Featured Facts

Category Archives: Featured Facts

The First Person to Play for Both Baseball’s National League and American League All-Star Teams was a Woman: Lizzie “The Queen of Baseball” Murphy

March 13, 2014 Matt Blitz

On August 14, 1922, a collection of baseball stars gathered at Fenway Park in Boston. An exhibition all-star game had been set-up to honor and raise money for the family of Tommy “Little Mac” McCarthy- Boston Red Sox great in the 1880s and 1890s. The game featured the Boston Red Sox, World Series champs only three seasons ago, versus a […]

What is a Tarnation?

March 12, 2014 Daven Hiskey

Michael asks: What’s a tarnation? Like in the expression, “What in tarnation!” We have the word “tarnation” thanks to societal taboos against saying certain words- instead substituting in other words that often mean the exact same thing, but for some reason we find it acceptable to say the one rather than the other… Humans… 😉 In this case, the pertinent […]

The Great Depression and Scrabble

March 11, 2014 Tegan Jones

There aren’t a great number of positive things that can be attributed to the Great Depression. However, Scrabble is a game that probably wouldn’t have existed without it. It all began with an unemployed architect by the name of Alfred Mosher Butts of Poughkeepsie, New York. Thanks to his excessive free time while unemployed, he decided to invent a word […]

Why Three Strikes in a Row in Bowling is Called a “Turkey”

March 10, 2014 Daven Hiskey

This is thought to have its origins in bowling tournament prizes. Late eighteenth and early nineteenth century prizes given out during these tournaments were often food items, such as a basket filled with various grocery items, a large ham, or the like. Particularly around Thanksgiving in the United States, turkeys became common prizes. At some point (no one knows the […]

Is Eating Your Boogers Good For You?

March 7, 2014 Karl Smallwood

Cindy asks: This is kind of ewww, but I read that eating your own boogers helps boost your immune system. Is this true? Does physically taking boogers out of your nose, putting them in your mouth and swallowing boost your immune system? The short answer is probably not. You ingest your snot all the time without needing to channel it […]

The Large Number of Human Remains Found In Ben Franklin’s Basement

March 6, 2014 Matt Blitz

For eighteen years, Ben Franklin, the great American inventor, diplomat, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a tenant in a beautiful four story Georgian house at 36 Craven Street in London, mere blocks from the River Thames. As ambassador from the colonies, he entertained, lived, and even allowed other intellectuals of the time to stay at the house […]

Why We Have Grass Lawns

March 5, 2014 Emily Upton

Ashley asks: Why do people have grass lawns? They are so expensive and a lot of work, not to mention bad for the environment. Whose brilliant idea was this? Maintaining the perfect lawn takes a lot of work. There’s mowing, fertilizing, aerating, and watering. Having a trimmed green field leading up to your front door is something of a status […]

Where the Word “Sneeze” Came From and the Origin of “Nothing to Sneeze At”

March 4, 2014 Matt Blitz

Martin A. asks: Where did the expression “nothing to sneeze at” come from? For that matter, why is sneezing called sneezing? Thanks! As with so many etymologies, it’s difficult to definitively say exactly where the word ‘sneeze’ comes from, but it is generally thought that it started with the Indo-European word ‘penu’ – to breath. Eventually, this evolved into the […]

The Interesting Origins of the Words “Geek” and “Nerd”

March 2, 2014 Daven Hiskey

Find more “interesting fact” videos on our YouTube Channel here If you liked this video, you might also enjoy: Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside The Origin and Meanings of 9 Pirate Words and Expressions How the Word “Spam” Came to Mean “Junk Message” 10 Interesting Star Trek Facts The Guy Who Played Luke Skywalker Has Played the […]

Podcast Episode #55: The Surprising Truth About Velociraptors

February 28, 2014 Simon Whistler

In this episode, you’re going to learn some very surprising truths about Velociraptors and how the real life animals differed from the Jurassic Park film depictions. (TRANSCRIPT) Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast

The Truth About Aspartame and Your Health

February 27, 2014 TheMedicineJournal.com

Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. A quick online search of Aspartame will provide you with numerous opinions about this artificial sweetener. Some claim it causes things like […]

Why “Mac” and “Mc” Surnames Often Contain a Second Capital Letter

February 26, 2014 Emily Upton

David asks: Why is the second “C” capitalized in names like “MacCleod”? The short story is that “Mc” and “Mac” are prefixes that mean “son of.” Early inconsistencies in records are what led to having both Mc and Mac prefixes. Mc is just an abbreviation of Mac, and both can actually be abbreviated further to the much less common M’. […]

The Surprisingly Short History of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

February 25, 2014 Emily Upton

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is such a staple of American childhood these days that it seems like it’s been around, well, forever. In fact, it took a surprisingly long time after all the necessary ingredients were invented for someone to put them together, and several decades more before doing this became popular. In fact, there are people alive […]

Why the Same Side of the Moon Always Faces the Earth

February 24, 2014 Daven Hiskey

This is an excerpt from our new book: The Wise Book of Whys, available in: Print | Kindle | Nook | Audiobook One Moon “day” is approximately 29 1/2 Earth days. This rotation coincides with its orbit around the Earth so that we only see about 59% of the surface of the Moon from Earth. When the Moon first formed, […]

How Two Major Companies Used an Arm Wrestling Match Instead of Litigation to Resolve a Dispute

February 21, 2014 Matt Blitz

David vs. Goliath. Burr vs. Hamilton. Ali vs. Frazier. These fights have captured the public’s imagination like few others. On March 20, 1992, another battle entered this conversation. Herwald vs. Kelleher. Okay, so most likely, you probably don’t have any clue who Kurt Herwald and Herb Kelleher are and why they decided to match up against one another, but you […]

Why the Mass Avoidance of Some Business is Called “Boycotting”

February 20, 2014 Daven Hiskey

This term was named after a nineteenth century Englishman, Captain Charles C. Boycott (who originally had the surname “Boycatt,” but the family changed the spelling when he was nine years old). If you guessed that at a certain point Captain Boycott became quite unpopular with the masses, you’re correct. Shortly before Boycott would find himself boycotted, the situation in Ireland […]

The Flying Tank – Antonov A-40

February 19, 2014 Karl Smallwood

When it comes to war, innovation is key and WWII saw more insane ideas and weapons of war developed than perhaps any before it. One of the more surreal was the Antonov A-40, colloquially known as the tank that could fly! Known in Russia as the, крылья танка (literally, “Winged Tank”), the Antonov A-40 was the end result of one, […]

From Billions to Zero in 50 Years: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon

February 18, 2014 Matt Blitz

Martha was a very lonely bird. She had once been part of a pair, with her male counterpart George, but he had died several years before. So, for the final years of her life, Martha sat in her one-bird cage alone. The Cincinnati Zoo offered a thousand dollar reward (about $23,000 today) to anyone who could track down a mate […]

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