60 Interesting Facts

Hello! Today we are going to see some curiosities that will make you jaw drop! I think they deserve to be in the Interesting Facts section, comment below if you agree!

Sources: Hiper Cultura, Curiosidades, Brasil Escola, Mega Curioso and Mega Curioso again

1. The notebooks of scientist Marie Curie, responsible for the discovery of the chemical elements polonium and radium, are still radioactive. The long period of exposure to radioactivity was fatal for Marie Curie, and even more than a century after the experiments, the notebooks she used remain highly dangerous.

2. There are more bacteria in your body than there are people across the face of the Earth. There are approximately 100 trillion of them living in our bodies.

3. Albert Einstein's brain (1879-1955), the greatest physicist of all time, did not perish. It remains preserved today in a solution of ethanol and ethyl alcohol. Scientists have studied the organ to find explanations for Einstein's genius, but to date nothing special has been discovered.

4. Winston Churchill's parrot continues to curse Hitler. The bird, which belonged to the British statesman (1874-1965) completed 105 years in 2019. In addition to being alive, it is said that the parrot continues to curse the Nazis just like its deceased owner.

5. The most expensive work of art in the world is Salvator Mundi, by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). This painting was auctioned in 2017 and sold for US$ 450.3 million!

6. After being auctioned for US$1,2 million, the painting The Girl with Balloon destroyed itself! The author of the work - and its self-destruction - is the famous graffiti artist Banksy. The auction of the work took place as expected. What nobody knew was that there was, hidden in the painting, a paper shredding machine, which was triggered remotely by the English artist. The buyer of the perforated work decided to keep the painting.

7. Vikings arrived in the year 986 on the east coast of Canada 500 years before the Spaniards arrived in the West Indies. The performer of the feat, according to the Slander of the Greenlanders, was the Nordic explorer Bjarni Herjólfsson, who just limited himself to skirting the coast. Years later, another Viking, Leif Ericsson, landed in those unknown lands, becoming the first European to set foot on the continent that we now call America. The proof in 1960, when archaeological remains were found in the region, such as ruins of houses and Nordic artifacts. Apparently, the Viking settlement would have lasted approximately 20 years. The name they gave to those lands was Vinland, in reference to the wild grapes they find there.

8. A writer "predicted" the sinking of the Titanic. To say that he "predicted" is an exaggeration (hence the quotes). But the coincidences are so great that they are frightening. In 1898, therefore 14 years before the famous shipwreck, Morgan Robertson published a book that tells the story of the Titan ship, which sank after colliding with an iceberg. Two other impressive coincidences: the surname of the captain (Smith) is the same in reality and in fiction; in addition, both shipwrecks occur in April...

9. Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916-2010) lived through one of the darkest periods in history: World War II. He was in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 when the first bomb dropped by the Americans fell. Survived. Back in Nagasaki, his hometown, he also survived the second bomb, on 9 August.

10. The Kola Super Deep Well, located in the Arctic Circle, is the deepest hole ever dug by humans, 12.2 km long. The work, of Soviet authorship, was carried out during the Cold War. The objective was to reach the Earth's mantle - something that until today nobody has been able to do. The work was interrupted before halfway. Today the well is completely sealed. Some residents of the region say it is possible to hear strange "voices" and "moans" coming from the hole. They claim to be the torment of souls pleaded in hell...

11. In the list of professions that no longer exist, one of the most interesting, without a doubt, is the human alarm clock. This profession emerged in Europe during the Industrial Revolution. One way to knock on the customer's window was to throw peas with a straw.

12. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, one of the scandals involving Emperor Caligula (12 BC-41 BC) was the threat made to senators to appoint consul (one of the highest political positions in Ancient Rome) his thoroughbred horse, called Incitatus. Although Caligula loves this horse, the nomination never actually took place.

13. The ugliest animal in the world, according to the Ugly Animals Preservation Society website, is the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus). Apparently, he may not have liked the joke very much...

