Fact Cards

6971. Abraham Simpson Named by Writers-When Matt Groening created the Simpson family, he named most of the characters after members of his own family but chose not to name Grandpa Simpson himself. He let the other writers pick a name for the character. They chose Abraham. That choice turned out to be an accident, because Groening's real grandfather was also named Abraham.

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6972. Alchemist James Price Drank Poison-James Price was an English alchemist who claimed he could transmute mercury into silver or gold. When he was challenged to repeat the feat in front of credible witnesses, he agreed to a public demonstration. Instead of performing the experiment, he drank prussic acid in front of them and died on the spot.

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6973. C. V. Raman Sailed Early-In July 1930, Indian physicist C. V. Raman was so sure he would win that year's Nobel Prize in Physics that he booked steamboat tickets to Stockholm for himself and his wife months in advance. He did not want to wait for the official announcement later in the year because the sea journey from India to Europe took a long time. His confidence proved right when he was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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6974. Swiss Citizenship Denied Over Raclette-In 2018, a British ex-banker who ran a café in Zurich applied for Swiss citizenship and sat for the local naturalization interview. Officials asked him about Swiss cheeses and their cantons of origin, including where raclette comes from. When he could not name Valais as the answer, the panel ruled that he lacked sufficient cultural knowledge. His application was rejected under the rule that applicants must be familiar with Swiss food traditions.

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6975. Himakajima Annual Green Light-On Himakajima, a small island in Japan, there is only one set of traffic lights. The signal stays red all year and turns green only once, during an annual safety lesson for local children. Teachers use that day to show kids how to cross properly before they leave the island for schools on the mainland.

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6976. Egyptian Sed Festival Fitness Test-In ancient Egypt, when a pharaoh reached the 30th year of his reign, the court held a Sed festival, a royal jubilee to renew his kingship. As part of the ceremony, the aging ruler had to run a set course to show he still had the strength and vitality to govern. The rite symbolized his ability to maintain maat, or order, for Egypt. If he proved himself, the festival confirmed his right to continue ruling.

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6977. Ancient Beer Contained Tetracycline-Researchers found that ancient Egyptians and Nubians regularly drank beer that contained tetracycline, an antibiotic modern scientists did not identify until 1948. The brew likely picked up the drug from the fermentation process, which introduced antibiotic-producing bacteria into the grain-based beer. Because they consumed it in large quantities, people in the region were effectively dosing themselves with an antibiotic.

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6978. Alexander's Name Adopted by Jews-When Alexander the Great reached Jerusalem in the 4th century BCE, he granted the Jewish community favorable terms and allowed them to keep their laws and autonomy. They were so grateful that they decreed every Jewish child born that year should be named Alexander. Over time, Jews adapted the name into the Yiddish word meaning

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6979. Faqing's Murderous Buddhist Rebellion-In 515 A.D., during China's Northern Wei dynasty, a monk named Faqing declared himself a new Buddha and founded what he called the Mahayana, or Maitreya sect. He told followers to kill people and cause chaos and taught that killing one person made you a first-stage bodhisattva, while killing ten made you a tenth-stage bodhisattva. Backed by Li Guibo, he gathered an army of more than 50,000 and slaughtered officials in the name of Buddhist renewal. The Northern Wei government crushed the uprising, which became known as the Faqing Rebellion.

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6980. Gateway Arch Legs Forced Apart-During construction of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, several filmmakers recorded the work because they thought the two stainless steel legs might not meet at the top. As the final keystone section went in, thermal expansion made the legs press together. Workers ran water from firehoses over the arch to cool it and used hydraulic jacks to push the legs apart just enough. That let them slide the keystone into place and complete the monument.

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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!

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    • 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).

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  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!

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  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

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  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

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