150 Useless Facts That You Just *Have* To Know
There's always that one person at the party who has a story for everything. But if we're being honest, aren't those people the most interesting and fun to be around? You never know just what wild and crazy information is going to come out of their mouths, but they keep you hanging on their every word. Many times, these facts spark the most boisterous conversations, and even debates!
If this person has always intrigued you and you want to be that person, then we have the perfect list for you! From facts about food and animals to downright completely random (yet interesting) information, we have the best 150 useless facts for you to spout off at your next party or gathering!
150 Random, Useless Facts About the World
1. Finland has the most heavy metal bands per capita.
2. Mount Everest was possibly shrunken by an earthquake.
3. Pope John Paul II was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter.
4. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens each year.
5. There’s a city named “Rome” on every continent except Antarctica.
6. Quebec City is the only walled city in North America north of Mexico.
7. Frank Sinatra was offered the starring role in Die Hard when he was in his 70s.
8. New Jersey is the top producer of the world’s eggplants.
9. Antarctica has the largest unclaimed territory on Earth.
10. Edgar Allan Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin.
11. There is a metallic asteroid shaped like a dog bone named “Kleopatra.”
12. There are about the same number of stars in the observable universe as there are grains of sand on all of Earth's beaches.
13. Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic.
14. It's estimated that Americans eat 50 billion hamburgers each year.
15. Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
16. Close to 70 percent of the world's freshwater is held in glaciers and ice sheets.
17. Australia is "technically" wider than the moon.
18. If added together, humans spend about two weeks of their lifetimes kissing.
19. Massachusetts is home to Busta Rhymes Island.
20. The fastest gust of wind ever recorded on Earth was 253 miles per hour.
21. Dentistry is one of the oldest professions in the world. Evidence of teeth being drilled into dates back up to 9,000 years ago!
22. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
23. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
24. The best place in the world to see rainbows is in Hawaii.
25. Twins are becoming more and more common.
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Fun, Useless Facts About Animals
26. Dolphins give each other names.
27. A cat's ear contains 32 muscles.
28. The closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex are the chicken and the ostrich.
29. Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongues, but alligators can.
30. Dragonflies have six legs but can’t walk.
31. Camels were previously imported to Arizona in 1856 and 1857.
32. Snails sleep for periods of 13 to 15 hours. Some hibernation-like periods can last years.
33. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.
34. Most pandas around the world are on loan from China.
35. Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins.
36. Sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
37. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
38. The lifespan of a dragonfly ranges from around a week to eight weeks.
39. The chicken came before the egg, according to the Bible. (Finally, an answer!)
40. It’s possible to lead a cow up stairs, but they'd prefer to not go down stairs.
41. Basenji dogs are the only breed that doesn’t bark (they "yodel").
42. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
43. Ravens know when someone is spying on them. (Yikes!)
44. The placement of a donkey’s eyes in its head allows them to see all four feet at all times.
45. Giraffes can go longer without water than camels.
46. Hummingbirds are the only animals that can fly backward.
47. Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons.
48. Due to a genetic defect, cats can't taste sweet things.
49. Reindeer like to eat bananas.
50. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down.
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Crazy, Useless Facts About Food
51. An average of 3.6 cans of SPAM are consumed each second.
52. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
53. Junk food can actually be addictive.
54. If every Oreo ever made were lined up, it would reach the moon and back five times.
55. Apple seeds contain cyanide.
56. In the 1830s, ketchup was used as medicine to treat such ailments as diarrhea, indigestion and jaundice.
57. Four out of five children are able to recognize the McDonald's logo by the age of three.
58. A bananas is considered a berry.
59. The combined work of the entire lives of 12 bees accumulates to one single teaspoon of honey.
60. The largest scrambled eggs ever made weighed 6,860.8 pounds.
61. Peanut butter can be turned into diamonds.
62. In 2021 three French men, Morgan Niquet, François Robin and Julien Serri, set the record for the most varieties of cheeses on a pizza. They used 834 different types of cheese!
63. On average, Americans eat a combined amount of 100 acres of pizza every day.
64. Honey doesn't go bad (as long as it's stored properly).
65. A lot of oranges are actually green.
66. Pound cake originally included a pound of each of its ingredients which were flour, eggs, butter and sugar.
67. Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch.
68. Dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure.
69. Salt was once used as a currency.
70. 1/3 of the calories in broccoli come from protein
71. Strawberries are not technically considered berries.
72. Caesar salad originated in the Mexican city of Tijuana.
73. Pistachios, cashews and almonds are closer to fruits than they are to nuts. They are classified as "drupes" which are fruits that are fleshy on the outside and contain a shell covering a seed on the inside.
74. SPAM is short for "spiced ham."
75. Sandwiches were created because the Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, did not want to put his cards down while gambling (on a 24-hour streak!) to eat.
