Want to dominate your weekly trivia contest? Just trying to learn a few more random fun facts to broaden your knowledge? We have got you covered! There are 113 fascinating facts in this article about a variety of subjects, including pop culture, history, and outer space. Discover the surprising uses for human urine by the ancient Romans, the reason why sunsets on Mars are blue, and other fascinating facts by reading these facts about camels. We’ve organized these facts into eight categories. Read all of them or just focus on the specific areas you want to learn more weird facts about!
Fun Facts About Space
- The sun makes up more than 99% of the mass in our solar system.
- Lined up, all of the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and the moon.
- The Great Wall of China is not actually visible from space.
- 1 million Earths could fit inside the sun.
- It rains diamonds on both Jupiter and Saturn. Lightning strikes the atmosphere of these planets, converting methane to carbon, which later solidifies into fragments of diamond and graphite when it hits the earth.
- Outer space is completely silent.
- It takes about ten minutes for light to travel from the sun to the Earth.
- Olympus Mons, a volcano on Mars, is the biggest known volcano in the solar system. It is about three times as tall as Mount Everest.
- On Mars, sunsets appear blue due to the way light is captured in the atmosphere.
- Astronaut tracks on the moon are expected to last for hundreds of millions of years because there isn’t any air, wind, or water to wear them away.
- One spacesuit for a NASA astronaut costs $12 million to make.
- The only planet that rotates on its side is Uranus.
- The diameter of Pluto is smaller than the horizontal length of the U.S.
- The Kármán line, the invisible boundary that officially separates Earth from outer space, is located 62 miles above sea level. So you are only about 62 miles from space right now!
- It’s impossible to burp in space. The lack of gravity in space prevents air in your stomach from separating & rising up from food you are eaten.
- Saturn is the lightest planet, and it is also the only planet that would float in water.
Fun Facts About Countries
- The biggest nation on Earth without a single permanent river is Saudi Arabia.
- The only nation that acknowledges voodoo as a legitimate religion is Haiti.
- Over 800 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.
- Without a national anthem, Cyprus is the only nation. The Greek national anthem was chosen to become its official anthem in 1966. (The Greek national anthem has 158 verses as well.)
- Even though football is very popular in Greenland, they are unable to join FIFA because one of the requirements for membership is the inability to grow a grass pitch due to their harsh weather.
- Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein are the only countries that are doubly landlocked.
- The Latin word for dog, “can is,” is where the island nation of the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa, got its name. After discovering that the island was overrun with wild dogs upon their arrival, early sailors gave it the name. The islands gave rise to the name of the canary bird species, not the other way around.
- Chile didn’t legalize divorce until 2004, making it the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so.
- Japan is made up of 6,852 islands.
- The only city in Turkey to be situated on two continents is Istanbul. Europe makes up the western half, while Asia makes up the eastern half. The two halves are separated by the Bosporus Strait.
- A town in Wales is famous for having the longest name of any place in an English-speaking country. Its full name is: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, although it is usually abbreviated to Llanfair.
- When the ancient Greeks took over, Amman, the capital of Jordan, was known as Philadelphia.
- The first modern nation to give women the right to vote was New Zealand, which accomplished so in 1893.
- The most popular museum in the world is the Louvre in Paris, France. It is visited by about ten million people annually.
- Ethiopia adheres to the Coptic Orthodox Church’s calendar, which is seven years behind global standards. In 2007, they rang in the new millennium.
Fun Facts About States
- In New York City, more than 40 buildings are so big that they have their own zip codes.
- Montana is home to the world’s shortest river. With a mere 200 feet of flow, it is known as the Roe River.
- The only state that grows coffee for commerce is Hawaii.
- The only royal palace ever occupied by a US monarch is located in Hawaii. The Hawaiian royal family resided in what is known as the Iolani Palace until their overthrow in 1893.
- The only state that is triple landlocked—that is, three states on each side of the ocean—is Nebraska.
- Alaska’s coastline is longer than the combined length of the other 49 states.
