Interesting Facts
1. When India was partitioned in 1947, the country now known as Bangladesh
was originally called East Pakistan.
2. Mary Poppins (1964) was the feature film debut for Julie Andrews in a role
for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
3. A twin rotor helicopter has two main rotors spinning in opposite directions so
no tail rotor is required.
4. With about 260,000,000 speakers, Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first lan-
guage in the world.
5. In Greek and Roman mythology, the lotus tree bore a delicious fruit that
would cause its eaters to become lazy and disinterested in the world.
6. Margaret Bourke-White was the first woman war correspondent allowed to
travel in combat zones during WWII and also the only foreign photojournalist
in Moscow when the Nazis invaded.
7. The oldest goldfish on record was 43 years old.
8. The restriction that flight attendants could only be female was lifted after a
1971 court decision.
9. Shigetaka Kurita created the emoji while working with a team designing the
first mobile internet system.
10. The third rail is a charged rail with provides power to electric trains and sub-
ways and became a metaphor for political issues so charged that touching
them would bring about the death of a political career.
11. Stratigraphy is the study of layers of sedimentary rock.
12. Henry VII became the first Tudor king after the death of Richard III.
13. The U.S. Department of Justice was established in 1870 due to the growing
responsibilities of the Attorney General.
14. The Acme Thunderer is a loud whistle popular with sports referees.
15. Emperor penguins may go for up to two months without eating during
incubation.
16. Generally considered the first stoner comedy, the 1978 Cheech & Chong
movie Up in Smoke cost $2 million to make and earned more than $44 milion at the box office.
17. Triage is a system of sorting patients based on need from the French “to sort.”
18. In Greek myth the goddess Athena was said to have sprung directly from the
head of Zeus.
19. Mad cow disease is caused by a malformed protein known as a prion.
20. Upon its completion in 1930, the Eiffel Tower beat out the Chrysler Building
as the world’s tallest structure.
21. On average a car going five mph below that speed of surrounding traffic has a
greater chance of causing an accident than one going five mph above the
speed limit.
22. Catalan is the official language of Andorra and the second most spoken lan-
guage in Spain.
23. A traditional gin & tonic contains 2 ounces of gin, 5 ounces of tonic water,
and a lime wedge.
24. Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Albania in 1910.
25. In the Old Testament, Jacob’s brother Esau sells his birthright in exchange for
a bowl of lentil stew.
26. In 1821 Thomas L. Jennings became the first African-American to be granted
a patent, for a dry cleaning process.
27. The USS Kearsarge was the only battleship in the U.S. Navy not named for a
state.
28. Founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon in 1996, Ozzfest is a touring
music festival featuring a variety of hard rock and heavy metal acts.
29. In 1882 the city then known as “Pile O’ Bones” in Canada was renamed Regi-
na in honor of Queen Elizabeth.
30. Just shy of his 30th birthday, Adrien Brody is the youngest man ever to with
the Best Lead Actor Oscar for his role in The Pianist.
31. The 1968 album S.F. Sorrow by British rock group The Pretty Things is gen-
erally considered the first rock opera.
32. Quechua is the most widely surviving language of Native Americans with be-
tween 8 and 10 million speakers in the Andes of South America.
33. A croupier is the person who runs a casino roulette table.
34. “Say Hey Kid” was the most popular nickname for baseball great Willie
Mays.
35. In ancient Greek mythology, the chimera was a terrible fire-breathing monster
that was part lion, part goat, and part snake.
36. Founded in 1873 the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was
one of the first female-led social reform organizations in the United States.
37. Philip II of Spain moved the capital of his nation from Valladolid to Madrid
in 1561.
38. Brownstone was a local sedimentary stone in the New York City area from
which single-family homes were built.
39. The Dome of the Rock, also known as the Mosque of Omar, was home to the
Knights Templar for much of the Crusades.
40. The Juntas Provinciales organized Spanish resistance to the 1808 invasion of
Napoleon Bonaparte.
