There were no
squirrels on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts until
1989.
Thanks to Aimee Kendzejeski of Allentown,
Pennsylvania.
Cathy Rigby is the only woman to pose nude for Sports
Illustrated.
Thanks to Fox Connor of
Lakewood, Colorado.
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created
especially for Ronald Reagan.
Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is
a direct descendant of
William
Clark of Lewis and Clark.
Thanks to Dan
Chatfield (focus@calweb.com)
of Orangevale, California.
Barbie Useless
Facts
Barbie's full name is Barbra Millicent
Roberts.
Thanks to
Jessie
(incredakid@aol.com) of
New
Jersey.
Barbie's measurements if she were life size:
39-23-33.
Thanks to William
Bishop (bishop@netside.com)
of
Columbia, South Carolina.
When ocean tides are at their
highest, they are called "spring
tides." When they are at their
lowest, they are call "neap tides."
Thanks to D. Beaudry of
Gilmanton, New Hampshire.
The last NASCAR driver to serve
jail time for running moonshine
was
Buddy Arrington.
Thanks to Dave of Florence, Montana.
Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.
The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare
back
in
1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD.
Thanks to Whitney
Fitzgerald
of Rochester, New York.
Montpelier, Vermont is the only
U.S. state capital without a
McDonalds.
Thanks to Mike
Korby
of
Brookline, Massachusetts.
At latitude 60 degrees
south you can sail all the way around the
world.
Thanks
to Megan
of
Asheville,
North Carolina.
A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes.
Thanks to Andy Roberts (aroberts@gsm.ucdavis.edu) of
Davis, California.
The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not
attached to another bone.
Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and
man all have seven neck
vertebra.
Thanks to Craig Evans
(cevans@ps-mpls.com) of
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sunbeams that shine down through the
clouds are called
crepuscular
rays.
Very small clouds that
look like they have been broken off of
bigger clouds are called
scuds.
On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the
grass,
the
dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo
called a
heilgenschein (German for halo.)
Thanks to
Cindy B. (cindyb@batky-
howell.com)
of
Denver, Colorado.
The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container.
All porcupines float in water.
Thanks to Lester E. Parks
of Olympia, Washington.
Hang On Sloopy is the official
rock song of Ohio.
Thanks to Stuart Johnson
(stjohn@scsn.net) of Columbia,
South
Carolina.
A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel
and raisins.
Thanks to Liam Mooney of Covington,
Virginia.
Pentagon Useless
Facts
The Pentagon in Washington, D. C. has five sides,
five stories, and
five
acres in the middle.
Thanks to Rob
Buchanan of Robbinsdale, Minnesota.
The Pentagon, in Arlington,
Virginia, has twice as many
bathrooms as
is
necessary. When it was
built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still
had segregation laws
requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks
and
whites.
Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians,
rather than
Lesbians.
(Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because
Sappho was from
Lesbos.)
Thanks to Judith
Grunberger
(jcookson@eng.umd.edu) of
College
Park, Maryland.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get
rid of their unwanted people
without killing them use to burn their
houses down -- hence the
expression
"to get fired."
Thanks to
Elisabeth Pinto (orilib@ccnet.com)
of Orinda,
California.
The poisonous copperhead smells
like
fresh cut
cucumbers.
Thanks to
Pocket
(pocket@gnn.com)
of
Ballwin,
Missouri.
In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's
name
is "Yensid"
(Disney backwards.)
The smallest mushroom's
name
is
"Hop-low."
Thanks to Jodi of Quesnel,
British
Columbia,
Canada.
Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on
one hand , but only five
fingers
on
that hand. She had a small extra
nail on the side of her finger that
she
kept hidden with long
sleeves.
Thanks to Elicia Slate
(cueks1@bgu.edu) of
Charleston,
Illinois.
When angered, the ears of Tazmanian
devils turn a pinkish-red.
Thanks to Chris Twichell (tazmania@mail.utexas.edu) of
Austin, Texas.
The naval rank of
"Admiral" is
derived
from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr," which means
"lord of
the
sea".
Thanks to Geir
Fjorstad
(rfjorsta@aft.sn.no)
of
Norway.
The
Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP
in
Cincinnati wore
a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself,
his
glasses, or his
clothing.
Thanks to Leonard
Rivers
(gaffa@infinet.com)
of
Columbus,
Ohio.
A coat hanger is forty-four inches long if
straightened.
Thanks to Mike Little
(mikelittle@gnn.com) of
North
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The roads on the
island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no
sand. The sand on the
beaches is actually ground coral. When
concrete is
mixed, the coral
sand is used instead of importing regular sand from
thousands of miles
away.
Thanks to Dave Newton
(75304.2012@compuser
ve.com)
of
Pierre, South Dakota.
The city of Mt. Vernon, Washington
grows more tulips than the
entire
country of Holland.
Thanks
to Erik Myhre (elm@accessone.com)
of
Bellevue,
Washington.
Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on
M*A*S*H) was the
only
member
of the cast who actually served
as a soldier in the Korean War.
The southern most city in the United
States is Na'alehu,
Hawaii.
Thanks to Gary Bachesta of
Honolulu,
Hawaii.
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan
carries the designation M-1,
named
so because it was the first paved
road anywhere.
Michigan was the first state to plow its roads and the
first to
adopt
a yellow dividing line.
Thanks to Jim
R. (omni@cyberspace.org) of
Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
The longest chapter in the Bible is
Psalm
119.
The
shortest verse in the Bible is
"Jesus
wept."