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Interesting, Useless Facts That Will Teach You Something
76. Venus is the only planet in our solar system that rotates clockwise.
77. The average person has four to six dreams a night.
78. Our stomachs produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks so they don't digest themselves.
79. The sun makes up more than 99 percent of our solar system’s mass.
80. Your fingernails grow faster on your dominant hand.
81. The opposite sides of a die will always add up to seven.
82. A cubic inch of human bone can bear the weight of five standard pickup trucks.
83. Competitive art used to be part of the Olympic Games.
84. Etch-a-Sketch sales increased after the Toy Story movie.
85. The human brain is about 60 percent fat.
86. Women blink almost twice as much as men.
87. The tallest supported bamboo sculpture is more than 164-feet high.
88. Men hiccup more than women.
89. There are 293 ways to make a change for a dollar.
90. Riding a roller coaster can help you pass a (small) kidney stone faster.
91. A hurricane releases more energy in 10 minutes than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined. To put it in other words, the "heat" from a hurricane would be proportional to exploding a 10-megaton nuke every 20 minutes.
92. Messages from your brain travel along your nerves at 100 miles per hour. Some nerve signals are even faster and can reach up to 300 miles per hour.
93. Mulan has the highest kill-count of any Disney character.
94. Sweat doesn't smell bad, the combination of water, fat, and salt mixed with bacteria does.
95. The fear of beards is called pogonophobia.
96. Women have more tastebuds and can see more colors than men.
97. Marie Curie’s 100-year-old belongings are still radioactive.
98. A standard Slinky contains 67 feet of metal and can be stretched to 15 feet without deforming.
99. Jupiter is twice as large as all the other planets combined.
100. Nuclear scientist Lonnie Johnson who worked for NASA invented the Super Soaker.
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Useless Facts About the English Language
101. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the only English word ending in "mt" is "dreamt".
102. The word "nerd" was invented by Dr. Seuss.
103. The pound sign (or hashtag for the gen z crowd) is called an octothorpe.
104. "Go!” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
105. "Typewriter" is the longest word you can type using only the letters on one row of the keyboard.
106. Sleeping through summer is called “estivation”.
107. About 4,000 words are added to the dictionary each year.
108. Punctuation wasn’t always a part of our written language. It was introduced by Greek playwrights to indicate when actors should pause.
109. A group of hippos is referred to as a "bloat". Other terms for a group of hippos are a herd, thunder, or sea.
110. People used to answer the phone with "ahoy" instead of "hello" as was Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion.
111. “Spoonfeed” is the longest English word with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.
112. The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.
113. "Schoolmaster” is an anagram of “the classroom”.
114. English is the second most spoken language, with over 840 million people who speak it as either a first or second language. The most spoken language is Mandarin.
115. Remnants of liquor left in the bottom of a glass it is referred to as the "heeltap". When a toast is ended with "and no heel-taps!" it means to drain every last drop.
116. The most common adjective used in English is “good”.
117. A group of crows is a "murder".
118. The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
119. The word “set” has the highest number of definitions—430 according to the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary!
120. There are over 150 different dialects of English spoken throughout the world, 30 in the U.S. alone.
121. "Lol" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011.
122. The word “goodbye” comes from an Old English phrase meaning “god be with you”.
123. More than 80% of the information stored on computers worldwide is in English.
124. A quarter of the world's population speaks at least a little English.
125. "White meat" originally referred to dairy products such as milk, butter and cheese.
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Completely Useless Facts
126. The world record for most T-shirts worn at once is 260.
127. The lighter was invented 3 years before the match.
128. Alaska is the only state whose name is on one row on a keyboard.
129. A “jiffy” is about one trillionth of a second.
130. In most advertisements of watches, the displayed time is 10:10. This allows for easy viewing of most logos as well as heightened sales due to its resemblance of a smile on the watch face.
131. Movie trailers were originally shown at the end of movies, hence the name trailer. They were moved to the beginning because most of the audience left after the feature film.
132. The number of dimples on a regulation golf ball is 336.
133. Barbie and Ken broke up in 2004, but got back together in 2011. (Phew!)
134. More people fear spiders than they do death.
135. One lick of a stamp results in the consumption of one-tenth of a calorie.
136. Most adults spend more time on the toilet than they do exercising.
137. Humans produce about six pounds of stool per week.
138. About 35 percent of people who use personal ads or online apps for dating are already married.
139. Bob Ross was introduced to painting via the U.S. Air Force.
140. The only part of the human body that can't repair itself is the teeth.
141. The first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson to himself in 1971.
142. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
143. Since they're such social creatures and require interaction to be happy, it's illegal in Switzerland to own just one guinea pig!
144. The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache.
145. The inventor of Pringles is buried in a Pringles can.
146. More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money throughout the U.S.
147. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
148. The footprints made on the moon can last up to 100 million years.
149. A piece of paper can be folded in half no more than 7 times.
150. Humans eyeballs are the same size from birth on.
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