In this collection of interesting and incredible facts, we have collected for you the most interesting, unexpected, informative and funny facts from around the world.
Morocco- the only country in the world where, due to lack of grass, goats climb trees and graze there in whole herds, feasting on the fruits of argan, a tree from whose nuts a fragrant place is made.
We may change jobs, spouses, or religions, but until we change inside, we will attract the same people and the same circumstances.
April 11, 1909. About a hundred people cast lots to equally share the 12 acres of purchased sand dunes. Then it becomes Tel Aviv.
In this photo, a rally of Hitler's supporters, which was in 1937.
Rally of Hitler's supporters - 1937
No rally in the history of mankind gathered such a number of people. After 8 years (in the 45th) they will say that they never supported the ideas of Hitler.
St. Petersburg
The only European capital that has never, in any period of history, been captured by the enemy.
For the cartoon "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Walt Disney was awarded a special award in 1937. "Oscar"- one large figurine and seven small ones.
In 1975 Academician Sakharov received Nobel Prize peace. 
That is, the person who invented hydrogen bomb, received the Peace Prize named after the man who invented dynamite ... Peace to the world.
The executioner bird impales mice on the thorns of the bush, thus making provisions for a rainy day.
The English Mastiff is the largest dog in existence today. ancient English Great Dane breed, the largest Great Dane in Europe and the largest of mastiffs.
The smallest private library in the world is owned by Hungarian Jozsef Tari and consists of more than 4,500 items.
If a person under the influence of hypnosis is informed that a cigarette is touched to his hand, the brain will send impulses and burn marks will appear on the hand on its own.
Helicopter flights are banned over Antarctica as short-necked penguins try to look at them and fall down like dominoes.
A box with the blood of poets, 1965-1968.
In 1965 Eleonora Antin (conceptual artist) started collecting blood samples and in 3 years she collected samples of 100 poets. 
Jean Cocteau inspired her to do this with his film “The Blood of a Poet” in 1935.
Among the poets who donated their blood were such personalities as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jerome Rothenberg and others. This box is now in the Tate Gallery (American Foundation). Hence the question. For what?
Monument to a woman's handbag, Italy
The sculpture was first presented in Italy at the exhibition “Thoughts. Space. Dialogue between nature and imagination”, Piedmont in the province of Cuneo, in 2013. Women's handbag is a very important piece of clothing. Psychologists say that a handbag can determine the character, hobbies and much more about its owner.
King's chair keeper
It was the most coveted and honorary position at the court of monarchs. The duties of this courtier included nothing more than wiping the royal buttocks after fulfilling natural needs. Oddly enough, but the keepers had great power at court, and the expression "licking the ass" began to mean: "moving up the career ladder."
Until the 20th century, the position of Groom of the King's Close Stool was highly valued at the British court. He was a courtier, responsible for assisting the monarch in the implementation of natural needs. Given the fact that the body of the king was considered almost sacred, only representatives of noble blood could touch it. It is worth noting that the lords and earls became the Keepers of the royal chair very willingly, despite the fact that they literally had to wipe the ass of the king.
Under King George III, his courtier, John Stewart, Earl of Bute, performed his duties in the dressing room so well that he rose to the rank of Prime Minister of England.
Interesting historical facts beckon with their diversity. Thanks to them, humanity has a unique opportunity to understand what happened in a particular period of development of a nation, society and states. Facts from history are not only what we were told in school. There are many secrets from this area of knowledge.
1. Peter the Great had his own method to fight alcoholism in the country. Drunkards were awarded medals, which weighed about 7 kilograms, and they could not be removed from oneself.
2.In times Ancient Russia Grasshoppers were called dragonflies.
3.The national anthem of Thailand was written by a Russian composer.
5. Those who urinated in the pond were executed during the time of Genghis Khan.
7. Braids were a sign of feudalism in China.
8. The virginity of English women in Tudor times was symbolized by bracelets on their hands and a tightly tightened corset.
9. Nero, who was emperor in Ancient Rome married his male slave.
10. In ancient times in India, mutilation of the ears was used as a punishment.
11. Arabic numerals were not invented by Arabs, but by mathematicians from India.
13. Foot binding was considered an ancient tradition of the Chinese people. The essence of this was to make the foot smaller, and therefore more feminine and beautiful.
14. Morphine was once used to reduce coughs.
15. The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's parents were a sister and a brother.
16. Gaius Julius Caesar had the nickname "boots".
17. Elizabeth the First covered her own face with white lead and vinegar. So she hid traces of smallpox.
18. The hat of Monomakh was the symbol of the Russian tsars.
19. Pre-revolutionary Russia was considered the most non-drinking country.
20. Until the 18th century, Russia did not have a flag.
21.Since November 1941, there was a tax on childlessness in the Soviet Union. It was 6% of the total salary.
22. Help in clearing objects during the Second World War was provided by trained dogs.
23. Virtually no earthquake was recorded during large-scale nuclear tests in 1960-1990.
24. For Hitler, the main enemy was not Stalin, but Yuri Levitan. He even announced a reward of 250,000 marks for his head.
25. In the Icelandic "Saga of Hakon Hakonarson" it was said about Alexander Nevsky.
26. Fist fights have long been famous in Russia.
27. Catherine II abolished flogging for the military for same-sex contacts.
28. Only Joan of Dark managed to expel the invaders from France, who called herself the messenger of God.
29. The length of the Cossack gull, which we remember from the history of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, reached about 18 meters.
