Weird But True!
Due to administrative oversight, murder is legal in more than two dozen U.S. municipalities.
Staring upward into the moving blades of a ceiling fan from a prone position may induce hiccups.
The screw is merely a cylinder wrapped with an inclined plane!
Among the items salvaged from the Titanic debris field on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean was a nearly complete set of elephant bones.
It is physically impossible to simultaneously experience flatulence and vertigo.
The dish that we commonly call ravioli was first known as lasagna, and vice-versa.
It cost less money to make The Wizard of Oz than the U.S. government spends on a single cockpit toggle switch for Air Force One.
Construction of the Panama Canal was actually merely the excavation of an ancient land bridge engineered by the Aztecs.
A typical gum ball dropped from a height of 100 meters toward the surface of Mars will reach a terminal velocity sufficient to penetrate the human skull.
Jell-O was originally invented as a means for preserving medical cadavers.
Popular astronomer Carl Sagan never received any formal education beyond the eighth grade.
Plantains are deliberately malnourished bananas.
The sleeper sofa was invented in 1871 by New Jersey carpenter Leonard Couch.
A bomb with the explosive power of half a stick of dynamite can be assembled using just a battery, a fuse and a Big Mac.
Napoleon Bonaparte was known to be fond of trail mix.
Performance artist Tiny Tim was a hoax perpetrated by Jim Nabors.
Slim Whitman has sold more records than the Beatles and Elvis combined.
The first Red Lobster folded during the McCarthy hearings.
A group of twelve or more feral cats is known as a caravan.
Trading cards were introduced by the Yankee Tobacco Company in 1864 and featured contemporary Union generals.
A theramin was discovered in the possession of the Watergate burglars.
The compound responsible for the adhesive properties of Elmer's Glue is a closely guarded secret.
Contrary to popular lore, U.S. automobile license plates have never been manufactured by the incarcerated.
A one-ounce box of raisins will intoxicate an adult mouse.
Bowling alleys in the Czech Republic have 15-pin arrays.
Former Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools and current U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has never held a teaching position!
The average U.S. household uses enough square feet of toilet paper each year to tile the entirety of Vatican City.
The Pythagorean Theorem has never been proven.
During the French Revolution, more citizens were killed in bathroom accidents than executed by guillotine.
Fireflies show symptoms of postpartum depression.
Walt Disney invested half a million dollars into a failed scheme to develop a car that runs on human waste.
The U.S. Mint spends $1.01 on each penny that it manufactures.
Galileo Galilei attempted to launch a dog into space using a catapult.
From 1978 through 1982, every Oscar statuette concealed a complimentary vial of cocaine.
The designer of the pioneering video game Pong was blind.
Charles Manson is a distant cousin of Leo Buscaglia.
The recipe for French Toast was acquired by Marco Polo along the Silk Road.
The movie Kramer vs. Kramer was actually the first installment in the middle trilogy of an intended nine-film series.
The FCC prohibits discussion of bodily functions during the dinner hour.
Carnegie Hall is plagued by several acoustic "dead spots," undesirable zones in which seats are generally given away for free.
The song "Happy Birthday to You" was written to the tune of a liturgical refrain from the Satanic Mass.
Lee Harvey Oswald was turned down at an audition for the Ice Capades.
The Ebola virus can survive both electrocution and lethal injection.
Famed restaurant entrepreneur Dave Thomas battled a lifelong phobia of vegetable oil.
A 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew applied to the battery of most domestic cars will dissolve not only the battery but the engine block as well.
Industrial-grade structural concrete is less dense than the human femur.
Pencil shavings are toxic to baboons.
Ownership of the Statue of Liberty will revert to France in 2386.
In medieval times, horses were thought to be the marine offspring of sea horses and consequently were permitted to be eaten by Catholics on Fridays.
The apparent birthmark on the head of Mikhail Gorbachev is in fact the scarred impression of a surgically removed Marilyn Monroe tattoo.
An unopened letter dated February 2, 1862 and addressed to Abraham Lincoln was discovered during renovation of the White House mail room in 1953; the missive was from a young adult admirer named William McKinley, who warned the President to be on guard against assassins.
Ludwig van Beethoven allowed mice to live inside his piano.
Beloved radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's life was devoid of irony.
The common house fly has no long-term memory.
Light bulbs sold in the Southern Hemisphere are threaded for counterclockwise insertion.
The basic principles of the Internet were discovered by Leonardo da Vinci.
If our planet were to rotate just one mile faster than it does, the resulting centrifugal force would be sufficient to overcome the centripetal force of gravity, causing everyone and everything to fling off into space.
Cheddar cheese is banned in Iran.
Diners wearing belts are statistically five times less likely to overeat than those wearing elastic waistbands.
Ed McMahon was a certified doctor of divinity.
Astronauts must massage their abdomens to avoid constipation in space.
The furniture in the Oval Office is fixed to the floor.
Cell phone technology is a byproduct of the Manhattan Project.
Whiskey, vinegar and uric acid can be combined to make a primitive embalming fluid.
Charles Dickens was illiterate until a year before he wrote his first novel.
A crocodile's reproductive organs are in its mouth.
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 destroyed the first functional prototype of a television.
Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst bought the Great Wall of China for an undisclosed sum in 1895 from a visiting delegation of Chinese diplomats. The Chinese government later refused to acknowledge the sale.
Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie had only one Eustachian tube.
The Eiffel Tower, though constructed of iron, repels magnets.