14. The most poisonous animal in the world is a snail! Strange, isn't it? When it comes to poisonous animals, we think of snakes, spiders, scorpions ... But the animal that has the most potent poison in the world is the cone snail (Conus geographus), which inhabits the Australian coast. The good news for us is that accidents are very rare.

15. The biggest dog of all time was a Great Dane named Zeus who lived in Otsego, Michigan. On four legs, the bug reached 1.12 meters. On two legs, 2.26 meters. His weight was also impressive: 70.3 kilos! Zeus was the tallest dog in the world between 2012 and 2013, according to Guinness. He unfortunately left us in 2014, at just 5 years old.

16. Sleep varies widely among animals. An African elephant, for example, sleeps only an average of 3.3 hours a day. One of the animals that sleeps least in the world is the giraffe: 1.9 hours / day. The giant armadillo is the animal that sleeps the most per day. They are an average of 18.1 hours, which is equivalent to 75.4% of 24 hours. If you think you have overslept from time to time, remember the giant armadillo.

17. Believe it or not: the oldest volcano in the world is in Brazil! The Amazonas Volcano was discovered in 2002 and is located in the Uatumã region, in Pará. It is no less than 1.9 billion years old! But rest assured: this volcano has not been active for a long time.

18. Taiwanese restaurant serves food privately. That's what you read. Modern Toilet, a renowned restaurant chain in the capital of Taipei, not only serves food in miniature toilets, but also develops dishes with names and aspects, say, “disgusting”, such as “dysentery” and “diarrhea”. Would you have a romantic dinner there?

19. The longest bridge in the world, according to Guinness, is in China and is 164.8 km long! A bridge like this would be able to connect Las Vegas, to Area 51, and there are still about 30km left! . The Great Danyang-Kunshan Bridge is part of a high-speed railway that runs from Beijing to Shanghai.

20. The world's quietest space, according to Guinness, is a room located at Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle, USA. It is an experiment chamber where noise is measured at only -20.35 dBA. The responsible for the feat was the Indian sound engineer Gopal Gopal.

21. It seems impossible, but it is not. At 73, Iraqi Isaak Hayik became the oldest player to play a professional game of football. The goalkeeper entered the field in April 2019 for Ironi Or Yehuda, a fourth division team in Israeli football. At the time, there was a diploma award ceremony organized by Guinness. What a disposition!

22. Some casinos in Las Vegas do not have clocks. Difficult to perceive the passage of time is a tactic to keep players focused. Another feature used to keep them from the outside world is not to put windows.

23. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. It is not a typo. It is just the name of a city with just over 3,000 inhabitants located in Anglesey, Wales. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which means "Church of Saint Mary in the valley of the white hazelnut next to a fast whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tisilio in the red grotto", has a total of 51 in Welsh language. For anyone who speaks any language in the world, that name is almost unpronounceable. But the Channel 4 News' weatherman until he did well.

24. The strongest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper, which has this name because it is produced in the state of South Carolina, in the USA. Since 2013 it is considered by Guinness World Records the strongest pepper in the world, with Scoville units ranging between 1.15 million and 2.200 million SHU, the equivalent of 29 chilli peppers. Will you face it?

25. In Japan, one of the available ice cream flavors is eel.

26. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, demands that all his photos be taken in Jamaica, his country of origin. In short, the idea is to contribute economically to the country.

27. Some Japanese thermal baths do not allow tattooed people to enter the waters.

28. The three richest families in the world have more money than the 48 poorest countries on the planet.

29. In Hong Kong, there is a limited supply of fresh water. Therefore, most bathrooms use sea water for flushing.

30. In Russia, beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage until 2011. Before that, it was considered just a soft drink.

31. An Australian tried to sell New Zealand through eBay. Yes, in short, we are talking about the country. The value reached 3 thousand Australian dollars and there were 22 bids. But eBay itself interfered in the negotiation and canceled the auction.