30. Genghis Khan defeated the Keraites, Merkits and Naimans.
31. By order of Emperor Augustus, in ancient Rome they did not build houses that were higher than 21 meters. This minimized the risk of being buried alive.
32. The Colosseum is considered the bloodiest place in history.
33. Alexander Nevsky had military rank"khan".
34. In the days of the Russian Empire, it was allowed to carry edged weapons.
35. Soldiers in Napoleon's army addressed the generals as "you".
36. During the Roman war, soldiers lived in tents of 10 people.
37. Any touching of the emperor in Japan before World War II was blasphemy.
38. Boris and Gleb are the first Russian saints who were canonized in 1072.
39.In the Great Patriotic war a Red Army machine gunner with the name Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler, who was a Jew by nationality, participated.
40. In the old days in Russia, to clean pearls, they gave it to peck at a chicken. After that, the chicken was slaughtered, and the pearls were pulled out of her stomach.
41. From the very beginning, people who do not know how to speak Greek were called barbarians.
42. In pre-revolutionary Russia, name days for Orthodox people were a more important holiday than a birthday.
43. When England and Scotland came to an alliance, Great Britain was created.
44. After Alexander the Great brought cane sugar from one of his Indian campaigns to Greece, he immediately began to be called “Indian salt”.
45. In the 17th century, thermometers were filled not with mercury, but with cognac.
46. The Aztecs invented the first condom in the world. It was made from a fish bladder.
47. In 1983, not a single human birth was registered in the Vatican.
48. From the 9th to the 16th century in England there was a law that every man should practice archery every day.
49. When the Winter Palace was stormed, only 6 people died.
50. About 13,500 houses were destroyed in the great and famous fire of London in 1666.
Interesting stories, data and traditions always capture. On the one hand, the volume of information and its availability is growing incredibly today. But on the other hand, choose the right one in this stream interesting fact It is very difficult not to drown in the sea of something interesting. In this article, we have collected interesting details about our world, its inhabitants and events.
1. Mysterious Mixin
An interesting representative is found in the waters of the oceans fauna- mixina. This detachment of vertebrates is represented by 15 species, the largest number which is distributed along the western coast of North America.
Myxina is an ancient animal, they are already more than 300 million years old, and the structure of these creatures has not changed for almost all this time, this is some kind of intermediate link between worms and fish. Hagfish do not have a spine, only a skull, which makes up the entire skeleton. Mixins are vicious predators. They gnaw out the insides of fish with their powerful tongue with sharp teeth. By the way, there is interesting fact about the fact that hagfish actively use fishing nets - they attack immobilized fish and often leave fishermen without a catch. Therefore, in Northern Europe, fishermen often have to change places of fishing, fleeing from impudent primitive predators.
The body of the creatures is covered with a thick layer of mucus and can be tied into a knot, which is an excellent defense mechanism. The largest animals reach 127 cm, although usually the size of the hagfish does not exceed 45-70 cm. The internal structure of the hagfish is also amazing - it has 4 hearts, one nostril and two brains. There are 2 eyes and light-sensitive elements near the cloaca - the hagfish "feels" the light, but does not distinguish the image. Mixins reproduce by laying eggs. At the same time, their fertilization is external, and in some species there may be only one male per hundred females.
2. swiss hemp
Switzerland invented most An interesting way to combat the illegal distribution of marijuana. Residents of the country were allowed to grow 4 cannabis bushes for personal needs. Of course it is possible smile such naivety, but there is a certain logic in the decision. after all, if someone needs hemp, then no matter how cruel the prohibitions are, he will still find it. Then let better man just grow a bush so dear to his heart.
But one must also take into account interesting fact that everyone is entitled to cannabis, which means that a family of 4-5 people will already have a whole, and completely legal, clearing of 16-20 bushes.
3. Birth of M&M's
Forrest Mars Sr. spied on the idea of his famous chocolates during a Spanish civil war. He saw how the soldiers ate chocolate dragees, and due to the shell of hardened chocolate, the sweets did not melt and did not smear their fingers.
Actually M&M's began to produce in 1941. Candies immediately became very popular, so much so that they were even included in the food rations of American soldiers on the fronts of World War II.
4. Long-legged spider crab
One of most The largest arthropod on Earth is the Japanese spider crab. Its cephalothorax is up to 37 cm long, but if you measure the crab with its legs, you get all 4 meters! This representative fauna It feeds on animal remains and shellfish and can live up to 100 years. I usually use it for scientific, food and decorative purposes, often settled in large aquariums.
5. rain merchant
At the beginning of the twentieth century Charles Hatfield called the rain caster. He traded in sewing machines, and in his spare time he studied materials on chemistry, physics, and meteorology. His goal was to learn how to make rain with the help of chemicals.
By 1902, Hatfield had a powerful secret mixture of 23 ingredients that had to be boiled over a fire from large zinc pans. The first few experiments were unsuccessful, but after bringing in the case of younger brother Paul, Hatfield begins to earn money on a bet to call rainfall at a certain point.
The fame of Hatfield is rapidly spreading throughout the country. The most interesting story
takes place in Sag Diego. A contract is made with the city authorities in 1915 to fill the Morena Reservoir in the amount of $10,000. As a result, multi-day downpours, terrible flooding, casualties and destruction begin, the authorities suffer losses of 3.5 million dollars. Litigation ensued after such a massive event, with opinions divided on the connection between Hatfield's activities and the rainstorms. But the process served as good advertising and the popularity of the "rain caster" only grew. Such successful events throughout the history of Hatfield, there are about 500.
During his lifetime, by the way, Charles did not reveal his secret, telling it only to Paul, with whom she died.
