Random Fact Sheet #11 – 40 Interesting Facts about Everything

Woody Allen refused Oscars saying, "The whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don't."

27. JRR Tolkien’s great granddaughter, Ruth Tolkien, is the only blind person in the UK to be a competitive fencer. She is currently ranked the 186th best fencer in the country.

28. It's estimated around 40 people go over Niagara Falls every year, most of them suicides. Over 5000 bodies were found at the foot of the falls between 1850 and 2011. Most jumps happen on the Canadian side of the falls, and daredevil attempts have approximately a 75% success rate.

29. The world's fastest production car is a hybrid (Koenigsegg Regera).

30. Polynesian people used binary numbers 600 years ago

Due to an etymological quirk, in Europe "moose" are known as "elk" and they don't actually have what North Americans call "elk".

32. With over 15,000 hours of playing time on tape, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia is the most recorded guitarist of all time.

33. Astronomer Johannes Kepler abandoned everything to defend his mother against claims of witchcraft over a period of six years saving her from sure execution at the stake.

34. In the first few presidential elections, only white, male landowners could vote. Less than 5% of the U.S. population voted.

35. North Carolina declared independence from Great Britain and seceded from the Union on the same day, May 20th.

Marijuana was the first thing ever sold over the internet

37. There's a national pet amber alert where you can notify neighbors within a certain radius and include photos as a reference.

38. Vanilla beans are actually orchid seeds.

39. The tradition of giving a diamond to your fiance was more widely popularized in 1947 with a De Beers advertising campaign that increased diamond sales by 50%.

40. The cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters has several episodes that reference the world of HP Lovecraft