Not all knowledge is made equal. Some you get from books and uni days, some of it you learn from practice. The main chunk of information we digest arrives from the internet, and an equally big part of it we don’t need at all.

On the other hand, the internet is notoriously good at cherrypicking the most entertaining parts and separating them from boring things. Hence, all the lost hours we lose while procrastinating on a daily basis! And this thread is living proof of it.

“What's a 'fun fact' that nobody asked for?” asked Redditor SoggyCereal12 and received an overwhelming amount of responses. People rolled up their sleeves and took out their best cards in what turned out to be the most random amusement dressed up as real-life facts. Check out our previous features for more weird, interesting, and creepy facts.

#1

On 1939, February 14th a German battleship was launched and was sank with only 118 of the 2,200 crew members surviving. Among them was a black and white cat named Oscar which was found floating on a board and was picked up from the water by a British ship.

On October 27th, 1941, the ship sank to the west of Gibraltar and Oscar was found clinging to a piece of plank and was later brought to the shore establishment in Gibraltar. When British officers learned what happened they named him “Unsinkable Sam”.

After that he was adopted by the crew of the HMS Ark Royal and in 1941, November 14th, a torpedo hit the ship. Sam was AGAIN found clinging to a piece of plank and was described as “angry but unharmed”.
By this time it was enough for the por cat and remained it’a days on land hunting mice in Gibraltar and then being transferred to the UK where he lived his final days.

And this was the story of “Unsinkable Sam”

Image credits: WeeabooButWithASmile

#2

When Haiti was fighting the French in a civil war the French send some polish to deal with it when they saw how the slaves were treated the Polish joined the Haiti revolution

Image credits: MaxSnow21

#3

Elephants can purr, like cats.

Image credits: YuriPugnant

#4

There is a forest that is 107 acres, but made up of only one tree. Thousands of aspens that share a single root system.

Image credits: Schoonie-Singleton

#5

If you ever see someone using an iPhone in a movie, they are not one of the bad guys. Apple requires as a condition of licensing their products for use in film/TV, that only protagonists are allowed to operate them on camera. So, if a character is using an iPad in a horror movie, they will not end up secretly being the killer.

Image credits: wheresmychin

#6

Alexander the great, Mussolini, Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Hitler allegedly suffered from ailurophobia, the fear of cats.

Image credits: neptuneenergy

#7

The world's largest tire producer by total number of tires made is Lego.

Image credits: Rabid_Dingo

#8

On 8 April, 1942, a detachment of Polish soldiers, deployed to Iran by the Allies, bought a bear cub from an Iranian boy. In August the bear was given to the 22nd Artillery Supply company and named Wojtek by the soldiers.

They fed him condensed milk, honey, fruit, and beer, which ended up being his favorite drink. He also picked up smoking, and enjoyed wrestling with his human friends, and bunking in on cold nights.

When the Polish II Corps was redeployed it Italy to fight alongside the British, the Brits wouldn’t transport mere mascots on a troop ship, so Wojtek was formally enrolled in the Polish army as a private.

During the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino Private Wojtek helped keep the guns firing by hauling boxes of ammo, each containing four 25 pound shells. These crates normally took four men to haul. For his bravery and service in battle Wojtek was promoted to Corporal, and his visage became the emblem of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.

After the war the 22nd was sent to Scotland, before being demobilized, at which point Wojtek was given to the Edinburgh Zoo, where he was often visited by Polish soldiers until his death in 1963.

That is the story of Corporal Wojtek, the Polish artillery bear.

Image credits: crimp_chimp

#9

Your immune system doesn’t know your eyes exist. They have their own immune system. If your body’s immune system ever learned about your eyes it would view them as a foreign invader, and your white blood cells would melt them straight out of your sockets.

Image credits: wheresmychin

#10

In starship trooper, the actors agreed to do the coed shower scene only if the director got naked with them and he did.

Image credits: Zorops

#11

Your nipples are your perfect "natural lipstick shade".

Do not recommend colour matching in stores though.