6. Terrible companion of Santa Claus
In Germany, Austria and Hungary in their Alpine regions there is a strange belief. According to local residents, there is a creepy creature in Santa Claus's retinue - Krampus. He specializes in punishing particularly spoiled children, and his name comes from "claw" (claw).
The first mention of Krampus dates back to the 19th century, now its popularity is falling. But some areas of Austria and Bavaria celebrate "Krampustag" (Krampus Day) on December 5th. At the same time, people wear scary costumes and scare passers-by. According to the legends Krampus kidnaps children who were especially “distinguished” last year, takes them in a bag to his castle, and then dumps them into the sea.
7. The Japanese have figured out how to "revive" the toy
Japanese designers came up with a special PINOKY device with microcontrollers and photosensors, which looks like a bracelet and is worn on the limb of a soft toy. Further, from the remote control, you can send commands to the device and the limb will move. In addition, PINOKY will be able to remember all the movements that a person did with a limb and reproduce them on a signal.
8. Pigeons of Birmingham Rollers doing somersaults in the air
In Birmingham, England, the Birmingham Rollers pigeon breed was bred, which became especially popular with amateurs due to the unusual abilities of birds. These doves can tumble in the air. Scientists cannot explain this interesting fact - there are no special reasons for tumbling in birds, and dovecote experts say that birds just like it.
9. happy coincidences
Barbara Soper gave birth to her first daughter on 08.08.08, and right on time. Literally a year later, the housewife gave birth to a son, then the doctors had to intervene, the boy was born ahead of time(September 20), but also at an amazing moment - 09/09/09. and a year later, 36-year-old Barbara gave birth to another girl. This time the doctor also had to intervene. Theoretically, the girl was supposed to be born on November 4, but due to the risk of complications, the birth was accelerated and the baby was born on 10/10/10.
Sopers say that they did not plan such a unique event, everything happened by chance, although the chance of a coincidence is only 1 in 50 million!
10. sex trainers in usa
In the US, there is a unique profession - a sex coach. He, like any other coach, must improve the level of theoretical, technical, moral and volitional training of his wards. Now this profession is very popular, and the services of such trainers are incredibly in demand. Among the topics studied are dating, kissing, foreplay, ejaculation and more. In addition, the training program includes joint trips to sex shops and watching porn films. Intimacy with a coach is not included in the program, which means that the wards will have to figure it out in practice on their own.
For those who are engaged in self-education, here are some
- Hydra polyp has a high regenerative capacity. If you cut the hydra into two parts, then they both regenerate to an adult hydra. It has been proven that hydras are theoretically immortal.
- American mathematician George Dantzig, being a graduate student at the university, one day was late for class and took the equations written on the blackboard for homework. It seemed to him more complicated than usual, but after a few days he was able to complete it. It turned out that he solved two "unsolvable" problems in statistics that many scientists struggled with.
- During the Second World War, trained dogs actively helped sappers clear mines. One of them, nicknamed Dzhulbars, was discovered during demining sites in European countries in Last year war 7468 mines and more than 150 shells. Shortly before the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, Dzhulbars was wounded and could not pass as part of the military dog school. Then Stalin ordered to carry the dog across Red Square on his overcoat.
- James Harrison, 74, has donated blood nearly 1,000 times in his lifetime. Antibodies in his rare blood type help newborns with severe anemia survive. In total, thanks to Harrison's donation, according to rough estimates, more than 2 million babies were saved.
- The dog Laika was sent into space, knowing in advance that she would die. After that, a letter came to the UN from a group of women from Mississippi. They demanded to condemn the inhuman treatment of dogs in the USSR and put forward a proposal: if for the development of science it is necessary to send living creatures into space, in our city there are as many Negroes as you want for this.
- On April 1, 1976, English astronomer Patrick Moore pranked listeners on BBC radio by announcing that at 9:47 a rare astronomical effect would happen: Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, enter into gravitational interaction with it and slightly weaken the Earth's gravitational field. If the listeners jump at this point, they must experience a strange feeling. Beginning at 9:47 a.m., the BBC received hundreds of calls reporting the strange feeling, with one woman even claiming she and her friends were up from their chairs and flying around the room.
- When eating celery, a person spends more calories than they receive.
- During the huge popularity of Charlie Chaplin, "Chapliniads" were held all over America - competitions for the best imitation of an actor. Chaplin himself participated in one of these competitions in San Francisco incognito, but failed to win.
- The Englishman Horace de Veer Cole became famous as a famous joker. One of his best jokes was the distribution of tickets in the theater. Handing out strictly certain places bald men, he made sure that together these bald skulls from the balcony were read like a swear word.
- When Weinsberg was conquered in 1140, King Conrad III of Germany allowed the women to leave the ruined city and take whatever they wished in their hands. The women carried their husbands on their shoulders.
- Only in Russian and some languages of the former Soviet republics is the @ sign called a dog. In other languages, @ is most often called a monkey or a snail, and there are also such exotic options as strudel (in Hebrew), marinated herring (in Czech and Slovak), moon ear (in Kazakh).
- If at two opposite points of our planet at the same time put two pieces of bread on the ground, you get a sandwich with the globe. The first such sandwich was made in 2006 by calculating the coordinates of a place in Spain and the corresponding antipode place in New Zealand. Subsequently, the experience was repeated in many other parts of the world. But it is very difficult for the inhabitants of Russia to make a sandwich with the Earth, since for the vast majority of the country's territory, the opposite points are in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
- The intestines of the Japanese contain unique microbes that allow them to process the carbohydrates of seaweed used to make sushi much better than people of other nationalities.