- In Delaware, there are about 200 hens for every resident.
- The largest state, Alaska, is 429 times bigger than the smallest, Rhode Island. Nonetheless, the population of Rhode Island is larger.
- The world’s tallest living object is located in California. It’s a 379.7-foot-tall redwood tree known as Hyperion.
- The Florida Everglades is the only place on Earth where alligators and crocodiles live together in the wild.
- Texas is larger than any European country, excluding Russia.
- The first-ever Ferris wheel was built in Chicago, IL for the 1893 World’s Fair.
- About 80% of the land in Nevada is owned by the federal government.
- Montpelier, Vermont is the only state capital without a McDonald’s.
Fun Facts About Animals
- Emus and kangaroos are not able to walk backward. Australia’s official crest features both animals to symbolise ongoing advancement.
- A grizzly bear’s jaws are powerful enough to break a bowling ball.
- Bats give birth while hanging upside down, reaching out with their wings to catch the dropping baby.
- Octopi have three hearts.
- Dolphins have names for each other & are the only species other than humans known to do this.
- Elephants are unable to jump.
- Polar bears’ black skin serves as an additional heat-absorbing layer beneath their white coat.
- Cats don’t have sweet taste buds and therefore can’t taste sugar.
- Wombat poop is cubed-shaped.
- Three to four times as quickly as they can move on land, sloths can swim.
- You may call a group of hummingbirds a hover, a shimmer, a bouquet, a glitter, or a tune.
- Only female mosquitoes bite humans. Male mosquitoes drink flower nectar.
- Baby T-rexes were covered with feathers, which they may have kept as adults.
- There has never been a larger animal than the blue whale. It can reach a height of 98 feet (30 metres ) and a weight of 200 tonnes.
- In their humps, camels store fatty tissue rather than water. They stay colder when their fat is stored in one location rather than being dispersed throughout their body, as is the case with most other animals.
- The heart of a prawn is found inside its head.
- Anteaters eat roughly 35,000 ants a day.
- Human fingerprints and koala fingerprints resemble each other remarkably.
- One of the few poisonous mammals are male platypuses, which have venomous spurs on their back feet.
Fun Facts About Holidays
- In Japan, eating KFC on Christmas is a common custom. Every year, over three million people preorder their Christmas meal, sometimes months in advance, to guarantee they get their fried chicken.
- During the holidays, UPS delivers roughly 20 billion cards and gifts.
- Every Fourth of July, about 150 million hot dogs are consumed by Americans.
- Mari Lwyd is a holiday celebrated by some people in Wales. This custom, which entails gatherings of people carolling with actual horse skulls, is believed to have originated from prehistoric Celtic festivities.
- Silent Night is the most frequently covered Christmas song. More than 26,000 versions of it have been written since it was first published in 1818.
- Giant Buddha statues in Thailand shoot water at onlookers as part of the Songkran celebration, which marks the beginning of the Buddhist New Year.
- It’s likely that mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce were not served during the first Thanksgiving, along with no turkey. It’s possible that the Wampanoag Native Americans and the pilgrims shared meals including squash, berries, eel, deer, and cornmeal.
- The environment benefits more from real Christmas trees than from artificial ones. This is caused by the poisonous materials used to create artificial trees as well as the fact that Christmas tree farms act as wildlife habitats.
- The word “Hanukkah” has no official correct spelling because it is a Hebrew word that has been translated to English. The spellings Chanukkah, Chanukah, Hannuka, and Hannukah are among the variations.
Fun Facts About History
- Every British tank since 1945 has been fitted with a tea-making apparatus.
- Ancient Romans used human urine as mouthwash. The ammonia in urine is an effective natural cleaning agent.
- The Anglo-Zambian War was the shortest war in history, lasting less than forty-five minutes. The Zanzibar Sultanate and the United Kingdom engaged in combat in 1896, with the British coming out on top.
- Olympic sports included tug of war from 1900 until 1920.
- Apart from being the President of the United States and a famous actor, Ronald Reagan also served as a lifeguard in his youth and prevented several people from drowning.
