50+ Weird But True Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

If you’re sitting at home feeling bored, why not use the downtime to expand your brain? And, even better, to blow your own mind? They say truth is stranger than fiction, and that never seems truer than when you’re reading through weird facts. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler and licensed bartender? How about the fact that honeybees flap their wings 230 times every second? Seriously, the world is full of fascination — and we’re not just talking about Snapple facts.

If you need even more proof of that, we’ve got an afternoon full of brain-bending information to throw your way. So, once you’re finished poring over these weird (but true!) facts, check out our pages on interesting facts, scary facts, psychology facts, useless facts, funny facts, and did-you-know facts.

Weird Facts About Animals

1. One species of jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, is “immortal.” In response to physical damage or any other trauma, they can revert back in their development process to a polyp.
2. Snails have been known to sleep up to three years if the weather isn’t moist enough to meet their needs.
3. Honeybees flap their wings 230 times every second.
4. At birth, a panda cub is smaller than a mouse and weighs only four ounces.
5. Horses and cows can sleep standing up, but they can only dream when lying down.
6. Koala fingerprints are almost indistinguishable from humans’ — so much so, they can taint crime scenes!
7. Think your stomach growls? Ghost crabs literally growl using teeth in their stomachs.
8. The tusk of a narwhal is actually an “inside out” tooth.
9. Sperm whales in the Caribbean have a different accent than other whales in the ocean.
10. Glow-in-the-dark sharks are a thing! The swell shark, which dwells 1700 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, emits a fluorescent glow. Granted, it’s typically only visible to other swell sharks — but scientists have figured out a way to detect the glow using filters.

Weird But True Facts

1. The stage before frostbite is known as “frostnip.”
2. People who suffer from boanthropy believe they are a cow and will try to live their life as a cow.
3. Every continent except Antarctica has at least one McDonald’s.
4. A duel between three people is called a truel.
5. Baked beans aren’t baked. They’re stewed.
6. Sunsets on Mars are blue.
7. If you start in Argentina, you could theoretically “dig a hole to China.”
8. MySpace still gets more than eight million visitors per month.
9. Now obsolete, tyromancy was a form of divination that involved observing cheese to predict the future.
10. There are more LEGO mini-figures in existence than actual people on earth.
11. Spider webs were used as bandages in ancient times.
12. One-quarter of all your bones are located in your feet.
13. A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds.
14. The average person will spend six months of their life waiting for red lights to turn green.
15. President Lyndon B. Johnson owned a water-surfing car.
16. Dolphins may seem like happy-go-lucky creatures, but they actually sleep with one eye open.
17. Alfred Hitchcock was an ovophobe, meaning he had a fear of eggs. Here’s what the godfather of the horror genre had to say about them during an interview in 1963: “I’m frightened of eggs, worse than frightened; they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes, and when you break it, inside there’s that yellow thing, round, without any hole. Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I’ve never tasted it.”
18. There’s a company that turns dead bodies into ocean reefs. The company is called Eternal Reefs.
19. The largest padlock in the world weighs 916 pounds.

Weird History Facts

1. In 300 B.C., Mayans worshipped turkeys as vessels of the gods.
2. The Olympic Games used to hand out medals for arts and humanities. At the time, 151 medals were awarded for architecture, literature, painting, music, and sculpture.
3. What the fork? This pronged utensil was once considered sacrilegious because they were seen as “artificial hands.”
4. Cleopatra wasn’t actually Egyptian. Really! Historians have traced the famous ruler’s lineage to Alexander the Great’s Macedonian general Ptolemy. So while she was an Egyptian queen, she was Greek.
5. Not a can fan? You would have loved Pope Gregory IV. In the 13th century, he declared war on cats because he believed they were instruments of Satan.
6. Ketchup didn’t catch on as a popular condiment until the late 19th century. Prior to that point, it was sold as a cure for indigestion.
7. Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln was an elite wrestling champion. In 300 matches, he only lost one. Bonus fact: He was also a licensed bartender.
8. Speaking of former presidents who enjoyed their spirits, George Washington opened a whiskey distillery after his time in office.
9. Some of the most famous cowboys in history didn’t wear cowboy hats in real life (as often depicted in movies). Rather, icons like Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid wore bowler hats.
10. A Great Dane named Juliana peed on an incendiary bomb during World War II, earning her a Blue Cross Medal!

Weird Facts About the Human Body

1. Although their exact purpose isn’t known, scientists suspect yawns may help regulate body temperature.
2. Talk about making a splash! You’ll produce enough saliva in your lifetime to fill two swimming pools.
3. The human tongue — just like a finger — has a unique-to-you print.
4. The nose knows. In fact, it can remember 50,000 different scents.
5. The cornea of the eye is the only body part that doesn’t have a blood supply. Rather, it gets its oxygen directly from the air.
6. In the time it took for you to read this sentence, around 50,000 cells in your body died and were replaced by new ones.
7. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.
8. Teeth are the only part of the human body that lacks the capability to heal itself.
9. The surface area of both lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court.
10. By the age of 60, most people lose half of their taste buds.
11. People can get goosebumps on their faces.
12. Girls have more taste buds than boys.
13. The human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
14. If your entire fingernail was removed, it would take about six months to grow from its base to tip.
15. Messages from your brain travel along nerves at up to 200 miles per hour.
16. Your eyes move about 80 times per second.