Fact Cards

7981. Bothie Conquered Both Poles-Bothie, the dog owned by British explorers Ranulph and Ginnie Fiennes, became the only dog known to visit both the North Pole and the South Pole. He made the journeys during the Transglobe Expedition, which ran from 1979 to 1982. Since dogs are now banned from Antarctica, Bothie's polar double will likely never be repeated.

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7982. Jimmy Chamberlin Drummed Until Bleeding-During the recording of the Smashing Pumpkins' 1993 album

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7983. Air Florida Made Fatal Deicing Gamble-In 1982, the pilots of Air Florida Flight 90 faced snowy weather before takeoff from Washington National Airport but did not return for more deicing because they did not want to lose their takeoff spot. Instead, they moved behind a DC-9 in the queue, believing its engine exhaust would help melt ice from their wings. The plan backfired, added to the aircraft's icing problems, and contributed to a crash into the Potomac River that killed 74 people on board.

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7984. Matt Suter Survived Tornado Flight-In 2006, a teenager named Matt Suter survived the farthest known distance carried by a tornado, traveling 1,307 feet in Fordland, Missouri. He had been standing on a couch trying to close a window against winds of about 150 mph when a lamp hit him and knocked him unconscious. An F2 tornado then sucked him out of the house and threw him nearly a quarter mile. His only injury came from the lamp that hit him before the tornado carried him away.

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7985. Diesel Once Ran On Peanut Oil-In 1892, German inventor Rudolf Diesel developed his compression-ignition engine, which later gave diesel fuel its name. At the 1900 Paris Exposition, he demonstrated the engine running on peanut oil instead of modern petroleum diesel.

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7986. Kermit Washington Punch Nearly Killed-During a 1977 NBA game, American basketball player Kermit Washington punched Houston Rockets forward Rudy Tomjanovich during an on-court fight. The blow fractured Tomjanovich's skull and caused injuries so severe that Tomjanovich later said he could taste spinal fluid leaking into his mouth. Tomjanovich survived, but the punch became one of the most infamous acts of violence in NBA history.

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7987. F-111 Bomber Delivered A Heart-In 1986, a sick patient needed a heart transplant, but no road or regular air route could move the organ within the four-hour window before it risked damage. The heart was loaded onto an F-111 Aardvark bomber for a 1,400-mile emergency flight.

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7988. Tarrare Swallowed Useless Spy Mail-In the 18th century, a French glutton named Tarrare was hired as a spy because he could swallow unusual objects, including a wooden box carrying military intelligence. French officers sent him across enemy lines with the box hidden inside his body, hoping he could smuggle the message past the Prussians. The Prussians captured him, forced him to pass the box, and opened it expecting secret information. Instead, they found only a useless test message inside.

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7989. Joe Coleman Got Mouse Ban-In 1989, American artist Joe Coleman staged the performance at the Boston Film/Video Foundation as his Professor Mombooze-o character. He burst through a screen with fireworks strapped to his chest, then bit the heads off two live white mice during the act. Police and firefighters arrived afterward, and Coleman was charged with

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7990. East Germany Used Family Hostages-During the Cold War, East Germany tightly controlled travel to West Germany because officials feared citizens would defect. When some East Germans received permission to cross the border, authorities often required them to leave behind a close relative as

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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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