Fact Cards

7951. London Pays Rent For Lost Land-Since 1211, the City of London has been paying rent to the Crown for a plot of land in Shropshire, although the location of the land has been lost to history. Rather than cash, the annual payment is made in the form of a billhook, a knife-like tool used in agriculture, and an axe.

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7952. Body Heat Blocks Fungal Infections-Warm-blooded mammals are naturally resistant to most fungal infections, as their body heat creates a “thermal barrier” that many fungi cannot withstand. Researchers have argued that endothermy, or internal heat production, may have evolved partly because it protected animals from deadly fungal pathogens. That heat comes at a high energy cost, but it also helps explain why fungi infect mammals far less often than plants, insects, and cold-blooded animals.

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7953. William Marshal Saved England At Seventy-English knight William Marshal rose from obscurity to become one of the most celebrated warriors of the Middle Ages, reportedly winning about 500 tournaments. He saved Eleanor of Aquitaine from capture, unhorsed Richard the Lionheart in combat, and later journeyed to the Holy Land. Marshal also helped redraft Magna Carta and, at about 70 years old, personally led a charge that helped save England from a French invasion.

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7954. Margaret Thatcher Loved Chemistry More-Before British politician Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom's first female prime minister, she worked as a research chemist at Oxford University. In 1951, she co-authored a scientific paper on the

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7955. Kathrine Switzer Claimed Bib 261-In 1967, American marathon runner Kathrine Switzer entered the Boston Marathon despite an unofficial ban on women competing in the race. She wore bib number 261 and became the first woman to officially run the marathon. Fifty years later, she returned to the Boston Marathon with the same number. The race then retired bib 261 in her honor.

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7956. Delta Crew Predicted Its Scandal-In 1988, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashed shortly after takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and its cockpit voice recorder later became a major part of the investigation. The recording showed the crew discussing drink mixes and dating habits during takeoff procedures instead of maintaining a sterile cockpit. One pilot even joked that if they crashed,

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7957. France Measured The Meter Wrong-When France first defined the meter, it set the length as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. French astronomers Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre Méchain were sent to measure the meridian arc needed for the calculation. But an error in the survey went unnoticed for decades, and the resulting meter ended up about 0.2 millimeters too short.

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7958. Cheeseface Cover Joke Turned Deadly-In 1973, Cheeseface became the dog on National Lampoon's infamous cover that warned,

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7959. Nicolas Cage Won Without Pay-In 1995, American actor Nicolas Cage starred in

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7960. Amish Beards Reject The Mustache-After Amish men marry, they grow beards but continue shaving their upper lip so they do not grow a mustache. The custom traces back to the Amish community's origins in Switzerland, where mustaches were associated with military service. By shaving the mustache while keeping the beard, Amish men signal their commitment to pacifism.

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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!

    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).

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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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