Factropolis -- A Fun Fact Every Day!

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

2010-04-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-29T09:05:00.000-04:00

See also:
- Chess.net

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

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

2010-04-28T13:03:00.002-04:00

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

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

2010-04-27T12:43:00.001-04:00

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

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

2010-04-26T15:34:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-25T12:16:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-24T18:30:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-23T21:07:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-21T17:47:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-20T06:51:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-18T14:53:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-17T09:13:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-16T09:13:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-15T09:08:00.001-04:00

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

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

2010-04-14T14:24:00.001-04:00

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

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

2010-04-13T08:12:00.000-04:00

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

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.

2010-04-12T14:13:00.000-04:00

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

High-heeled shoes were originally designed for male aristocrats.

2010-04-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-10T09:14:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-09T21:48:00.002-04:00

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

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

2010-04-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

See also:
- Big Ben

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

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

2010-04-07T13:29:00.000-04:00

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

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

2010-04-06T07:44:00.001-04:00

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