#12

A baby could swim in a blue whale's veins. That's how huge it is.

Image credits: bluehatgentleman

#13

The potato was once so undesirable that even the poor of Europe wanted nothing to do with it. They believed it caused leprosy, sterilization, and an over active sex drive.

Image credits: CptZack01

#14

Alligators don’t age biologically, they don’t die from old age, they die from starvation or a disease. Blew my mind.

Image credits: VengeanceCookieX

#15

Ground cinnamon is technically sawdust

Image credits: n123breaker2

#16

Chainsaws were originally made for assisting in difficult childbirth (breech, etc).

Image credits: SaintCaspian

#17

Michael Jackson owned the original pair of scissorhands from the movie Edward Scissorhands .

Image credits: Luckylop77

#18

There's a surgery called a rotationoplasty where they remove the middle of your leg, then re-attach the foot (backwards) to your thigh so that your ankle can be your new knee for a prosthetic leg.

Seems gross but it really improves the quality of life over the other option, which is no knee at all.

Image credits: kyoto_kinnuku

#19

Between 1913 and 1914, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Emperor Franz Joseph, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Leon Trotsky lived in Vienna within 4km of each other. Talk about sitcom idea!

#20

When a rooster crows it partially pinches shut its ear canals so it won't deafen itself...

Image credits: KlutzieKelpie

#21

Dragonflies suck water up their butts and shoot it out like jets when they get tired.

Image credits: Killerjebi

#22

2% of people can hear their eyes move and blink.

Edit: I hate to be that person but, MOM IM FAMOUS.

#23

The largest cell in the human body is the female egg. The smallest is the male sperm.

​

The largest and smallest cells create life.

#24

There is a thing known as the Half-life of Facts, where there is an amount of time that will pass before 50% of the facts you know in a subject will be either proven false or superseded with more detailed knowledge. This duration differs based on the field of knowledge.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life_of_knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life_of_knowledge)

This means it's almost certain that a large percent of the fun facts in this thread will be wrong or outdated, which is likely a leading cause of arguments online.

#25

The story of "Beauty and the Beast" was probably based on the tragic life of Petrus Gonsalvus.

According to Refinery 29, in 1537 there was a young boy named Petrus Gonsalvus who was regularly called a beast. Reportedly, this was most likely because he had a case of hypertrichosis, a condition that causes a person to grow hair all over their body, often referred to as "werewolf syndrome."

Gonsalvus was just 10 years old when he was taken from his native country, Spain, and sent to the King of France to operate as a type of court jester. "King Henry decided to take on Gonsalvus as his little pet project," Refinery 29 wrote, "the king groomed Gonsalvus to be a nobleman."

Eventually, King Henry's wife, Catherine de'Medici (who took over after the king died), found Gonsalvus a wife — coincidentally another woman named Catherine. Though it took some getting used to, the beauty fell in love with "the beast." They were married for 40 years and had seven kids together, four of which also had hypertrichosis.

#26

Humans share 99.9% of their DNA with any other human on the planet. Humans share 99% of their DNA with their closest relative, the chimpanzee. Humans also share 60% of their DNA with bananas.

Image credits: Parhel

#27

"Louie Louie" was a #2 hit in 1963 for The Kingsmen. The vocals were so garbled and slurred, rumors spread that the lyrics were dirty. The FBI investigated the song on suspicion of violating obscenity laws. After two years, they decided the lyrics were "unintelligible at any speed."

Somehow, they missed the drummer yelling "F**k!" at 0:54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKt75jUuKJY

Image credits: copperdomebodhi

#28

The speed at which an insect can run is limited by its leg length.

Cockroaches have hind legs which are longer than the front four legs.

In some cockroach species, when running at full speed over flat ground, the front four legs leave the ground. The cockroach’s body acts like an aeroplane wing, flying just above the ground, kicking along with its back legs.

