26 of the most interesting facts you probably didn’t know

The world is an amazing place that constantly intrigues us as human beings. Every day they say that we learn something new – well, here are 26 quick facts to get your brain pondering some of the secrets of the world:

1. In Greene, New York, during a concert, it is illegal to eat peanuts and walk backwards on the sidewalks.
2. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.
3. In a deck of cards, each of the kings represent as different great king in world history:
   1. Spades – King David
   2. Hearts – Charlemagne
   3. Clubs – Alexander, the Great
   4. Diamonds – Julius Caesar
4. To help them dive to to deeper depths, crocodiles swallow stones.
5. In Egypt, it is offensive to the chef to season your meal with salt or pepper. It means that you find the meal repulsive.
6. The clinking of glasses originated in the medieval days when the wine or liquid was often spiked with poison. The banging of glasses together meant that some of the alcohol would flow between the glasses and would signify that the wine was not poisoned.
7. While every person has a unique smell, this is not the case for twins!
8. Under the ocean there are giant waterfalls, the largest of these is between Iceland and Greenland. This particular waterfall is about 3 times higher than any waterfall found on land at 11,500 feet.
9. Australia was the 3^rd country to send a satellite into space after America and Russia.
10. Technically the term “drown” is not the process of dying but the process of taking water into the lungs. Therefore it is possible to drown and not die.
11. In the movie The Sound of Music, the Von Trapp’s escaped the Nazis by fleeing over the mountain. In reality, they escaped via a train travelling to Italy. If they had escaped over the mountain as the movie suggests they would have ended up in Germany, near Hitler’s mountain retreat.
12. To prevent over sleeping, in a time where there were no alarm clocks, people hired a “knocker up”. This knocker-upper would usually rap the windows of a person’s bedroom with a large pole at the pre-allotted time.
13. Boboylne was a 15^th century insult meaning fool, Driggle-draggle was an untidy woman in old England and Gillie-wet-foot was an old Scots word for swindling businessman.
14. Goats are believed to be the first animals to be domesticated about 11,000 years ago.
15. Pickles are often present in sandwiches because the acidity in the pickle brings out the contrast of the other flavors of the sandwich.
16. Spicy food can temporarily cause your taste buds to bust which will slightly affect your ability to taste, however it will not result in tissue damage.
17. It is possible to be scared to death, however this cause of death is very rare. It is actually possibly to be killed by other powerful emotions such as happiness.
18. Wasabi, a spicy condiment, is made from a plant that grows naturally in the rivers of Japan, Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand and China. The “wasabi japonica” plant is considered the hardest plants to commercially grow.
19. There are 12 requirements that need to be satisfied to qualify for Best Picture Academy Award, these include; that the movie must run in Los Angeles for a week, must be feature length and must meet very technical requirements regarding visual and audio formatting.
20. Contrary to common pronunciation, the Merriam Webster and American Heritage dictionaries consider that the correct pronunciation of February is “feb-roo-air-ee” rather than “feb-yoo-air-ee”.
21. It is believed that females created most cave paintings. The evidence that supports this hypothesis is that the handprints left on the walls of the caves have a shorted ring finger than index finger. The average female have a hotter ring finger than index finger but it is the other way around for males.
22. The unsettlingly name “exploding head syndrome” is the condition where you believe that you hear loud, obnoxious bangs as you are falling asleep, when in fact there is no noise at all.
23. Brides stand on the left side of the groom during the wedding ceremony so that the groom’s sword hand may be free to defend against intruding suitors.
24. New magazines usually disappear from waiting rooms because of theft rather than oversupply.
25. Michael Jackson wanted to create a Harry Potter musical, the author of the series, JK Rowing said no.
26. Touching stainless steel after touching fragrant foods such as onion or garlic will remove the smell from your hands.

Do you know interesting facts that you think everyone should know?