Battling the January Blues with More Random Facts

Hot air balloons in the sky

The “Random Fact of the Day” Blog is back this year and bigger than before with 10 extra facts to make your Blue Monday that bit brighter. This idea of sharing random facts at TestReach started back in July 2018, engaging the team in some light hearted conversation around the office.

Today, Monday the 20th January is "Blue Monday"- aka the most depressing day of the year, and here at TestReach, we decided once again to battle the blues by sharing this blog with you all with even more random facts for you to enjoy.

We hope you enjoy sharing these interesting and fun facts with your colleagues, friends and family as much as we have, and find that Blue Monday is not so blue after all!

50 Random and Strange Facts

  • 1. The creator of peanut M&Ms was allergic to peanuts.
  • 2. Before they became a movie star and a rock star respectively - Joe Pesci and Jimmy Hendrix were in a house band called Joey Dee and the Starliters - who would play in a venue called the Peppermint Lounge.
  • 3. A blue whale’s tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.
  • 4. The Navy once delivered mail for the Post Office via missile.
  • 5. Ants can lift objects 50 times their own body weight.
  • 6. A cat nicknamed “Unsinkable Sam” survived the sinking of three separate ships during WW2.
  • 7. Jellyfish can evaporate in the sun as they’re 98% water.
  • 8. It takes about 37 gallons (140 litres) of water to grow coffee beans and process them to make one cup of coffee.
  • 9. Chimps can play rock-paper-scissors at the same level as a 4 year old human child.
  • 10. As global temperatures rise, flowers are emitting less scent.
  • 11. A Polish man lived with a bullet in his head for 5 years after forgetting he was shot at a party.
  • 12. When the inventor of the Frisbee, Walter Frederick Morrison died in 2010, his family cremated him and turned his ashes into a Frisbee.
  • 13. The lyrebird can mimic almost any sounds it hears — including chainsaws.
  • 14. Bacon was used to make explosives during World War II.
  • 15. Pirates probably didn’t wear eyepatches because of a missing eye; it’s much more likely that they were keeping one eye ready to see in darkness, so that they could adjust quickly when going below deck.
  • 16. Not one person died of burns or smoke inhalation in the largest fire of 19th Century Dublin but the burning mixture of whiskey, manure and effluent made a deadly cocktail with 13 deaths as a result of drinking the alcohol.
  • 17. In 2013, a Zoo in China angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as a lion.
  • 18. Neil Armstrong threatened legal action against his barber for selling his hair to a collector for US$3,000.
  • 19. Astronauts can't cry in space as they do on Earth. In space you can make tears but they stick as a liquid ball because they can't drop due to lack of gravity. To quote ISS Commander Chris Hadfield, "Space tears don't shed".
  • 20. During the 18th century, you could pay your admission ticket to the zoo in London by bringing a cat or a dog to feed the lions.
  • 21. Before he was Wolverine on “X-Men” or a Broadway star, actor Hugh Jackman got fired from his cashier job at 7-Eleven.
  • 22. Butterflies can have half male and half female outwardly characteristics. It’s a rare condition called gynandromorphy.
  • 23. A wealthy man in Bangladesh built a replica of the Taj Mahal for US$56 Million so that the poor of his nation could get to see it.
  • 24. Spiders fly on the currents of Earth’s electric field. Spiders don’t have wings, but they can fly across entire oceans on long strands of silk.
  • 25. China held the world record for the largest cake, baking a cake that stood at 8m tall and consisted of 500kg of eggs, 260kg of flour, 200kg of cream, 100kg of fruit and 80kg of chocolate.
  • 26. Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
  • 27. Oysters create pearls as a defense mechanism.
  • 28. According to the Vatican, you can reduce the time you spend in purgatory by following the pope on Twitter.
  • 29. The Eiffel Tower was originally intended for Barcelona, Spain, but the project was rejected.
  • 30. Americans eat 500 million pounds of peanut butter a year, enough to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon.
  • 31. A porcupine’s body is covered in 30,000 razor sharp quills.
  • 32. In 1916, the German Empire allowed citizens to take passport photos with their dogs.
  • 33. A woman in Egypt disguised herself as a man for 43 years in order to make a living for her daughter.
  • 34. In 1985, a New Orleans man drowned at a pool party attended by 100 lifeguards celebrating a summer with no drownings.
  • 35. The inventor of the cruise control was blind.
  • 36. Bones found at Seymour Island indicate that, 37 to 40 million years ago, penguins stood at 6 feet tall and weighed 250 pounds.
  • 37. Bananas contain so much sugar, monkeys will get diabetes if they eat them regularly.
  • 38. According to Mario Puzo, he didn’t know what he was doing when he adapted his novel into screenplays for The Godfather I & II. After winning two Oscars he decided to learn the trade properly and bought a book about screenwriting. The first chapter said ‘Study Godfather I’.
  • 39. The World's oldest known creature, a mollusc, was 507 years old until scientists killed it by mistake.
  • 40. Charles Lightoller, the second officer of the Titanic, stayed onboard until the end and became trapped underwater until a boiler explosion set him free; allowing his escape. 28 years later, at the age of 66, he volunteered in WW2 and helped save 122 men from Dunkirk.
  • 41. Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
  • 42. A 'summoning spell' used in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was actually an Irish news item that said: "A special bus route will open in Dublin today despite reports that it may cause traffic congestion as a result."
  • 43. The US government once set a bunch of beer next to an atomic blast to see if it would still be drinkable after. It turns out, in the event of a nuclear war, beer is still safe to drink.
  • 44. The longest prison sentence ever requested was 384,912 years of jail, against a 22-year-old postman accused of failing to deliver 42,768 letters.
  • 45. After OutKast said to "Shake it like a Polaroid picture", Polaroid released a statement warning people: "Shaking or waving can actually damage the image".
  • 46. If you fail your driving test four times in Switzerland, you must then have a psychological assessment before allowed to try again.
  • 47. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher's government considered using a team of dolphins to search for the Loch Ness Monster.
  • 48. Thanks to 3-D printing, NASA can now effectively email tools and replacement parts to the International Space Station.
  • 49. 99% of Australian green sea turtles are turning female from climate change.
  • 50. While shooting Batman Begins on the streets of Chicago, a person accidentally crashed into the Batmobile. The driver was apparently drunk, and said he hit the car in a state of panic, believing it to be an invading alien spacecraft.

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