Image credits: -__---__---_

#29

Baby kittens and puppies can’t urinate and defecate on their own. Their mothers lick their genitals and anuses to prompt them to do so and then also cleans it up. Most people don’t know this if they happen to be taking care of an orphaned young kitten or puppy so this it ends up being a cause of death for a lot of them. If you ever take care of an orphaned kitten/puppy or know someone who is you must use a damp paper towel or wash rag to wipe their bottoms until they urinate or defecate. ? *The More You Know* ⭐️

#30

Penguin eggs turn transparent when hard boiled.

Image credits: BuckshotShow

#31

Dr. Seuss invented the word nerd.

#32

You can smell your own lungs. Your brain just filters it out.

Image credits: TheShadowOfKaos

#33

Queen Victoria gave the rights of her will to her physician who she trusted more than her family. The royal family is still trying and failing to get the will from the doctor’s family.

#34

I really like the Christmas Truce of 1914 where almost every German and British soldier decided to just stop the war for that special day. I think there are some stories of them playing some good old football (soccer if you will), exchanging hats, Christmas presents they got from their families.
It is one of my favorite wholesome facts about WWI

#35

Netflix has trouble recommending you titles after viewing Napoleon Dynamite

#36

The "little piggie" that went to market...

Wasn't shopping.

Image credits: vms-crot

#37

Cleopatra was Greek, not Egyptian or African

#38

I used to work as a checkpoint manager in airport security. I would get called over for strange or unusual items, to make a determination if said item was a "threat to aviation safety".

It was quite common to be called by screening officers to verify that the oddly shaped organic mass, was in fact, a b**tplug. Everyone knows what a dildo or vibrator looks like, but f****n' kids these days, they wouldn't know a b**tplug if it jumped up, started dancing and sang Hello My Ragtime Gal.

#39

Chimpanzees have been discovered hunting gorillas with spears.

#40

The day that Michael Jackson's hair famously caught on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial was on January 27, 1984, the 9,282nd day of his life. Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, and died on June 25, 2009, living to be 18,563 days old.

The day of his accident was the exact median day of his life. He had a literal mid-life crisis!

#41

A man named Louie le prince is technically the first person to invent a motion picture camera ( movies) however he went missing during a train ride and was not able to show his invention before Edison.

#42

Octopus detaches and throws a modified arm penis covered with sperm at their mate.

#43

Everyone starts off their life as an a*****e: humans are deuterostomes, which means that when they develop in the womb the b******e forms before any other opening.

#44

Queen Elizabeth made the first transatlantic phone call as a teenager to her parents while traveling abroad.

Image credits: DJ_DD

#45

In toddlers, their adult teeth are right underneath their eyes.

Image credits: DuoDemoIi

#46

German submarine U-215. Sank during WW2. Didn’t decompress though. It’s still sealed on the bottom of the ocean with 49 people inside. I’ve always wondered what went down in there…

Image credits: toigz

#47

A trapper caught a mama bear in Winnipeg, Canada, and the baby was there. He got the baby and sold it to a Canadian soldier. The soldier took it to his base, and everyone loved the bear. They trained the bear, and was great for morale.

But they had to go to World War 1, so they gave the bear to the London zoo. The zoo saw that the bear was good with everyone, including kids. Kids could play with, and even ride the bear. The kids made many memories with the increasingly popular bear. One of those kids Christopher Robin. His father saw Christopher Robin playing with his bear, named after the bear at the zoo.

Since the soldier found the bear in Winnipeg, he shortened the name to "Winnie".

That's right. You know this bear as the classic children's story, "Winnie the pooh." Christopher Robin was Christopher Robin Milne, son of author A A Milne, who wrote the "Winnie the Pooh" books.

Edit 2: where did pooh come from? When Christopher Robin would get goose down feathers on him, he would excitedly blow them away with a "pooh! Pooh!" His father thought it was adorable, and so added "the Pooh" after Winnie.

Edit:


correction:

The bear cub was from White River Ontario, not Winnipeg. Harry Colbourn purchased the bear cub for $20 and named it “Winnipeg”, (“Winnie” for short) after his hometown in Canada (Colbourn was originally from Birmingham England). On Dec 9 1914, Colbourn donated Winnie to the London Zoo.

thanks u/Loverboy_Talis

#48

You will never be stung by a male hornet. They are very docile, and don't even have stingers, since that really is an ovipositor.

