40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Earth is no stranger to crazy things. I mean, it’s inhabited by humans, the most bizarre creatures ever, despite how normal we may look! Humans remain mysterious, even though we’ve been studying ourselves and the world for thousands of years.

And it’s not like we haven’t made any progress or found out tons of interesting facts about our planet, of course. It’s just that there are too many things to dive into and explore! Like, did you know that vending machines kill more people than sharks? Or that men have a 1 in 200 chance of being related to Genghis Khan? Or again, that the longest interval between the birth of twins is 87 days?

Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going on around the globe, and here at Bored Panda we have a weird obsession for learning about insane coincidences and random events happening in this cool, cool world. If you’re like us, you’ll be mesmerized by the amazing facts we’ve collected on this list! Go on, read them and let your brain get tickled for good.

#1

A large percentage of the budget for Monty Python and the Holy Grail was donated by members of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: rollingstone.com/

#2

Boring, Oregon, and Dull, Scotland, have been sister cities since 2012.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: oregonlive.com, incommunicado, CC BY 2.0 DEED

#3

In a 2008 survey, 58% of British teenagers thought Sherlock Holmes was a real person, while 23% thought Winston Churchill was not.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: UKTV Gold

#4

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: top-online-bookmakers.com

#5

Just before the Nazis invaded Paris, H.A. and Margret Rey fled on bicycles. They were carrying the manuscript for Curious George.

Image source: lib.usm.edu

#6

Along with the five traditional senses of sound, sight, touch, smell and taste, humans have 15 “other senses.” These include balance, temperature, pain and time as well as internal senses for suffocation, thirst, and fullness.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: miraclelearningcentre.com

#7

The Canary Islands are named after dogs, not birds.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: worldatlas.com, Oona Räisänen (Mysid)

#8

The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: visitscotland.com

#9

The “most typical human” is right-handed, makes less than $12,000 per year, has a mobile phone, and doesn’t have a bank account.

Image source:  Chinese Academy of Sciences

#10

A TI-83 calculator has six times more processing power than the computer that landed Apollo 11 on the moon.

Image source: theconversation.com

#11

Vending machines kill 4 times as many people as sharks per year.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: CPSC, Florida Museum of Natural History

#12

In the mid-1980s, Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas was the voice of Charlie Brown’s sister Sally.

Image source: Hal Erickson

#13

Marie Curie is the only person to earn a Nobel prize in two different sciences.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: nobelprize.org, Henri Manuel

#14

Machine-spun Cotton Candy was invented by a dentist.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office

#15

More people in the world currently suffer from obesity than from hunger.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: thelancet.com

#16

You replace every particle in your body every seven years. You are literally not the same person you were 7 years ago.

Image source: drozshow.com

#17

All the ants on Earth weigh about as much as all the humans.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: bbc.com

#18

The average four year-old child asks over three hundred questions a day.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Littlewoods

#19

The best place in the world to see rainbows is in Hawaii.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: journals.ametsoc.org

#20

Airplane food isn’t very tasty because our sense of smell and taste decrease by around 30 percent during flights.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: bbc.com, Tiia Monto

#21

The delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention spent much of their time getting drunk. One surviving document is a bill for a party on September 15th, 1787, two days before the signing of the Constitution. Items on the bill were: 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 8 bottles of cider, 12 bottles of beer, and 7 bowls of alcoholic punch. All of this for 55 people.

Image source: scribd.com

#22

Japan is the world’s most earthquake-prone country.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: usgs.gov

#23

Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: John Edward Gray

#24

Multiple “Marlboro Men” have died from lung cancer.

Image source: latimes.com, tobaccocontrol.bmj.com

#25

Cookie Monster’s real name is Sid.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: MarshalGrover, Alejandro Mallea, CC BY 2.0 DEED

#26

Prairie dogs say hello with kisses.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: northamericannature.com

#27

Goats have rectangular pupils.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Science Advances

#28

Humans are just one of the estimated 8.7 million species on Earth.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: journals.plos.org

#29

If “The Simpsons” aged normally, Bart would now be older than Marge was in the first season.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

#30

Neptune was the first planet to get its existence predicted by calculations before it was actually seen by a telescope.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Science and Technology Studies, science.nasa.gov

#31

The world wastes about 1 billion metric tons of food each year.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: unep.org

#32

While working on Pac-Man, video game designer Toru Iwatani was allegedly inspired by the shape of a pizza with one slice removed.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: time.com

#33

There are more atoms in a single glass of water than glasses of water in all the oceans of the Earth.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Volume of Earth’s Oceans

#34

The English word with the most definitions is “set.”

Image source: guinnessworldrecords.com

#35

Whale songs can be used to map out the ocean floor.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: science.org

#36

Mount Everest is bigger now than the last time it was measured.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: nationalgeographic.com, Thisisbadri

#37

New creatures have been found in deep-sea volcanoes.

Image source: pnas.org

#38

The average adult human has one to three kilograms of bacteria in their body.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: Human Microbiome Project

#39

You’re more likely to become the President than you are to win the lottery.

40 Lesser-Known Facts About The World

Image source: reviewjournal.com/

#40

The longest music piece in the world is being performed in the city of Halberstadt in Germany: John Cage’s composition for organ ORGAN2/ASLSP.

Image source: John Cage Organ Project