"3,200-year-old tablet shows that ancient Egyptians took attendance at work and recorded absences. One type of reason cited for missing work was "wife or daughter bleeding" referring to menstruation because men were needed at home during this time to help with the housework."
"In World War I, a homing pigeon named Cher Ami was shot by the Germans, but managed to keep flying and carry the message of help. Thanks to this, 194 American soldiers were saved."
"During the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty that founded NATO, the Portuguese delegate gave a speech in English with such a heavy accent that the translator just repeated it without the accent and nobody realised."
"Since the year 2000, 5 new elements have been added to the periodic table. The 7th row of the periodic table is finally filled."
"Jumbo the elephant was not named such because of his size. Instead, Jumbo the word, meaning exceptionally large, was only introduced into the english language because of Jumbo the elephant. He was so big and so well known that his name became synonymous with size."
"30 scientists and staff of the Pavlovsk Experimental Station starved to death guarding the institute's edible seeds and plants during the siege of Leningrad."
"Japanese man Yasuo Takamatsu lost his wife in the 2011 earthquake and has not stopped looking for her body for more than 10 years and has dived more than 800 times in the ocean to retrieve her."
"In Japan there is a group of prominent female housewife stock traders known as Mrs. Watanabe who are so proficient at what they do that many traders look to them for reference on which stocks are doing well."
"The oldest known writing in the world, Sumerian Cuneiform, is over 5000 years old and only 5-10% of all recovered tablets have been translated."
"The Bajau, a group of people in South East Asia who evolved to have spleens 50 percent larger than normal. This allows them to spend eight hours a day underwater, catching octopus by hand."
"“I Have a Dream” speech was a last-minute decision. Dr. King planned to give an entirely different speech, until a legendary gospel singer behind the podium yelled, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!”"
"1 out of 3 Americans live in just four states. California, Texas, Florida, and New York."
"Six Tongan castaways were able to keep a fire burning continuously for more than 12 of the 15 months they spent marooned on a deserted island in 1965 after one of the boys named Stephen (who would go on to become an engineer), had managed to use two sticks to start one."
"The writer of 'Crime and Punishment', Dostoevsky, was sentenced to death by firing squad for political reasons. Moments before he was to be shot, a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence to four years of exile in Siberia."
"Danny DeVito's short stature is the result of Multiple Epiphyseal Dysplasia (Fairbank's disease), a rare genetic disorder that affects bone growth. He met Rhea Perlman when she went to see a friend in the play The Shrinking Bride, which featured DeVito, and they moved in together 2 weeks later."
"Broccoli only became available in grocery stores in the UK and Ireland in the late 1970s."
"George Washington had to borrow money to travel to New York City for his presidential inauguration. Despite owning 60,000 acres and 300 slaves he had very little cash and part of the reason he took the job was the salary."
"Original script to Rocky V, Rocky is so beaten from his fight with Tommy that he places his head on Adrian’s lap while on the way to the hospital and dies. Stallone apparently wept when he wrote that scene."
"Flamma, one of the most successful gladiators in his time under the Roman Empire, through great skill & bravery was awarded his freedom four times but refused each time & instead chose to remain a gladiator. He fought 34 times, won 21 of them, fought to a draw 9 times, & won reprieve 4 times."
"Tim Curry was one of the top choices to play the Joker in the 1989 “Batman” film, but the role went to Jack Nicholson instead. Curry later voiced the Joker in the 1992 animated series, but was quickly replaced by Mark Hamill as his voice was deemed “too scary”."
"Animals lacking teeth to grind their food (eg. birds, fish) have a specialized stomach containing rocks to replace that function."
"Prior to the announcement of the Mach3 razor blade in the late 90s, Gillette built plywood walls around the production lines in its factory in Boston, in order to keep it a secret from many of its own employees."
"In the 1920's, a man was given 1 year to live by doctors, if he moved to a warm climate. He built a house in Bartow, FL with a lot of unique features and designs, and would go on to live to the 1970's. It has become known as "The Wonderhouse" and become a local tourist attraction."
"United States is Ranked 2nd by Total Number of Spanish Speakers, Beating Out Spain."
"When Chi Chi, a giant panda at the London Zoo, was taken to Moscow to breed with a male giant panda, she refused his attempts to mate with her and made a full sexual self-presentation to a zookeeper."
"During WW1 in Britain the selling of fresh bread was banned and all bread had to be sold stale so people would eat less of it."
"Harambe was 17 years old and had not reached breeding maturity when he was shot."
"200 people had summited Mount Everest by 1987, whereas by 2013 it had been summited 6,871 times by 4,042 different people."
"Aside from being an actor and an activist, Marlon Brando was also an inventor with 4 patents to his name. One of them were pool shoes that that would increase friction as you walk on the bottom of the pool to give you a better workout, and another invention being a single-tuning conga drum."
"Batman was created almost at the same time as the Black Bat, a pulp fiction hero so similar that the publishers considered suing each other. They eventually found an agreement: the Black Bat wouldn't appear in comics, and in exchange, Batman wouldn't appear in pulp magazines."
"Frequent and constant use of earphones increases the bacterial growth in the ear."
"The French monarchy fell five times and was restored four times in the span of a century, from 1771 to 1871."
"The word 'Rizz' was Oxford's word of the year for 2023, beating the words Swiftie, situationship and de-influencing."
"France sent the first cat into space in 1963. Félicette was a stray cat from the streets of Paris and was one of 14 cats trained for spaceflight. She survived her trip but was euthanised 2 months later."
"Actor Gerard Butler paid for bee venom injections twice and ended up in hospital both times."
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