- The name of Russia does not in all languages come from the root "ros-" or "rus-". For example, in Latvia it is called Krievia from the Krivichi tribe, who neighbored the ancient Latvians in the east. Another ancient tribe- Wends - gave the name to Russia in Estonian (Venemaa) and Finnish (Venyaja) languages. The Chinese call our country Elos and can shorten it to just E, and the Vietnamese read the same hieroglyph as Nga, and call Russia that way.
- According to legend, Robin Hood took from the rich and distributed the loot to the poor. However, the nickname Hood does not mean "good" at all, as it might seem at first glance, because in English it is written Hood and translates as "hood, hide with a hood" (which is a traditional element of Robin Hood's clothing).
- Almost all Russian words that begin with the letter "a" are borrowed. Nouns of Russian origin starting with "a" in modern speech very little - these are the words "alphabet", "az" and "maybe".
- The tea bag was invented by American Thomas Sullivan in 1904 by accident. He decided to send tea to customers in silk bags instead of the traditional tin cans. However, the buyers thought that they were offered a new way - to brew tea directly in these bags, and found this method very convenient.
- The signature recipe of an American restaurant where George Crum worked in 1853 was french fries. One day, a customer returned a fried potato to the kitchen, complaining that it was "too fat". Krum, deciding to play a trick on him, cut the potatoes literally paper-thin and fried. Thus he invented chips, which became the restaurant's most popular dish.
- When someone leaves without saying goodbye, we use the expression "left in English." Although in the original this idiom was invented by the British themselves, but it sounded like to take French leave (“leave in French”). It appeared during the Seven Years' War in the 18th century as a mockery of French soldiers who arbitrarily left the location of the unit. Then the French copied this expression, but in relation to the British, and in this form it was fixed in the Russian language.
- The French singer Edith Piaf during the occupation period performed in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, after which she was photographed for memory with them and German officers. Then, in Paris, the faces of prisoners of war were cut out and pasted into fake documents. Piaf went to the camp for a second visit and secretly carried these passports, with which some prisoners managed to escape.
- Emperor Nicholas I did not like music and, as a punishment for officers, gave them a choice between a guardhouse and listening to Glinka's operas.
- Goats, sheep, mongooses and octopuses have rectangular pupils.
- In Krylov's fable "The Dragonfly and the Ant" there are lines: "The jumping dragonfly sang red summer." However, the dragonfly is known to make no sound. The fact is that at that time the word "dragonfly" served as a generalized name for several species of insects. And the hero of the fable is actually a grasshopper.
- Georgy Millyar played almost all the evil spirits in Soviet fairy tale films, and every time he was put on complex makeup. Millyar hardly needed him only for the role of Kashchei the Immortal. The actor was thin by nature, in addition to this, during the Second World War, he contracted malaria while evacuating to Dushanbe, turning into a living skeleton weighing 45 kilograms.
- The English can use the Yellow-blue bus mnemonic to successfully master the difficult phrase "I love you".
- Once a year, the sea parted between the two islands of the South Korean county of Jindo, exposing a passage 2 km long and 40 m wide. dry land and collect the sea delicacies that have fallen into this trap.
- Leonid Gaidai was drafted into the army in 1942 and first served in Mongolia, where he rode horses for the front. Once a military commissar came to the unit to recruit reinforcements for the army in the field. To the officer’s question: “Who is in the artillery?” - Gaidai answered: "I!". He also answered other questions: “Who is in the cavalry?”, “In the fleet?”, “In reconnaissance?”, Which caused discontent of the chief. “Yes, you wait, Gaidai,” said the military commissar, “Let me announce the entire list.” Later, the director adapted this episode for the film "Operation" Y "and other adventures of Shurik."
- In the 1970s, in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, the dog Siv Gustavson was in the municipal service, who knew how to bark in a large number of ways, corresponding to different breeds of dogs. Her job was to bark in city streets to elicit a response from dogs. In this way, she collected information about houses whose owners did not pay tax on dogs.
- Brooke Greenberg, an American girl born in 1993, is still a baby in her physical and mental parameters. Her height is 76 cm, weight - 7 kg, her teeth are milk. Medical tests showed that there are no mutations in her genes responsible for aging. However, scientists do not lose hope with the help of new studies of this girl to get closer to understanding the causes of human aging.
- In the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited. Only 40 days later, someone noticed that the painting was hanging upside down.
- The production costs of all Russian coins up to and including 5 rubles exceed the face value of these coins. For example, the cost of minting a 5-kopeck coin is 71 kopecks.
- Nurse Violet Jessop survived after the HMHS Britannic was hit by a German mine in 1916, and the lifeboat she was boarding for evacuation was pulled under a spinning propeller. Four years earlier, this same nurse had been aboard the Titanic, a ship of the same class and by the same company, and also managed to survive. And in 1911, Violet was on board the “big brother” of these two liners, the Olympic, when it collided with the Hawk cruiser, although no one was injured in that accident.
- Vietnamese Thai Ngoc, born in 1942, has not slept for over 30 years. He lost his desire to sleep in 1973 after suffering a bout of fever. The press has repeatedly reported that Thai Ngoc does not experience any inconvenience or illness due to lack of sleep, but several years ago he admitted that he "feels like a plant without water."
- The Swedish king Gustav III once decided to personally check what is more harmful to humans - tea or coffee. For this, two twins sentenced to death were selected. The first was given a large cup of tea three times a day, the second - coffee. The king himself did not live to see the end of the experiment, being killed. The twins lived a long time, but the one who drank tea was the first to die at the age of 83.
- 1 April 2010 UK online retailer computer games GameStation added a clause to the user agreement, which customers must read before making a payment, that the customer also gives their soul to the store for perpetuity. As a result, 7,500 people, or 88% of the total number of users, agreed with this paragraph. It showed how easily the vast majority of users who don't read such documents can legally agree to the craziest seller's demand.
- The novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe has a continuation in which the hero is shipwrecked off the coast of Southeast Asia and is forced to travel to Europe through all of Russia. In particular, he waits out the winter in Tobolsk for 8 months.
- The journalists of The Daily Telegraph called the Croatian Frane Selak the luckiest person in the world. The first time luck smiled at him in 1964, when the train derailed and fell into the river. 17 people died, but Frane managed to swim ashore. Then such cases happened to Frane: he fell into a haystack from an airplane, during the flight of which the door opened, 19 people died; swam ashore after the bus crashed into the river; got out of a car that suddenly caught fire a few seconds before the gas tank exploded; escaped with bruises after being hit by a bus; fell by car from a mountain road, having managed to jump out and catch on a tree. Finally, in 2003, Frane bought a lottery ticket for the first time in his life and won £600,000.
- On December 9, 1708, Peter I issued a decree on how to treat superiors: “A subordinate in the face of superiors must look dashing and foolish, so as not to confuse the authorities with his understanding.”
- Korney Chukovsky's real name was Nikolai Vasilievich Korneichukov.
- If you travel towards the city center in the Moscow metro, the stations will be announced in a male voice, and when moving from the center - in a female voice. On the circle line, a male voice can be heard when moving clockwise, and a female voice can be heard counterclockwise. This was done for the convenience of orienting blind passengers.
- In the era of black-and-white television, red filters were often used in cameras, due to which red lipstick made lips look pale on TV screens. Therefore, announcers and actresses were made up with green blush and lipstick.
- Alexandre Dumas once participated in a duel where the participants drew lots, and the loser had to shoot himself. The lot went to Dumas, who retired to the next room. A shot rang out, and then Dumas returned to the participants with the words: "I shot, but missed."
- The island of Barbados got its name from the Portuguese explorer Pedro Campos, who saw many fig trees growing here, entwined with beard-like epiphytes. Barbados is Portuguese for bearded.
- In 1910, a criminal on death row called out to the crowd, "Drink Van Houtten's cocoa!" in exchange for a substantial sum from the cocoa manufacturer for the heirs. This phrase hit all the newspapers, and sales increased dramatically.
- South African law allows any degree of self-defense when it comes to a threat to a person's life or property. Traps, stun guns and even flamethrowers are popular here to protect cars from theft.
- According to popular belief, kangaroos and emus cannot walk backwards. That is why these animals are depicted on the coat of arms of Australia as a symbol of forward movement, progress.
- Max Factor - a world famous cosmetics company - was founded by Maximilian Faktorovich, who was born in 1877 in Poland, which was then part of Russian Empire. He opened his first store in the city of Ryazan, gradually achieved the status of a supplier to the royal family, and in 1904 he emigrated to the United States.
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy brought in a lot of income in New Zealand, where filming took place. The New Zealand government even established the position of Minister for the "Lord of the Rings", who was supposed to deal with all emerging economic issues.
- American extravagant writer Timothy Dexter wrote a book in 1802 with very peculiar language and lack of any punctuation. In response to the indignation of readers in the second edition of the book, he added a special page with punctuation marks, asking readers to arrange them in the text to their liking.
- An ordinary standard format book of 500 pages cannot be crushed even if 15 wagons loaded with coal are placed on it.
- Pushkin was a master of sarcastic impromptu. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When the young poet appeared, the dignitary did not even think to change his position. Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu. Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand… I expected more from you.” Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.
- Apples help to wake up in the morning better than coffee.
- Storks during flights can periodically fall asleep without falling to the ground for up to ten minutes. A tired stork moves to the center of the school, closes its eyes and takes a nap, and at this time it is helped to maintain the direction and altitude of the flight by its heightened hearing.
- Khrushchev's famous phrase "I'll show you Kuz'kin's mother!" at the UN Assembly translated literally - "Kuzma's mother". The meaning of the phrase was completely incomprehensible and from this the threat acquired a completely sinister character. Subsequently, the expression "kuzkina mother" was also used to refer to atomic bombs USSR.
- The Cuban poet Julián del Casal, whose poetry was deeply pessimistic, died of laughter. He was having dinner with friends, one of whom told a joke. The poet began an attack of uncontrollable laughter, which caused aortic dissection, bleeding and sudden death.
- When developing the Pobeda car, it was planned that the name of the car would be Rodina. Upon learning of this, Stalin ironically asked: "Well, how much will our Motherland be?" Therefore, the name was changed to "Victory".
- Tsetse flies attack any moving warm object, even a car. An exception is the zebra, which the fly perceives as just a flicker of black and white stripes.
- If the body of an adult sponge is pressed through the mesh tissue, then all the cells will separate from each other. If you then place them in water and mix, completely destroying all the bonds between them, then after a while they begin to gradually approach each other and reunite, forming a whole sponge similar to the previous one.
- A quarter of a century before Kazimir Malevich, the French writer and humorist Alphonse Allais painted a black square - a painting called “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night”. He also anticipated John Cage's minimalist all-silence musical piece "4'33"" by almost seventy years with his similar work, "Funeral March for the Burial of a Great Deaf Man."
