Factropolis -- A new fun fact every day!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rabbits are sexually stimulated by the scent of talcum powder.


See also:
- The Humane Society

keywords: nature, bunny, bunnies, mammal, talc, mating, sex, reproduction, animal, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Saturday, August 30, 2008

George Washington never wore wooden dentures - but his horse did.


See also:
- The White House

keywords: history, famous people, government, united states of america, first president, false teeth, continental army, cherry tree, american revolution, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Friday, August 29, 2008

In a very early draft of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones carried brass knuckles instead of a bullwhip.


See also:
- Indiana Jones Official Site

keywords: entertainment, film, george lucas, steven spielberg, harrison ford, famous people, movie, movies, idol, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Thursday, August 28, 2008

Adolph Hitler played chess daily. He always played the white pieces, and insisted on being allowed to replace one of his bishops with a second queen.


See also:
- Chess.net

keywords: entertainment, history, famous people, government, nazi, world war ii, holocaust, germany, game, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, enjoyed a successful career as an architect despite having dyslexia and a paralyzing fear of heights.


See also:
- Eiffel Tower official site

keywords: science and technology, history, famous people, culture and places, france, french, architecture, engineer, phobias, acrophobia, statue of liberty, dyslexic, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was so convinced the White House was haunted that she kept a vial of holy water on her nightstand.


See also:
- Eleanor Roosevelt

keywords: president, theodore roosevelt, history, famous people, religion, government, white house, haunting, ghost, supernatural, sleep, anna eleanor roosevelt, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Monday, August 25, 2008

On Christmas Day, 1968, a scheduling mixup left Checkpoint Charlie unmanned for 12 hours.


See also:
- Checkpoint Charlie Museum

keywords: history, government, cold war, berlin, germany, east germany, west germany, berlin wall, wwii, world war ii, friedrichstraße crossing point, checkpoint alpha, checkpoint bravo, gdr, army, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Sunday, August 24, 2008

The site where the Parthenon was built had to be cleared of hundreds of dinosaur bones (then called giants' bones) before construction could begin.


See also:
- The Parthenon
- Prehistoric life

keywords: science and technology, history, nature, culture and places, terrible lizards, ancient greece, greek, architecture, doric, ionic, corinthian, columns, perikles, pericles, gods and goddesses, metopes, archaeology, pathenon, hadrosaurus, bone wars


Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Red Baron wasn't particularly patriotic - he just wanted to fly. He applied to both the German Army Air Service and the British Royal Air Force.


See also:
- NOVA: Who killed the Red Baron?

keywords: manfred albrecht freiherr von richthofen, military, history, famous people, government, fighter pilot, flying ace, dog fight, luftwaffe, oswald boelcke, pour le mérite, the flying circus, lieutenant wilfrid "wop" may, cedric popkin, australian 24th machine gun company, vickers gun, peanuts, snoopy, la baron rouge, le diable rouge, petit rouge, red knight, der rote kampfflieger, world war i, trivia, funa fact, fact of the day


Friday, August 22, 2008

The practice of shrinking heads, strongly associated with primitive tribes of South America, was also a common custom among the Knights Templar.


See also:
- Shrunken Head Museum

keywords: entertainment, science and technology, history, religion, nature, culture and places, shrunken heads, tsantsa, headhunter, head hunter, headhunting, mandibular prognathism, poor fellow-soldiers of christ and the temple of solomon, dan brown, the da vinci code, military, death, middle ages, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Princess Diana had her navel pierced - and fitted with a 2.8-carat diamond stud - just a few hours before her fatal accident.


See also:
- TIME: 100 Heroes

keywords: famous people, government, lady di, princess of wales, england, death, dodi al-fayed, diana frances spencer, paparazzi, royalty, royal house of windsor, prince william, prince harry, prince charles, car crash, tunnel, conspiracy, belly button, jewelry, fad, fashion, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Archimedes endured a tragic fate at the hands of drunken Roman soldiers. After forcing him to cut off and eat his own nose, they boiled him in oil.


See also:
- Archimedes

keywords: greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, philosopher, greece, rome, scientist, 287 bc-212 bc, syracuse, screw, mirrors, heat ray, war, death, torture, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The striped mittenfish, a deepwater species recently discovered in the Java Sea, can change its sex at will by turning its entire body inside out.


See also:
- Hermaphroditic Fish

keywords: sexuality, nature, indonesia, java and sumatra, hermaphrodite, hermaphroditic, animals, deep sea, rare fish, new species, sunda shelf, mate, mating, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Monday, August 18, 2008

Counterculture icon Timothy Leary was afraid of barbers. He learned to cut his own hair at the age of nine, and never again visited a barbershop.


See also:
- Official site of Timothy Leary

keywords: entertainment, drugs, lsd, psychology, hippie, famous people, turn on, tune in, drop out, barber, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Sunday, August 17, 2008

The lion used in the original MGM movie logo killed its trainer and two assistants the day after the logo was filmed.


