Fact Cards

3511. Happy Days Fonzie Casting-Happy Days producers intentionally sought a short actor to play Fonzie. They didn't want his character to overshadow the rest of the cast, who were all under 6 feet tall. Despite their intent, Henry Winkler (5'6

Source

3512. Alcatraz Indigenous Occupation-Indigenous Indians took over and occupied Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971, shortly after its closing, to protest the use of their land for the prison.

Source

3513. Defibrillator Shock Mechanism-Perhaps counterintuitively, defibrillators do not shock the heart to get it to beat normally-the shock actually stops the heart from beating altogether. This allows the natural automatic pacemaker of the heart to operate again and restore the heart's rhythm to normal.

Source

3514. Apollo Rocket Fins Purpose-The fins on the Apollo rockets existed only to provide an additional moment of stable flight so a crew member could reach an abort handle. The fins did not provide stability during normal operational flight.

Source

3515. Common Ancestor's Color Cones-The common ancestor of all vertebrates had not 3 but 4 cones for detecting color. Most mammals later lost two cones from being nocturnal, and primates evolved one back after that.

Source

3516. Swedish Seals in WWII-There was a secret facility in the Swedish archipelago for training seals for the navy during the Second World War. The trainers taught the seals to locate mines, submarines, and torpedoes that had missed their targets.

Source

3517. Anthony Blinken's Band-US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is the frontman for his own band called Ablinken, with songs such as

Source

3518. Last Natural Smallpox Case-In 1977, Ali Maow Maalin was the last person known to have been infected with the naturally occurring Variola minor smallpox. He fully recovered and later became one of the 10,000 volunteers who participated in the effort to help eradicate polio in Somalia. Ali died in 2013 from malaria.

Source

3519. Caterpillar Fungus Aphrodisiac-Cordyceps sinesis, or caterpillar fungus, parasitizes the larvae of ghost moths and produces an edible fruiting body. Traditional Chinese medicine values this as an aphrodisiac.

Source

3520. Nixon's Nuclear Threat Over Spy Plane-In April 1969, North Korea shot down a US spy plane. Allegedly enraged, Nixon ordered a tactical nuclear strike and instructed the joint chiefs to recommend targets. Henry Kissinger later spoke to military commanders on the phone and agreed not to take any action until Nixon sobered up the next morning.

Source

Sign up to our Newsletter & get

FREE!! 1000 Facts E-BOOK

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

- Sponsored Links -

37 COMMENTS

  1. Would you mind if I started to post these facts on iFunny? I really think people would love them and I would of course credit and link your website.

    1094
  2. Your page (re)numbering makes it almost impossible to find something on your site. The search option doesn’t seem very helpful.. I tried to search for Harris Rosen or Fact #62 after seeing it on Bored Panda, but had to do a brute force search to find this page…

    1096
  3. I just went through all the facts pages. A few things I’ve noticed:
    1. #451-#470 (pgs 46 & 47) have images that are broken.
    2. #841-#1140 (pgs 85-114) are complete duplicates of earlier pages.

    11
    • Thank you for your valuable feedback. Last night we implemented a new page numbering system for our fact cards. I really messed up with facts #451-#470 which I have fixed now. I have fixed the other problem too.

      10
  4. Just stumbled onto your site via an Imgur post. Cool stuff.

    Re. one of the citations above: “The oldest D20 dice was uncovered in Egypt…”

    One “die,” many “dice.” The headline in the source given had it right; “Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time.”

    Credibility is always enhanced by proper grammar.

    18
  5. I really enjoy your site. I visit it regularly at this period of my life to use up time, while entertaining myself, and increase my awareness of life through the amazing insights into stories behind what we often overlook. It is almost therapeutic I would think! For one thing, I feel grateful not to be one of the warped personalities you often report on, but on the other hand, I feel sorry for the suffering that is really behind so many people you note through our shared history, who have the apparency of many successes, but are in fact imperfect and suffering souls like all of us, on the road to something better we hope eh?

    5
    • History gives us an opportunity to look into the mistake our ancestors made, but also the feats they achieved. The lives they suffered, so that the future generations could have the freedom. I am happy to have been part of such an important part of your life, Stuart.

      6
  6. I’m sure it’s like asking a magician how his tricks are done, but I would love to know the workings of the research you have to go through to find/verify everything I’ve read on your site. To say they are entertaining would be an insult. I read several pages daily. I have found them to be fascinating, educational, informative, and downright important.

    When I was a child and went on long road trips with my parents, my Mom would would bring a box of Trivial Pursuit cards to read and ask questions to pass the time for everyone in the car…My Wife now reads these to our kids on our vacations.

    Do you take fact submissions, or do you rely on your own people to research and present them to your team/site? The only thing I can say about your site, is some click ads could be modified or even done away with. Political opinion polls, etc…I would sooner see and ad for shaving cream that some of those useless and probably biased ads (not you, just the people conducting them) But, I love what you do and am so glad that your site exists!

    1224
    • Thank you Ryan. It’s the readers like you who keep us going. It gives us immense pleasure to know that you love reading facts on our site. We do take submissions. About 10% of our facts come from submissions. You too can submit facts by filling out this form Contact Us. The ads are what keeps the servers running. We don’t take any donations, use patreon or sell merch on our site so ads are how we generate income. Though, we will take your advice to tone down the ads (we can’t really see what kind of ad our readers see as it’s decided by Google).

      7
  7. 1454: She wasn’t found “shortly” after, which might imply that 911 had tried to help and just didn’t arrive in time; she was found HOURS after.

    1182
  8. Each of these pages of facts should have its own page for commenting instead of many fact pages and only one place to comment. I’d also delete my post about each fact having its own page since the aforementioned idea is better, but I can’t.

    1270
  9. I love this website I use it all the time and it allows me to attain info that I have been able to use irl all the time. Keep up the great work!

    5
  10. Also Rickinator for 610 killing bears is not a good thing due to most species of bears being endangered it is just a fact/statistic

    1115
  11. Your fact card is WRONG! You state Queen Elizabeth II is related to George Washington (which is correct), however, then you all say “Their last living common ancestor is Augustine Warner, Sr. who died in XX.”

    That’s incorrect! i am related to both Col. Augustine Warner, Sr. and George Washington and I’m very much alive as are my family members and 1 uncle and his 2 sons.

    1

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here