in celebration.
#73
In 2015, researchers tested the efficiency of mosquito repellents by using Victoria’s Secret perfume, believing its floral fragrance would attract mosquitoes. Surprisingly, they found that it repelled mosquitoes better than various mosquito deterrents.
#74
A man lost in the woods chopped down power poles so that workers would have to come and rescue him.
#75
In 2016, a man stole $5 million from his workplace as an accounting department manager over the course of 7 years and spent $1 million of it on a single mobile video game, Game of War. Outside of that, he spent it on cars, furniture, and sports tickets.
#76
For April Fools Day in 1998, Burger King took out a full-page ad in USA Today introducing a Whopper designed especially for lefties. The new burger would contain the same ingredients as the original but rotated 180º. Thousands of customers swarmed BK restaurants requesting the “lefty” Whopper.
#77
During the Apollo 13 mission, Jack Swigert realized he hadn’t filed his tax return. NASA contacted the IRS, which granted him a deadline extension since he was considered “out of the country.”
#78
The actors who played brother and sister on “Dexter” began dating, fell in love, got engaged, got married, and got divorced, all while continuing to play brother and sister on TV.
#79
A nurse wanted to know if her farts were contaminating equipment in the lab. The doctor and a microbiologist tested the hypothesis by having a colleague fart clothed then naked onto two Petri dishes. The conclusion was that clothing acts as a filter, but naked farts can cause contamination.
#80
Guns ‘N Roses once went on tour with a car that broke down, so they hitchhiked to the gig, ate raw onions from a field along the way, made it to Seattle for the gig, and when they finished, the owner refused to pay them. They responded by trying and failing to burn the club down.
#81
Dropping a lit cigarette into a pool of petrol does not trigger a fire, as depicted in movies. Researchers attempted to ignite petrol with a cigarette over 2,000 times and were unsuccessful every time.
#82
Only about 1% of the artifacts in the British Museum are displayed to the public at any given time. The remaining 99% are kept in the museum’s extensive archives, mainly accessible to researchers and scholars. These hidden treasures include items of significant historical, cultural, and artistic value, many of which have never been seen by the public.
#83
Research shows that dogs make more facial expressions when humans are looking at them. The phenomenon of “puppy-dog eyes” is indeed real.
#84
Japan’s largest organized crime syndicate, the Yakuza, provided food, water, diapers, blankets, and more during both the 1995 and 2011 Japanese earthquakes, responding faster than the Japanese government.
#85
In 1959, Volvo invented the 3-point seat belt, then gave a free license to all other car manufacturers to use it.
The modern three-point safety belt was developed by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin in 1959, and its patent was given for free to the world. This invention has been credited with saving over a million lives globally.
#86
Abraham Lincoln grew his famous beard after an 11 year old girl told him “All the ladies like whiskers”.
#87
Christmas used to be illegal in Massachusetts. After 1681, Christmas was no longer a crime, but was completely taboo. Anyone caught making merry or singing carols was prosecuted for disturbing the peace. It remained taboo until 1870, when the federal government made it a national holiday.
#88
December 5th is Krampusnacht or “Krampus Night” when men dressed as Krampus drink alcohol, run through the streets, and chase delinquent children around and hit them with sticks. Many anthropologists believe the tradition is pre-Christian and goes back to pagan mythology.
#89
A study revealed that the 54% of American dog owners are willing to end their relationship if their dog doesn’t like their partner.
#90
A waitress was tipped a lottery ticket and won $10,000,000. She was then sued by her colleagues for their share. Then she was sued by the man who tipped her the ticket. Then, she was kidnapped by her ex-husband and shot him in the chest. Then she went to court against the Tax department.
#91
Men process other men’s voices with the part of the brain that processes simple sounds such as car engines and machinery, but they process female voices with the part of the brain that processes music.
#92
In February 1961, East Orange, NJ police arrested 14 people from their beds at home after midnight. Their crime was failing to return library books that were more than four months overdue.
#93
An Australian guy named Bill Morgan was declared dead for 14 minutes. He somehow survived. To celebrate his survival, he bought a scratch card & won a $27,000 car. The media/news asked him to re-enact the scratch card moment so he bought another card & won a $250,000 jackpot.
#94
In 2014, a three-year-old girl survived 11 days in the Siberian forest infested with bears and wolves with only her dog for company. She ate wild berries and drank from a river, curling up next to her dog for warmth. She was saved when her dog went back to her village and guided rescuers to her.
#95
Tom Cruise divorced all three of his ex-wives when they turned 33 (Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes), and each is 11 years younger than the last.
#96
Even though they don’t have wings, spiders can fly for hundreds of miles (across entire oceans) on long strands of silk using Earth’s electric fields; it’s called “ballooning.” Spiders have been found two-and-a-half miles up in the air, and 1,000 miles out to sea.
#97
A family in China adopted what they thought was a dog and raised it for two years, only to find out it was an Asiatic black bear. They reportedly couldn’t figure out why the dog kept growing. It turns out that sort of mix-up happens fairly often.
#98
Nike had conditions before giving Michael Jordan a record contract: Either be rookie of the year, or average 20 points per game, or be an all-star, or sell $4 mill worth of shoes in a year. Jordan was rookie of the year, scored 28.2 points per game, named all-star, and Nike sold $100 mill of shoes in 1984-85.
#99
A teen who had a diet of French fries, Pringles, white bread, and an occasional slice of ham or sausage was found to have severe vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition. As a result, he developed blind spots in the center of his vision. It is stated that his sight loss is permanent.
#100
Research across various primate species, including humans, indicates that adult females are more sensitive to grossness, which helps them protect against disease and infection.
#101
A French convict used nectarines painted to resemble grenades to escape from prison in a helicopter piloted by his wife, who had taken flight lessons solely for this escape.
#102
In 2013, a prisoner in Sweden escaped prison just two days before he was due to be released from prison because he had a toothache and wanted to see a dentist. He broke out, visited the dentist, and then turned himself back in. As a result, he received an additional day added to his month-long sentence as punishment.
#103
In Germany and some other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison, and it is considered as a violation of the right to freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself.
#104
The appendix does have a purpose. It stores samples of good bacteria so they can repopulate your digestive system in case they are wiped out entirely by diseases such as diarrhea.
#105
In Japan, over 5,000 safes washed away by the tsunami caused by the 2011 earthquake were handed over to the police by citizens, and over 3 billion yen (£29m) in cash was returned to their owners, along with other valuables.
#106
A report found that the free weights at the gym have 362 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.
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