See also:
- MGM official site

keywords: entertainment, history, nature, lion, metro-goldwyn-mayer, cinema, leo the lion mascot, slats, animals, movie, movies, studio, film, hollywood, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Saturday, August 16, 2008

In 2004, a lab at a university in Texas received a $6 million federal grant to breed radioactive armadillos for possible use in warfare.


See also:
- Texas Parks and Wildlife

keywords: science and technology, nature, government, research, radiation, war, terror, weapon of mass destruction, george w. bush, white house, republican, nuclear, geiger counter, trivia, fact of the day, fun fact


Friday, August 15, 2008

In 1903, a stone phallus weighing 2.2 tons was unearthed in rural Ohio.


See also:
- Archaeological Institute of America

keywords: history, culture and places, archeology, phallic, sexuality, native americans, mesoamerica, archaeology, indian, art, carving, ancient, trivia, fertility, fun fact, fact of the day


Thursday, August 14, 2008

Sesame seeds were so prized during the Middle Ages that in some parts of the world they were worth their weight in gold.


See also:
- Ancient Trade Routes

keywords: spice trade, spice routes, food preservation sesamum, sesame oil, history, food and drink, culture and places, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The face of Uncle Sam, the fictional personification of the United States, was modeled after a door-to-door salesman from Canada.


See also:
- Library of Congress: Uncle Sam

keywords: history, famous people, culture and places, government, america, mascot, i want you for u.s. army, poster, art, frank bellew, thomas nast, trivia, fact of the day, fun fact


Tuesday, August 12, 2008

At the 2006 World Gourmand Expo, Asian desserts took last place in every category: taste, texture, aroma, appearance and presentation.


See also:
- The Food of Asia

keywords: food and drink, culture and places, asia, cuisine, chopsticks, grass jelly, pat bing soo, china, thailand, cambodia, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Monday, August 11, 2008

Gregor Mendel, best known as the "father of modern genetics" for his experiments with pea plants, was also the father of the modern nudist movement.


See also:
- Mendel's genetics

keywords: science and technology, history, food and drink, sexuality, famous people, nature, culture and places, gregor johann mendel, monastery, garden, horticulture, plants, darwin, dna, inheritance, experiments on plant hybridization, natural history society of brunn, trivia, fact of the day, fun fact


Sunday, August 10, 2008

High-heeled shoes were originally designed for male aristocrats.


See also:
- How to walk in high heels

keywords: entertainment, science and technology, history, culture and places, shoes, pumps, feet, foot, footwear, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Saturday, August 09, 2008

Nomadic herdsmen of northern Africa commonly used the "Pythagorean theorem" – two centuries before Pythagoras was born.


See also:
- Thinkquest.org

keywords: mathematics, triangle, science and technology, history, pythagoras of samos, pythagorus, pythagoreanism, famous people, religion, ionian philosopher, culture and places, plato, a2+b2=c2, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Friday, August 08, 2008

The museum that housed the largest collection of original Smokey the Bear memorabilia was burned to the ground by an arsonist.


See also:
- Smokey the Bear

keywords: history, nature, government, forest fire, department of agriculture, fire, fireman, only you can prevent forest fires, only you can prevent wildfires, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Thursday, August 07, 2008

On April Fool's Day, 1975, pranksters broke into London's Big Ben and switched its gears so that it ran counter-clockwise.


See also:
- Big Ben

keywords: entertainment, history, culture and places, clock, england, clock tower, westminster, parliament, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Roman governor Pontius Pilate had a tattoo of an angel across his back.


See also:
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Pontius Pilate

keywords: history, religion, culture and places, christianity, famous people, ludaea province of rome, jesus christ, crucifixion, passion, procula, cross, jew, jewish, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Johnny Appleseed planted twice as many pear trees as apple trees.


See also:
- Factropolis, The Obscure Trivia Authority

keywords: history, food and drink, famous people, nature, agriculture, pioneer, nurseryman, missionary, john chapman, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Monday, August 04, 2008

The Vikings wore primitive tube socks made from sheeps' bladders and peat moss.


See also:
- Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga

keywords: science and technology, history, fashion, culture and places, scandinavia, sweden, norway, longship, horned hat, norse, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Sunday, August 03, 2008

William Shakespeare was dyslexic.


See also:
- International Dyslexia Association
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

keywords: entertainment, literature, history, famous people, arts, romeo and juliet, dyslexia, disorder, english, globe theater


Saturday, August 02, 2008

Emperor penguins appear in one of the ancient Minoan frescoes on the Santorini archipeligo in the Aegean Sea.


See also:
- The Thera Foundation

keywords: history, nature, culture and places, art, archaeology, ancient people, atlantis, volcanic eruption, travel, exploration, migration, antarctica, trade, akrotiri, thera, greece, cyclades, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day


Friday, August 01, 2008

Marilyn Monroe was a pipe smoker.


See also:
- MarilynMonroe.com

keywords: entertainment, famous people, some like it hot, blonde bombshell, actress, model, sex symbol, norma jean mortenson, playboy, tobacco, nicotine, addiction, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day