- Panther is not a separate animal, but the name of a biological genus, which includes four species: lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. Often the term "panther" is used in relation to large black cats - this is a genetic variant of the color of leopards or jaguars, a manifestation of melanism.
- A person cannot laugh by tickling himself. This is prevented by the cerebellum, which is responsible for the sensations caused by its own movements, and sends commands to other parts of the brain to ignore these sensations. An exception to this rule may be tickling the palate with the tongue.
- It is possible to distinguish herbivores from predators by the location of the eyes. Predators have their eyes on the front of their snouts, allowing them to accurately focus on their prey while stalking and chasing. In herbivores, the eyes are usually set apart on opposite sides of the muzzle, which increases the viewing radius for early detection of danger from a predator. Exceptions include monkeys, which have binocular vision and are not predators.
- French writer Guy de Maupassant was one of those who annoyed the Eiffel Tower. However, he dined every day at her restaurant, explaining this by the fact that there the only place in Paris, where you can't see the tower.
- Sofya Kovalevskaya got acquainted with mathematics in her early childhood, when there was not enough wallpaper for her room, instead of which sheets with Ostrogradsky's lectures on differential and integral calculus were pasted.
- The driest place on Earth is not the Sahara or any other well-known desert, but an area in Antarctica called the Dry Valleys. These valleys are almost completely free of ice and snow, as moisture evaporates under the influence of powerful winds reaching speeds of 320 km / h. In some parts of this area, it has not rained for two million years.
- For a long time it was believed that ancient Greek white marble sculptures were originally colorless. However, recent research by scientists has confirmed the hypothesis that the statues were painted in a wide range of colors, which eventually disappeared under prolonged exposure to light and air.
- When Pablo Picasso was born, the midwife thought he was stillborn. The child was saved by his uncle, who smoked cigars and, seeing the baby lying on the table, blew smoke in his face, after which Pablo roared. Thus, it can be said that smoking saved Picasso's life.
- Previously, in Russia, an alternative name for the constellation Ursa Major was common along with the North Star - Horse on a joke (meaning a grazing horse tied with a rope to a peg). And the North Star, respectively, was called the Fun Star.
- Scientists have not yet figured out what the physiological cause of the yawning process is. There are several theories: for example, that when a person yawns, a person receives a large portion of oxygen when it is lacking in the body, or that an overheated brain “resets” its temperature in this way, but not a single theory has yet been convincingly proven. However, yawning has been proven to be contagious. A person is more likely to yawn when they see another person yawning, or when a person on the phone yawns. Contagious yawning has also been identified in chimpanzees.
- According to the Hebrew rite, on the day of the absolution of sins, the high priest put his hands on the goat's head and thereby laid on him the sins of the whole people. Then the goat was taken to the Judean desert and released. This is where the expression “scapegoat” comes from.
- Initially, on the grave of Gogol in the monastery cemetery lay a stone, nicknamed Golgotha because of its similarity with Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, when reburial in another place, they decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And the same stone was subsequently placed on the grave of Bulgakov by his wife. In this regard, Bulgakov's phrase is noteworthy, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime: "Teacher, cover me with your overcoat."
- The spiral staircases in the towers of medieval castles were built in such a way that they were climbed in a clockwise direction. This was done so that in the event of a siege of the castle, the defenders of the tower would have an advantage during hand-to-hand combat, since the most swipe the right hand can only be applied from right to left, which was inaccessible to the attackers. There is only one reverse twist castle, the fortress of the Counts of Wallenstein, since most of the men of this kind were left-handed.
- If powerful lightning strikes the surface of the earth, it can leave its mark - a hollow glass tube called fulgurite. Such a tube consists of remelted by action electric current silica lightning (or sand). Fulgurites can go deep into the earth for several meters, although due to their fragility it is very difficult to dig them out completely.
- In the 17th and 18th centuries in England there was a position of the royal opener of ocean bottles with letters. Everyone else who opened the bottles on their own was entitled to the death penalty.
- The tiger not only has striped fur, but also striped skin underneath.
- During the rapid development of dentistry in the 17th and 19th centuries, one of the most popular sources for artificial teeth was the teeth of the fallen on the battlefield. For the special quality of the material, the Waterloo Teeth brand went down in history, because many young soldiers with healthy teeth died in that battle.
- The expressive look of Elizabeth Taylor was explained not only by her natural charm, but also by a rare genetic mutation - the actress had a double row of eyelashes.
- In one of the first editions of Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary, they decided not to include the names of the inhabitants of cities, so as not to increase its size once again. An exception was made only for the word "Leningrader", but not as a sign of special respect for the inhabitants of Leningrad. It was simply necessary to separate the words "lazy" and "Leninist", which stood side by side, so as not to defame the image of young Leninists.
- The artist Vladislav Koval sent letters to his relatives while studying in Moscow. At the same time, he did not stick stamps on envelopes, but drew them, and all letters reached him in this form. When the Ministry of Press announced a competition for sketches of new stamps, student Koval brought a pack of envelopes to the organizers and became the winner.
- It is generally accepted that Napoleon was very short - 157 cm. This figure is obtained by converting the value of 5 feet 2 inches into the metric system. However, at that time, the feet were not only English, in almost every country the feet were different. If translated from French feet, Napoleon's height is 169 cm and is average for his era.
- The Bengal ficus tree is distinguished by a special life form, which is called the banyan tree. On the large horizontal branches of an adult tree, aerial roots are formed, growing down. Growing to the ground, they take root in it and become new trunks. Thus, a banyan can grow over an area of several hectares.