#49

Goldish don't have 2 seconds memories, some can remember a face for years

#50

There was a Finnish soldier named Aimo Koivunen who got separated from his unit. He had no food or weapons, and to avoid dying, took enough methamphetamine for 30 men. During his insane drug binge, he skied about 250 miles, passed over a landmine and survived, and caught and ate a bird raw. That's just a few details, I recommend actually reading about this absolute legend yourself.

Image credits: AbsentLabRat

#51

Almost all mammals take around the same time to urinate

#52

The man who killed John Wilkes Booth cut off his own testicles with scissors

#53

Greater stick-nest rats, an Australian native rodent, glue its nests together using urine, which dries like cement.

#54

There are more fake, plastic flamingos for sale, than there are living flamingos on the planet

#55

Joe Biden was born closer to Abraham Lincoln's presidency than his own.

#56

the word deja vu gets its name from what its thought to be. Deja vu happens when your brain identifies something that is normally unfamiliar as familiar. However, it has a little known counterpart.

Jamais vu is the opposite, when something familiar suddenly seems unfamiliar for some reason. Jamais vu is actually much easier to activate than deja vu because you can do this by simply saying a word 100 times in a row. By the end of it, the word no longer sounds like the word anymore and just sounds like strange noises. Jamais vu!

Edit: it was bothering me so I fixed the spelling

#57

The playstation ToS include a phrase that prohibits them from being used as a control system for missiles.


Sound stupid, but that actually happened. Some countries military (USA maybe?) realized that the playstation (I think it was the PS2) was a powerhouse in terms of computing power, way above anything even several price classes higher. So they connected a couple dozen of them, and ran their missile control system with that.

#58

The average human head will pop off with three full turns.

#59

Lucille Ball helped bankroll the first script and episode of Star Trek

#60

Fire smells different depending on how far from the flame your face is.

#61

Walt Disney and Walter Knott, the founder of Knott's Berry Farm, were actually friends. Disney got a lot of his inspiration for Frontierland from Knott's ghost town. In the movie A Bug's Life, in the scene towards the end where the ants are fighting back and Heimlich pops his head out from his body, he says "mmmmm boysenberry." This is the berry that Knott's is most famous for and is a possible reference to the park. Source: I worked there.

Knott's Berry Farm started with the ghost town and was created because the lines for his wife's famous fried chicken were excruciatingly long. As you can imagine, hungry people plus long waits for food tend to make people upset, so Knott's came up with the idea of a working ghost town to keep people entertained. Everything there is fully functioning, from the livery to the blacksmith.

Knott's Scary Farm is considered the first haunt event and has been going on since 1973. However, when it started, it was a two or three day event and later became a month long affair due to its popularity. (I did a year there)

The rollercoaster Montezuma's Revenge has recently been made a landmark.

#62

Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln was an elite wrestling champion. In 300 matches, he only lost one. Bonus fun fact: He was also a licensed bartender.

#63

In 1985 a Serbian farmer stuck a beer bottle up his a*s, wide end first. This sparked a chain of events that eventually led to the collapse of Yugoslavia.
[Further reading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90or%C4%91e_Martinovi%C4%87_incident?wprov=sfti1)

#64

Barnacles have penises 7x larger than the rest of their body.

#65

Leonardo Da Vinci was the first person to correctly conclude that a human erection is caused by blood. Before him, everybody thought that it was air, and that a strong breeze could cause an erection.



[Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721040/)

Edit* I guess I should have phrased that differently lol. People used to think that erections were ‘powered’ by air, rather than blood.


***Here is some more info for those who don’t believe how little we knew about the human body up until quite recently. For example, the first World Congress on Impotence was held in Paris in 1984.

