47 Strangest Facts That’ll Shake Your World

The man often falsely cited as having the longest English surname on record, "Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache", has a brother whose first 15 initials spell "LYONEL THE SECOND."

27. There is a series of organic molecules called NanoPutians whose structural formulae resemble human form.

28. Medical students’ disease (also known as second year syndrome or intern's syndrome) is a condition frequently reported in medical students, who perceive themselves to be experiencing the symptoms of a disease that they are studying.

29. There was a procedure developed in the 1960s that restored vision to those that were blinded, but a critical step involved pulling a healthy tooth from the patient. It's called osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis.

30. The larvae of the Epomis genus are notable for being obligate role reversal predators. Amphibians such as frogs are normal predators of beetles, however, Epomis larvae feed exclusively on frogs and other would-be predators. 

The London Underground has its own subspecies of mosquito, which is more aggressive towards humans than its surface-dwelling relative.

32. Chickens sometimes engage in cannibalism. Historically, rose-tinted chicken eyeglasses were used on some chickens to prevent them from seeing blood and thus discourage them from cannibalizing injured chickens.

33. In Casorzo, Italy, there is a unique tree called Bialbero di Casorzo, meaning "double tree of Casorzo". It is actually a cherry tree growing straight on top of a mulberry tree.

34. Hemmingway once wrote a story that was only six words long. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

35. The novel Gadsby, with a total of around 50,000 words, never used the letter E.

The creators of the 2004 video game "JFK Reloaded" awarded over $10,000 to the person who could best recreate the assassination in-game.

37. There is a restaurant in Japan named Kayabukiya Tavern that uses macaques as waiters.

38. In the 2005 Formula One United States Grand Prix, 14 of the 20 cars quit the race after the formation lap out of protest since their Michelin tires were found unsafe for the final turn.

39. Wellie Wanging is a sport in which the objective is to throw a Wellington boot as far as possible.

40. Eddie Gaedel, a dwarf, became the shortest person in MLB history when he went up to bat a single time in 1951. His jersey number was 1/8.

The first time Eric Moussambani saw an Olympic size swimming pool was when he swam in the 2000 Olympics. He has by far the slowest time in Olympic history and struggled to finish the race. He won his heat after his competitors were disqualified and set a personal best and a national record.

42. During the 1974 NHL draft, Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach drafted Taro Tsujimoto, a non-existent Japanese hockey player as a joke when he was fed up with the league's drafting system. The pick was made official and was reported by major media outlets as a valid pick.

43. The Icelandic Elf School in Reykjavík, Iceland offers lectures and guided tours about Icelandic folklore. The organization teaches about the hidden people and the 13 different kinds of elves that the organization believes inhabit the country of Iceland.

44. Benjamin Franklin once wrote a letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels titled "Fart Proudly". The letter discussed the health benefits of passing gas and even included fart related puns.

45. Liver-eating Johnson was an American mountain man rumored to have killed, scalped, and/or eaten the livers of up to 300 Crow Indians after a group of Crow braves murdered his wife. He ate the liver because it had significance for Crow beliefs about the afterlife.

The Bonnacon was a medieval mythical beast that had curling horns and a mane and took down enemies with a jet of caustic feces.

47. In the early 1930s, the Irving family on the Isle of Man claimed to be haunted by Gef the Talking Mongoose who would throw stones, ride the bus for the gossip and sing bawdy renditions of "Home on the Range." He described himself as “the fifth dimension...the eighth wonder of the world!”