Thanks to Dominique
Ibanez
(domy@whri.on.ca) of
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada.
Zaire is the world leader in cobalt
mining, producing two-thirds of
the
world's cobalt
supply.
Thanks to Justin Bell
(ebell@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
)
of
Iowa City, Iowa.
Little known Cathedral Caverns near
Grant, Alabama has the
world's
largest cave opening, the world's
largest stalagmite (Goliath), and the
largest
stalagmite forest in the
World.
Thanks to David Hogan of Leeds, Alabama.
The
only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was
Sinclair
Lewis for his book Arrowsmith.
A poem written to celebrate a
wedding is called an
epithalamium.
Thanks to Maryn Gier (mgier@tenet.edu)
of
Vidor,
Texas.
Maine is the only state that borders on only one
state.
Thanks to Mark Tully of Madison,
Maine.
There
are
almost twice as many people in Rhode
Island
than there are
in
Alaska.
The Statue of Liberty's tablet is
two
feet
thick.
There
are two credit cards for every person
in
the
United
States.
Thanks
to
Bruce
Hart
(bjhart@juno.com)
of
Victorville,
California.
Kudzu
is not indigenous to the
South,
but in that
climate it can grow up to
six inches a
day.
Thanks
to
J.
Powell
(entropy@vetrix.com)
of
Richmond,
Virginia.
Did
you know that there are
coffee
flavored
PEZ?
Thanks to Dave
Heinzel
(heinzel@cencom.net)
of
Springfield,
Illinois.
The word 'pixel' is a
contraction
of either 'picture
cell'
or 'picture
element.'
Thanks
to
Christopher
Derry
(derry@caip.rutgers.edu)
of
Piscataway,
New
Jersey.
Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz.
Alexander
Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin.
Isaac Asimov is the
only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal
category.
Roger Ebert is the only film critic to ever have won the Pulitzer
prize.
A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not
a
Sadist.
Tribeca
stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street.
Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston street.
Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City,
after the Catholic Church.
The world's largest
wine cask is in Heidelberg, Germany.
Thanks to Justin
Shubow (jbs39@columbia.edu)
of
New York
City, New
York.
Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off
by an alligator
while
he
was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild
Kingdom."
Thanks to Ryan
Griffiths
(ryan@hdmdigital.com) of
Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada.
Cat's urine glows under
a blacklight.
Thanks to Stella E. Chambrick (millenl@wkuvx1.wku.edu) of
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Seven Olympic gold medal
winners
eventually
went on to win the
Heavyweight Championship of
the
World.
Thanks
to
David
Fierro
(boscoe@doitnow.com)
of
Phoenix,
Arizona.
Kerimski
Church in Finland is
world's
biggest church
made of
wood.
Thanks
to
Petri
Luni
(petepof@clinet.fi)
of
Espoo,
Finland.
The
St. Louis Gateway Arch had a projected death toll while it was
being
built. No one died.
Thanks to Ivan Schoomer
(ischoomer@macalstr.edu)
of
St.Louis, Missouri.
The average ear of corn has
eight-hundred kernels arranged in
sixteen
rows.
A cat has four
rows of whiskers.
Vincent Van Gogh comitted suicide while painting
Wheat
Field
with
Crows.
Thanks to Jennifer Hatten
of Kenova, West Virginia.
An iguana can stay under water for
twenty-eight minutes.
Thanks to Ben Randall
(b_randall@conknet.com)
of
Henniker, New Hampshire.
Jelly Belly jelly beans were the
first jelly beans in outer space
when
they went up with astronauts in
the June 21, 1983 voyage of the
space
shuttle Challenger, the same
voyage as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.
Thanks to Hubie Chen.
When the State of West Virginia was formed from
Virginia in
1863,
the
three western counties in Virginia voted to go
with West Virginia,
but
West Virginia didn't take them because they
were poor. Instead they
took
three counties that voted to stay with
Virginia, because they were
richer
and they had the B&O railroad. Those
counties have since split and
are
five: Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley,
Mineral, and Morgan.
The car-making Dodge brothers Horace and John
were Jewish,
that's
why
the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in
it.
Studebaker was the only major car company to stop
manufacturing
cars whilemaking a profit on them.
Studebaker still exists, but
is now called Worthington.
Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that
tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant
called Diamond Star.
Thanks to
Gary
Howell
(gary@howellautomotive.c
om)
of
Keyser, West Virginia.
The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.)
If you bring a raccoon's head to the
Henniker, New Hampshire
town
hall,
you are entitled to receive $.10
from the town.
Thanks to Andy Glover of Henniker, New
Hampshire.
The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that
doesn't have one syllable, it has three.
Thanks to Zach
Buckner (zbuckner@unity.math.w
lu.edu)
of
Lexington, Virginia.
Only two people, John Hancock and Charles Thomson signed
the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Most of the rest signed
on
August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until five years
later.
October 4, 1957 is a date to be remembered, it is the day both
"Leave
it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were
launched.
It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni,
and
about
a
gallon to clean the pot.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Acronyms from Logan Graves |
| Presidential Useless Facts |
Created November 1995.
Disclaimer: These facts are not checked for accuracy. Please do not use them in your doctoral thesis or your Inaugural Address until you have verified them on your own.
If you use these facts, send themout as a forward or otherwise publish them, please credit Deb and Jen's Land O' Useless Facts and include a link to our main URL: uselessfacts.info Thanks!
Copyright © 1995-2003 by Deb Henigson & Jennifer Godwin. All rights reserved.