Here is a little excerpt from *Physiology of Penile Erection-A Brief History of the Scientific Understanding up till the Eighties of the 20th Century*


``Introduction: Understanding the physiology of penile erection is important for all who work in the field of sexual medicine. Aim: The aim of this study was to highlight and analyze historical aspects of the scientific understanding of penile erection. Methods: (i) Review of the chapters on the physiology of erection out of the author's collection of books dealing with male sexual functioning published in the German, French, Dutch, and English language in between 1780 and 1940. (ii) Review of the topic “physiology of penile erection” of relevant chapters of Classical writings on erectile dysfunction. An annotated collection of original texts from three millennia, including the study of all relevant references mentioned in these books. Main Outcome Measure: The main outcome measure used for the study was the scientific understanding of the physiology of penile erection. Results: In Antiquity, Galen considered penile erection as the result the accumulation of air. His ideas so dominated medieval medicine that nearly everyone then alive was a Galenist. The beginning of the Renaissance shows meaningful examples of experimental scientific work on the penis. Da Vinci correctly concluded that erections were caused by blood, and in the 18th century, Von Haller from Switzerland was the first who explained that erections were under the control of the nervous system. In the 19th century, a mindset that emphasized on experimentation determined a new direction, namely experimental physiology. Animal studies clarified that stimulation of the nervi erigentes‐induced small muscle relaxation in the corpora cavernosa. Nearly all were published in the German language. That may be one of the reasons that the existence of the concept of smooth muscle relaxation remained controversial until the first World Congress on Impotence in 1984 in Paris. Conclusions: As the Renaissance's innovative research defined neural and vascular physiologic phenomena responsible for penile erection. The concepts from animal experimentations in Europe in the 19th century significantly contributed to the current understanding of penile erection. van Driel MF. Physiology of penile erection—a brief history of the scientific understanding up till the eighties of the 20th century. Sex Med 2015;3:343–351.``

[That Source](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283960026_Physiology_of_Penile_Erection-A_Brief_History_of_the_Scientific_Understanding_up_till_the_Eighties_of_the_20th_Century)

#66

Maya Rudolph's mom is singer Minnie Riperton.

#67

Lake Superior does not give up her dead. The waters of Lake Superior are so cold that the bodies and the majority of stuff from shipwrecks is preserved.

The Great Lakes (all of them) are basically just giant ship graveyards.

#68

Ducks have corkscrew-shaped penises, as do some other animals.

#69

Pineapple is the only food that eats you back! It is the only natural sourve of the enzyme Bromelain, which digests Protein. This is why your tongue tingles if you eat a lot of pineapple, or chew it slowly. Once swallowed, the enzyme is destroyed in the stomach.

#70

Fun Fact - Ancient Egyptians used Crocodile and Alligator s**t as a contraceptive.

#71

The occupied space of atoms is very small. The vast majority of EVERYTHING is the empty space between protons and electrons.

The occupied space in an atom is roughly 0.0000000000004 %

#72

1 field mouse has the caloric equivalent of 2 pizza rolls .

#73

The skin that makes up your lips is the same type of skin as that on your b****hole.

#74

A majority of near-death experiences(being clinically dead but brought back) are positive. Do with that as you will.

Image credits: FirstBankofAngmar

#75

You could thread fishing wire through your tear duct and out your bumhole. They’re connected, and fishing wire is thin enough.

#76

I was born with an undescended testicle. Usually you will have a surgery to repair it at 12 months. My parents did f**k all until my preschool wouldn't accept me without a two year check up. Where my pediatrician discovered I never had the surgery. So now I had it very late at 3 years old, and it caused them to do some damage to my right testicle getting it through the pass without breaking anything. It caused it to not grow as expected, and as thus is about 1/4th the size of my left testicle. If I suck in my gut, my testicle goes right back up into my public bone area and you can see it clearly.

Unethical life pro tip: Since this has happened, I've used it to show my management a picture of a "hernia" and taking all my PTO before quitting without questions.

Edit: To clarify, I did not HAVE to show a picture of my "hernia". Policy for more than three days of consecutive absences requires a doctor's note to return to work. Basically a "clearance" to return. I obviously wasn't having surgery, so I'd just show them and nobody ever questioned why I needed time off after that.