- The earliest known advertisement dates back more than 5,000 years. It promotes the sale of Shem, an ancient Egyptian slave.
- Winston Churchill smoked an average of Ten cigars a day.
- The first face to appear on the US $1 bill wasn’t George Washington. It was Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of Treasury and designer of banknotes when the 1st $1 bill was released in 1862.
- Ancient Egyptians invented many items we still use today, such as pens, keys, locks, and toothpaste.
- Animals were frequently brought before courts in mediaeval Europe and put on trial for a variety of offences, including consuming a portion of the harvest, causing property damage, or harming or killing humans. If proven guilty, the animal might receive a death sentence or be banished.
- A Mississippi boy, age nine, was the youngest soldier in the Civil War. An eighty-year-old Iowan soldier was the oldest soldier.
- The former president of France, Charles de Gaulle, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having escaped the greatest number of assassination attempts worldwide. After more than thirty of them, he passed away naturally at the age of 79.
- During their 13th-century rule over South America until 1572, the Incans were able to successfully operate on people’s skulls. Over 100 Incan skulls have been discovered with holes drilled into them, and archaeologists estimate the survival rate for this surgery was around 80% (compared to about 50% in America during the Civil War).
- In the 19th century, golf balls were made of a leather pouch stuffed with feathers and were often called “feathery” balls.
Fun Facts About Science
- Humans have more than five senses. We actually have almost twenty, pain, hunger, thirst, and balance among them.
- The only letter that doesn’t appear in the Periodic Table of Elements is J.
- An adult’s blood vessels could make four full rotations around the equator of the planet if laid end to end.
- Due to incomplete tear duct development, babies do not cry until they are between two weeks and several months old.
- In the US, there are eighteen volcanoes that could erupt once more.
- Scientists don’t know why we yawn, but it may be a way to help regulate body temperature or even cool down the brain.
- While in a liquid or solid state, oxygen has a light blue colour, despite its colorlessness in a gaseous state.
- A full glass of water will actually have a small (about 2% decrease in water level) when a handful of salt is added. This occurs because the presence of the dissolved salt causes the solvent molecules to become more ordered, which shrinks the amount of space the solution occupies.
- No sphere is as perfect as Earth. Because of the planet’s rotation, the equator bulges and the poles are slightly flattened.
- Despite their fluffy, airy appearance, clouds can weigh more than a million pounds.
- The Mpemba effect causes hot water to freeze more quickly than cold water.
- About ⅕ of the world’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rain forest.
- The number of bacteria cells in your body is approximately equal to the number of human cells.
- On Earth, there are roughly 2,000 rainstorms per minute.
Fun Facts About Pop Culture
- One of Cinderella’s stepsisters chops off her own heel, and another cuts off her big toe, in the Brothers Grimm adaptation of the story, so that their feet can fit inside the glass slipper.
- Samuel L. Jackson was a cheerleader in college.
- A team of English researchers declared in 2014 that The Spice Girls’ song “Wannabe” was the most catchy song ever composed. People could identify it in about 2.3 seconds, well below the average of 5 seconds it took to recognize other songs.
- The same woman, E.G. Daily, was the voice of both Tommy Pickles in Rugrats and Buttercup in The Powerfull Girls.
- The Beatles’ four members were not able to read or write music.
- After a tussle with her ex-boyfriend, J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, invented the game Quidditch. She claimed that the violent game was inspired by her frustration from the fight.
- In 2016, Mozart sold more CDs than any other artist, beating artists such as Bey once, Adele, and Justin Bieber.
- Actress Audrey Hepburn sent letters to resistance fighters in the Netherlands during World War II.
- In the Spoken Word category, Grammy winners include Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King Jr.
- Disney’s Snow White was the first movie to have a soundtrack released in 1944.
- The Night Watch members’ cloaks in Game of Thrones were made by dying and shaving down rugs that were purchased from IKEA.
- The 1st TV commercial aired on July 1, 1941. It was an ad for Bulova watches.