- During childbirth, a giraffe falls to the ground from almost two meters in height.
- Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialectal tyutya (“hit, hit”), the name of an exact hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work. Today, to denote high accuracy, the expression "tutelka in tyutelka" is used.
- There is a widespread legend that the idea of the periodic table of chemical elements came to Mendeleev in a dream. Once he was asked if this was so, to which the scientist replied: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, and you think: I sat and suddenly ... it’s ready.”
- Ears are needed for man and animals not only to hear. The inner ear also contains an organ that is responsible for the balance of the body.
- Stevens Island in New Zealand was home to a population of flightless birds, the New Zealand wrens, back in the 19th century. In 1894, the cat of the lighthouse keeper on this island completely exterminated all representatives of this species. When the caretaker provided the carcasses of the birds to scientists, they compiled the first scientific description of the species, and immediately declared it extinct.
- Giordano Bruno was burned by the Catholic Church not for scientific (namely, support for the Copernican heliocentric theory), but for anti-Christian and anti-church views (for example, the assertion that Christ performed imaginary miracles and was a magician).
- During World War II, Oscar figurines were made from plaster.
- John Rockefeller Jr. was the only son of the famous billionaire surrounded by four sisters. The children were brought up in strictness and economy, and John wore the sisters' dresses until the age of eight. Later, he did not hide this fact, but, on the contrary, was proud of it, considering this approach an important component of the family's prosperity.
- After the construction of the Winter Palace was completed, the entire area was littered with construction debris. Emperor Peter III decided to get rid of him in an original way - he ordered to announce to the people that everyone can take anything from the square, and for free. A few hours later, all debris was cleared away.
- The expression "after rain on Thursday" arose out of distrust of Perun, the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, whose day was Thursday. Prayers to him often did not reach the goal, so they began to say about the unrealizable that this would happen after a rain on Thursday.
- For a long time, the value of coins was equivalent to the amount of metal they contained. In this regard, there was a problem - scammers cut off small pieces of metal from the edges in order to make new coins from them. The solution to the problem was proposed by Isaac Newton, who was part-time employee of the British Royal Mint. His idea was very simple - to cut small lines in the edges of the coin, because of which the beveled edges would be immediately noticeable. This part on the coins is made in this way to this day and is called the edge.
- Whales, dolphins and other cetaceans are also called secondary water: their ancestors in the process of evolution first left the water, and then returned there again.
- In the public libraries of medieval Europe, books were chained to shelves. Such chains were long enough to remove the book from the shelf and read, but did not allow the book to be taken out of the library. This practice was common until the 18th century, due to the great value of each copy of the book.
- Female large red kangaroos can mate at any time of the year and are usually constantly pregnant. However, they have the ability to delay the birth of a baby while another newborn is still growing in the pouch and cannot leave it. Usually they resort to such a freezing of embryo development under adverse external conditions, such as drought. Also, females of this species of kangaroo can simultaneously produce milk of different fat content for cubs of different ages.
- The myth of a hedgehog hoarding apples and mushrooms was invented by Pliny the Elder. According to him, the hedgehog knows how to "deliberately" cling to itself grape berries, and in some cases, apples. In fact, the hedgehog is physically unable to ride on its back, while piercing the fruits.
Liked our facts? Which ones surprised you the most? And what made you laugh? What interesting facts do you know? Share. ;)
A selection of interesting facts from different areas that will be very interesting and informative for many of us.
In 1988, Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to star in the sequel to Commando. The script was reworked for the new protagonist and called "Die Hard". Thus began the rise of the career of Bruce Willis.
The world population has almost stopped growing. The female fertility rate is currently 2.36. And for simple reproduction of the population, a female fertility rate of 2.33 is required.
As a young man, George Clooney lived with a lazy roommate who had a cat. Once he had to wash the cat litter box for four days in a row. On the fifth day, Clooney got tired of it and he shit in the tray himself. The neighbor was afraid that the cat was suffering from constipation and dragged the animal to the veterinarian.
In 1600, after a volcanic eruption in Peru, about two million people died ... in Russia. The fact is that the accumulation of ash in the Earth's atmosphere caused the "Little Ice Age", which caused a terrible crop failure, and then the "Great Famine" that occurred during the reign of Boris Godunov.
France is the only European country capable of self-sufficiency in basic foodstuffs.
If you see a cloud from an atomic explosion, stretch your hand towards it and bend thumb so that it obscures the "mushroom". If the cloud is larger than a finger, then you are in the radiation zone and you need to urgently evacuate.
In the American city of Anthem (Arizona) there is a monument that functions only once a year, on Veterans Day - November 11th. On this day, the sun's rays fall on the monument at such an angle that they pass through all the rings in five concrete structures, symbolizing the five branches of the US military, and illuminate the mosaic in the form of the "Great Seal".
One person tried to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco), but survived. He later admitted that this "flight" completely turned his whole idea of \u200b\u200blife upside down. “I suddenly realized that there is absolutely nothing in my life that could not be corrected. Except for one thing - this very jump, which I just decided on.
The first visitor to Disneyland was a college student named Dave McPherson. But at that time, he did not have time to ride on any of the rides, as he was in a hurry to go to class. But later he had a chance to more than catch up - he was given a lifetime pass to all Disneylands on the planet.
Japan imports rice from the US - but only to meet World Trade Organization requirements. The Japanese almost never eat this rice. Most of it is sent to North Korea as humanitarian aid, the rest is fed to pigs or rots in warehouses.
The ancestors of the first whales were medium-sized land-dwelling mammals.
Before Hitler arrived in Paris during World War II, the French cut all the cables of the Eiffel Tower. If the Fuhrer wanted to look at the city from above, he would have to climb the stairs to the top, which he did not do. Therefore, the Parisians are proud to say that although Hitler captured France, the Eiffel Tower was too tough for him.
In 2006, Claudia Mejia, a resident of the American city of Orlando, went to give birth in a local hospital. When she woke up after giving birth, it turned out that she had neither arms nor legs. To all attempts to find out why all the limbs were amputated to the woman, the hospital replies that, they say, they cannot voice the reason, because, in this way, the rights of other patients will be violated. Allegedly, she contracted some kind of disease already in the hospital from other patients, and the hospital has no right to disclose this information. As a result, Claudia was never able to find out why she was left without arms and legs.
In Vilnius (Lithuania) there is a small district of Uzupis, which declared itself an independent republic. This republic has its own flag, its own currency, a president, a cabinet of ministers and even an army of 11 people
Once the Indian Maharaja Jai Singh visited the pavilion of the Rolls-Royce company in London. One of the workers, not understanding who was in front of him, allowed himself a caustic remark that, they say, "our product is clearly not affordable for you." Singh bought ten cars, brought them to India and ordered them to be used to transport garbage.
In 1998, during the Australian Open, sisters Serena and Venus Williams recklessly declared that they could easily beat any man ranked below 200 in the ranking of tennis players. The German tennis player Carsten Braasch, the 203rd racket of the world, responded to the challenge. He came to the match, refueling with beer and not really straining, beat Serena first, and then Venus with a score of 6:1 and 6:2, respectively.
Due to confusion over similar names, representatives of the Slovak and Slovenian embassies have to meet regularly (once a month) to exchange mail delivered by mistake.
The very first version of Cinderella was written in China.
No one knows the name of the inventor of the fire hydrant, because the patent for this invention burned down during a fire.
The inventor of Vaseline, Robert Chesbrough, ate a spoonful of his invention a day and assured that he felt tremendous benefits for his body from this. He lived to the age of 96.
The daughters of President John F. Kennedy donated a puppy from the first dog in space. The gift was made in order to improve relations between Kennedy and Khrushchev. This puppy managed to bite the entire Kennedy family.
Pink does not exist. What we see is a big scientific mystery. This color is a combination of red and purple - two opposite spectrums of the rainbow, and such a mixture in nature is impossible. In fact, certain wavelengths, when reflected, are converted in our brain to pink.
Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito and Freud all lived in Vienna (Austria) at the same time in 1913.
While the person is eating the pineapple, the pineapple is eating the person in return. This is the only plant that contains bromelain, an enzyme that effectively breaks down protein. And since the human body is made of protein, the pineapple tries to “digest” it. This is what explains the sores on the tongue of those who overdo it with eating these fruits.
During the 9/11 rescue operation, the dogs were so rarely able to locate survivors that they were under extreme stress as they felt guilty and unable to cope. Therefore, the rescuers had to regularly hide in the ruins themselves in order to enable the dogs to find them and, thereby, maintain their “fighting spirit”.
Billionaire and cocaine smuggler Sal Magluta won the American National Speedboat Race three times and appeared frequently on television, although he was a wanted man. Nobody noticed anything for 6 years.
The chemical name of titin consists of 189819 characters. It will take at least three hours to pronounce it in full.
It turns out that eggs are even better kept dirty because they have a protective layer that can be washed off with water. In many countries, eggs are washed before they are sold to give them a more "tradeable" appearance, and thereby open the pores in the shell through which harmful bacteria can enter during storage.
16% of Lithuanians are immune against HIV.
There is a legend that the Orson Welles radio show "The War of the Worlds", which aired on the CBS station on October 30, 1938, was taken at face value, as a result of which more than a million residents of the northeastern United States allegedly believed in the attack of the Martians and panicked. Entire families were said to be barricading themselves with weapons in their basements or hurriedly packing to leave the country. In fact, the effect was not so strong, it was just that the competitors of the CBS station were trying to compromise it as a news source.
In China, there is an organization called the Mistress Association, which brings together women who live off married wealthy men. On their website, these women not only share their impressions and experiences, but also help each other collect dirt on their patrons in case they decide to “cut off funding”.
In 2004, humanity produced more transistors than grains of rice, and by 2010, 125,000 transistors could already be bought for the price of a grain of rice. Electronic device with 16 GB memory contains more transistors than neurons in the human head
Biotechnology company Pembient has learned how to 3D print "rhinoceros horns" that are genetically identical to natural ones. The company plans to sell this product to the Chinese market at a price 8 times cheaper than real horns, hoping to defeat poaching in this way.
In 2009, an expert on anti-kidnapping in Mexico was abducted in Mexico just after finishing a lecture titled "How not to get abducted in Mexico".
Abstract algebraic principles are usually only taught in college. Meanwhile, mathematicians have proven that even a five-year-old kid, that is, almost any member of society, is quite capable of comprehending them.
75% of the world's food comes from just 12 plant species and 5 animal species.
Nervous movements like tapping your fingers on a table or tapping your feet can burn up to 350 calories a day. It is easy to see that such habits are characteristic mainly of slender people.
One day, a 2.5-year-old girl named Michelle Funk fell into a river and was submerged for 66 minutes. When the rescuers lifted her to the surface, the baby had no pulse or breathing. After more than 3 hours, her blood suddenly warmed up. When the temperature reached 25 degrees Celsius, the girl came back to life and lives to this day.