#77

Rubbing a dog's ears releases endorphins that induce a feeling of calm and mellowness. It can even be used to reduce pain!

#78

The girl who played Ducky in a land before time has "yep yep yep" on her tombstone

#79

Capybara spend so much time in the water the Catholic Church allows their consumption during Lent classifying them as aquatic like fish.

#80

The creation of a character in Star Trek Voyager to appeal to horny nerds directly lead to the election of President Barack Obama.

The year is 1997. The third season of Star Trek: Voyager has come to an end, and the fourth season is about to begin. Ratings are beginning to flag, and the writers believe they know why. One of the greatest strengths of Star Trek is the inclusion of characters who aren’t human, but want to be, or are at least interested in studying the human condition. Spock in TOS, Data in TNG, Odo in DS9. Voyager had yet to really introduce such a character, so in the first episode of the fourth season, they introduce Seven of Nine, a former member of the Borg collective whose journey back to humanity formed the core of the emotional serialization of the remaining seasons of Voyager. This was a fantastic decision; Seven of Nine is a brilliantly-written character, and her blatant, shameless sex appeal drew a lot of eyes to the show. The back half is by far the best part of the series, and it’s due primarily to Jeri Ryan absolutely *nailing* the role.

Jeri Ryan was, at that point, a relatively unknown actress, appearing in bit parts in TV shows here and there, most notably an 8-episode run of *Dark Skies*, in seventh billing. Voyager catapulted her to a household name (as long as the household had nerds in it), and to nominations and wins at the Satellite and Saturn Awards. At the time, she was married to a man named Jack Ryan, a partner at Goldman Sachs. She divorced him in 1999, a few years after joining the cast of Voyager.

In 2004, Jack Ryan decided to run for the United States Senate. He did well, and won his state’s Republican primary. In the course of this run, Jack and Jeri’s divorce records became publicized, and the salaciousness of the contents were driven in no small part by Jeri’s fame and reputation as a sex symbol on Voyager. The records are public, and I invite you to peruse them, but long story short, they involved Jeri being put into sexual situations with which she was very uncomfortable, in public.

The public-facing nature of both of their careers made this virtually impossible to bury. In the middle of the Illinois general election, Jack Ryan resigned the race. Ryan’s replacement in the race had no time to run any kind of campaign. As a result, his Democratic opponent, a young State Senator from Illinois’s 13th District, fresh off of a legendary speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, blew him out of the water, catapulting him to national renown. And the rest is history.

#81

To keep with the bear theme, I work at a zoo. We have 4 different bears.

Bear 1 is Hope. She is a European Brown Bear and is I believe in her 20s (I’m fuzzy on the ages). She may seem gentle but she’s absolutely the meanest of our bears. She is also very picky about her food. All the bears get fed mostly fruit with some dry food (similar to dog food) mixed in. She hates melons. She won’t eat food if it has even touched a melon.

Bear 2 is Louie. Louie is a black bear and lives next to hope. I’m not quite sure about his age but the fun fact about Louie is that he has a crush on hope. Some bears make a humming noise to try to attract mates and Louie can be heard doing that for hope. He also puts his paws through the fence to try to hold her paw. Often hope will swat him away or ignore him but sometimes she allows him some affection. Louie also hibernates the longest of the bears.

Bears 3 and 4 are Ringo and Frankie. Ringo and Frankie are the sons of Hope. They’re currently about 8 years old and live together separate from Hope. We suspect their dad is a grizzly bear because they are much larger than Hope. During the summer they have a pool (all the bears have pools but hope and Louie don’t use theirs often). During hot days you can see the two bears in their pool play fighting. They also like putting rocks in the pool.

#82

Gatorade was developed for the Florida Gators football team, hence the name.

#83

There was an experiment once to see how hope affects animals with higher intelligences, and they tested this by drowning mice. Mice that were put in a bucket of water drowned in something like 2 minutes. However, mice that were taken out after about a minute and a half, were given a chance to rest, and then were put back in the bucket? Lasted close to 50 hours.