Facts You Never Knew

[01dragonslayer]

Antarctica is the world’s largest desert.​

The Antarctic Polar Desert covers the Antarctica continent and covers roughly 5.5 million square miles.

The Sahara Desert covers roughly 3.6 million square miles.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In 1960, a cow got hit by a chunk of falling U.S. satellite in Cuba.​

This was during a time where tensions between Havana and Washington were at their highest.

So the Cubans decided to make the best out of a bad situation and had a good laugh at their American neighbors.

They paraded a cow through the Cuban streets with a sign on it that said “Eisenhower, you murdered one of my sisters!”

 

[01dragonslayer]

Your nose and ears never stop growing.​

They are the only two parts of your body that keep growing when all your other features’ growth comes to an end.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In the 1990s, half of the world’s CDs were made for AOL sign-up discs.​

For you young ‘uns out there this fact is going to blow your mind – you had to use a disc to sign up to an internet provider!


The world wasn’t always full of all 5G’s just knocking about in the planetary ether – hell, back then I think 3G would’ve been mind-blowing enough, let alone not having to use a disc to sign up to the internet!

 

[01dragonslayer]

Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest!​

Bees can fly at levels up to 29,525 feet above sea level – higher than the planet’s tallest Mountain!

 

[01dragonslayer]

Until 2015, it was illegal to dance in Japan after midnight.​

This was a law introduced in 1948 to crack down on dance halls that acted as fronts for illicit activities and it was only revoked in 2015.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In 1997 a cargo ship lost 4.8 million Lego bits in a storm. They are still washing up today.​

The container ship Tokio Express was hauling cargo across stormy seas on February 13, 1997, when a rogue wave crashed over the decks and caused some of her cargo to become loose and wash overboard.

One such container contained a shipment of Lego including octopuses, dragons, flippers and flowers.

These pieces are often found on the beaches of Cornwall in the UK, whenever there’s a particularly bad storm.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In Tokyo, Japan, there is a hedgehog cafe.​

You can go to this establishment and pay 1,000 Yen to go in, have a cappuccino and play with and cuddle some amazing hedgehogs!

Just be careful when you’re cuddling them because they aren’t exactly soft and fluffy!

 

[01dragonslayer]

The smallest dinosaur ever discovered is only 16 inches long.​

Discovered in China, the Microraptor is one of the most recent dinosaur discoveries and is the smallest ever found.

Most of the specimens that have been found have also been fully grown, so the baby Microraptors would have been even smaller!

 

[01dragonslayer]

In England, pigeon poop is the property of the Crown.​

This is because pigeon poop could be used to make gunpowder.

Because of this, King George I declared all pigeon poop to be property of the Crown in the 18th Century.

 

[01dragonslayer]

The letter ‘E’ is the most common letter in the English language.​

It appears in roughly 11% of all words used in the English language, and is used 12 times in this very sentence alone!

 

[01dragonslayer]

New Zealand is actually part of a much bigger, sunken landmass.​

Dubbed Zealandia, it was only discovered after humans had traveled to space as they were able to easily see it from above the Earth.

Some scientists believe it should be formally recognized as the world’s 8th continent.

 

[01dragonslayer]

A female Gladiator was called a Gladiatrix.​

Gladiatrices (plural term there peeps) were much the same as their male counterparts and would fight each other for the glory of their masters and the entertainment of the crowds.

However, for some reason, very little history or knowledge of them survived – save for a few accounts written by members of Rome’s elite.

 

[01dragonslayer]

Koalas have unique fingerprints.​

So do chimpanzees and gorillas.

However koala fingerprints are so similar to human fingerprints that even the most seasoned forensic scientists would have a hard time telling a koala fingerprint from a human one.

 

[01dragonslayer]

In China, the police use geese as sentries.​

In many parts of rural China, police have opted to use geese as police animals as they are highly alert and capable of making lots of noise.

Also “police geese” sounds cooler than “police dogs”.

 

[01dragonslayer]

There are sharks which can live for up to 500 years.​

Greenland Sharks have the longest known lifespan of all vertebrate animals.

Bonus fact: They don’t even reach sexual maturity until they are roughly 150 years old!

 

[01dragonslayer]

A man survived being hit by a car and thrown 118 feet.​

Off-duty paramedic Matthew McKnight was hit by a car travelling 70 miles per hour and was catapulted 118 feet!

He suffered some fairly serious injuries but amazingly managed to recover.

He now holds the Guinness World Record for furthest distance thrown by a car!

 

[01dragonslayer]

Natural bananas contain seeds inside of them.​

The reason your store-bought bananas are nice, soft and seed free is because they have been specially bred over generations so that they do not form mature seeds.

The most common banana, the Cavendish, traces its selectively-bred lineage all the way back to 1834!

 

[01dragonslayer]

In Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro you can legally vote at 16.​

However, that’s only if you’re employed.

If you’re unemployed, then the minimum voting age is 18, much like the rest of the world.

 

[01dragonslayer]

All astronauts going to the International Space Station have to learn how to speak Russian.​

This is because astronauts traveling to the ISS must hitch a ride with Russian cosmonauts, and the controls of their Soyuz spacecraft are in Russian.

The first British astronaut to go to the ISS, Commander Tim Peake said “Learning Russian has been the single most difficult aspect of my training”!