32. In 1923, 38,000 people died in a fire tornado in Tokyo.

33. Every minute, about 72 hours of content are uploaded to the YouTube video site.

34. Mount Everest is estimated to grow 4 millimeters each year.

35. The dam of the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, the Three Gorges Plant, located in China, would extend the length of the day by 0.66 microseconds if it operated at maximum capacity. This would be due to the huge body of water it holds.

36. There is a lamp that has been on continuously for more than 113 years in the city of Livermore, California.

37. Cows know how to climb stairs, but don't know how to descend them.

38. It is estimated that 4% of the world population is left-handed.

39. Ethiopia's calendar is seven years behind other Western countries.

40. 9 de Julio Avenue, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the widest avenue in the world, with 14 different lanes.

41. The Sun converts about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second due to the nuclear fusion process.

42. The human body has more than 96,000 km of blood vessels.

43. Wombats poop in the shape of a cube.

44. It is true that cats fall on their feet. Whenever the pussy is in an uncomfortable position, there is an increase in pressure in the region, acting as an alert, thus, this “alert message” is sent to the nervous system that sends several electrical signals to the locomotor apparatus, in particular, the muscles. Thus, the muscles perform a series of instinctive movements that make the animal's body regain balance.

45. All mammals are capable of jumping, except elephants.

46. Giraffes do not have vocal cords.

47. The tongue of a blue whale can weigh up to 3.6 tons, equivalent to the weight of an average elephant.

48. Butterflies have about 12,000 eyes.

49. The Dingo fence is the largest fence in the world, with exactly 5,614 km, practically cutting the country in half, having been built since the 19th century to protect sheep from attack by wild dogs. Interestingly, it is bigger than the border between Russia and China, which has 4,209 km, and even greater than the distance between Los Angeles and New York: 4,517 km!

50. The Pheasant Island, in the Bidassoa River, spends 6 months of the year being from France and the other 6 months being from Spain. This started with the signing of the Treaty of Pyrenees, which took place in the middle of this small island and ended the Thirty Years War. Only those responsible for the maintenance of the island are allowed to attend it and, interestingly, it did not belong to anyone before the signing of the Treaty.

51. According to an estimate made by historians, in the last 3,500 years of the history of the civilized world, we have had only 230 years of peace on Earth.

52. In the 10th century, Abdul Kassem Ismael, the Grand Vizier of Persia then, each time he decided to go on a trip, made a point of taking his entire library with him. And don't think it was about half a dozen books! The collection consisted of 117,000 volumes, which were carried by 400 camels. Couldn't the man just choose his favorites?

53. The Earth's sky is blue because the nitrogen and oxygen molecules, which make up most of the atmosphere, filter out the blue component of sunlight. In Mars, the sky is pink, in Uranus it is green, in Venus it is yellow-orange, in Jupiter it is black and there are no stars, and in Pluto it is black, but starry.

54. When a person is tired and sleepy, the breathing process is sometimes involuntarily suspended for a few moments. The body reacts immediately, because this situation is dangerous, causing a reaction similar to a spasm of the muscles of the mouth, throat and chest, which triggers a deep inspiration, in order to compensate for the stop in breathing. It is this phenomenon that gives rise to the common "sleep yawn".

55. An adult blinks his eyes 24 times a minute and each wink lasts only 50 milliseconds. This way we don't see 1.2 seconds every minute.

56. It is estimated that 2/3 of the world's population has never seen snow.

57. Thomas Jefferson (pictured), John Adams and James Monroe have one thing in common: they all died on July 4th.

58. George W. Bush threw up on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa at a banquet in 1992.

59. Franklin Roosevelt's mother dressed him up in dresses up to about 5 years old. He has also been spotted wearing a skirt and hat adorned with a marabou feather, as well as having shoulder-length hair.

60. Jimmy Carter is the first known president to record the sight of a UFO.

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