90+ Did You Know Facts That Will Amuse Even Your Toughest Critic

Looking to fill your bucket with random info or just searching for something new and fun to talk about with your kiddos? “Did you know facts” are perfect. Each interesting fact offers miscellaneous (and dare we say, “useless?”) information perfect to toss out at a moment’s notice. This are the kinds of details that stick in your head, but only present themselves at the right time.

You may not be able to recall the percentage of left-handers if someone asks off-hand. But, it might pop into your brain the next time your oldest is complaining about being left-handed. When it happens, you’ll be thrilled to tell them just how unique they are, given that only 11 percent of people are left hand dominant. These “did you know” facts may not help you score big on JEOPARDY!, but they’ll definitely help you get through boring dinner parties and car rides.

Did you know…

1. August has the highest number of births.

2. The most commonly used letter in the alphabet is “E.” 3. Penguin urine makes up about 3% of Antarctica’s glaciers. 4. In Italy, people call Mickey Mouse “Topolino.” 5. Grapes explode in the microwave. 6. Kissing for one minute will burn roughly 26 calories. 7. Only two countries use the color purple in their flags. 8. Oreos are technically vegan. 9. Dolly Parton once entered a lookalike contest, but lost to a man. 10. The Aztecs invented popcorn. 11. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. 12. Rats can laugh. 13. To avoid crying while cutting onions, try holding a piece of bread in your mouth. 14. Hippos kill more people than sharks. (Still think Fiona is super cute?) 15. The average person will unknowingly swallow about eight spiders in their lifetime. 16. Armadillos have four babies each time and they’re always the same sex. 17. The fortune cookie didn’t actually originate in China, but in San Francisco. 18. On a dark night, the human eye can detect the light of a candle from more than a mile away. 19. A cat has 32 muscles in its ear and more than 100 vocal chords. 20. Also, cat urine glows under blacklight.

But, wait! There’s more facts! Did you know…

1. Cats also spent 66% of their lives sleeping.
2. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
3. The world’s first cosmonaut was a dog named Laika.
4. The word “freelancer” was once a synonym for “mercenary.”
5. There’s a town in Kentucky (Rabbit Hash) where they always elect a dog as mayor.
6. There’s a basketball court in the United States Supreme Court building. (We bet RBG can totally dunk on us.)
7. Elephants only sleep for about 4-5 hours per day.
8. There’s a Starbucks cup in every scene in the movie ‘Fight Club.’
9. Have you been to a zoo to see a panda bear? Every zoo panda in the world is just on loan from China.
10. RENT told you how many minutes are in a year, but what about seconds? There are 31,557,600 seconds in a year.
11. Bears have 42 teeth.
12. Shakespeare invented some 1,700 words.
13. “Strengths” is the longest word in the English language with only one vowel.
14. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.
15. A group of frogs is called an army.
16. An ostrich’s eye is actually bigger than its brain.
17. Freddie Mercury was born in Africa.
18. Someone stole Einstein’s brain when he died.
19. Wombat poop is cube-shaped.
20. Chewing gum is banned in Singapore.
21. Vikings discovered Russia.
22. Once exposed to oxygen, a lobster’s colorless blood turns blue.
23. Whenever you see a full moon, you’re always seeing the same side of the moon.
24. Graffiti was found in the ruins of Pompeii.
25. The oldest word in the English language is “town.”

And, did you know…

1. Hummingbirds can weigh less than a penny.
2. The Florida Everglades are the only place you can find both alligators and crocodiles.
3. Cotton candy was invented by a dentist. (That’s a great approach to creating job security.)
4. Three U.S. presidents have won Grammys — Carter, Clinton and Obama.
5. A Bass Pro Shops “megastore” actually resides inside one of the largest pyramids in the world… in Memphis, Tennessee.
6. Both paper and the wheelbarrow were invented in China.
7. For every area code, there are 8 million possible seven-digit phone numbers.
8. A blue whale’s arteries are so big, a toddler could crawl through.
9. You can survive longer without food than you can without sleep.
10. There are 336 dimples on a golf ball.
11. There’s a toilet museum in India.
12. German chocolate cake was invented in Texas. (By a guy named Sam German.)
13. Spaghetti is plural — if you eat only one noodle, you’re eating a spaghetto.
14. Roughly 35% of your water usage comes from flushing the toilet.
15. The smallest bones in your body are found in the ear.
16. Despite how sour they are, lemons actually contain more sugar than strawberries.
17. There are 119 ridges on the side of a quarter.
18. The Hawaiian alphabet only has 13 letters.
19. In Switzerland, it’s illegal to own only one guinea pig because they get lonely.
20. The Grand Canyon can hold 900 trillion football fields.
21. The Statue of Liberty wears shoe size 879.
22. Sponges can hold more cold water than hot water.
23. The average home has 300,000 things in it. (Our guess is that most of those things are in the garage.)
24. There once was a chicken that lived for 18 months after its head was cut off. Its name? Mike the Headless Chicken. True story.
25. A fetus is covered in hair head-to-toe in utero. Don’t worry, they then shed it. And swallow it, resulting in their first tar-like poop called meconium.
26. The scientific terminology for brain freeze is “sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia”.
27. During the time of the dinosaurs there were active volcanoes on the moon.
28. Leonardo DiCaprio improvised his famous Titanic quote, “I’m the king of the world.”
29. Cutting down a cactus in Arizona might get you 25 years in prison.
30. Around the time the pyramids were being built in Egypt there was an active volcano in Colorado.
31. Saturn would float on water — it’s the only planet in our solar system that would.
32. Only one two-billionth of the Sun’s actual energy hits the Earth. Imagine the potential.
33. Ninety-five percent of the matter in the universe is either dark matter or dark energy that can’t be detected.
34. Other galaxies in the universe are moving away from us — and each other.
35. Venus spins backward on its axis, unlike the other planets in our solar system.

Love the ocean? Did you know…

81. The ocean is home to 95% of life on Earth.

82. Sound travels 4.3 times faster underwater than on land/in the air. 83. The Antarctic ice sheet is roughly the size of the continental United States and Mexico combined. 84. Point Nemo is the most remote part of the ocean. 85. The Mid-Atlantic Oceanic Ridge is actually the world’s longest mountain range – and it’s all underwater. 86. Thanks to the hydrothermal vents, water at the bottom of the ocean is incredibly hot. 87. The average depth of the ocean is more than 12,000 feet. 88. There are roughly 3 million shipwrecks still sitting at the bottom of our ocean. 89. Because of the above fact, there are more historical artifacts still buried at sea than in all of the world’s museums combined. 90. The average recorded length of a blue whale was more than 100 feet. 91. Only 50% of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail.