I can’t believe I’m just now learning this!
1.
There’s a company that allows you to memorialize the body of a loved one in the form of a reef.
Malakpet Ps / Getty Images/500px
3.
The phrase “sweating like a pig” is technically impossible, because pigs can’t physically sweat.
Manop Boonpeng / Getty Images/EyeEm
Sciepro / Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF
5.
All of Tom Cruise’s ex-wives were 33 when they divorced the actor.
Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic / Getty Images
6.
Arsenic wafers were once eaten to improve skin and “facial disfigurements” like freckles and blackheads — well, until people realized it was slowly killing them.
7.
Sorry Disney, but the first feature-length animated film came out 20 years before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a 1917 Argentinian silent film called El Apóstol.
8.
German chocolate cake was actually invented in Texas by a person named Mrs. George Clay.
Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
According to Food Tribe, the use of the word German was coined because an American man named Sam German created a chocolate bar for Baker’s Chocolate Company, which was used in the initial recipe.
9.
Nicolas Cage is known as an outlandish spender in Hollywood. Some of his past purchases include a $150,000 pet octopus, haunted houses, and shrunken pygmy heads.
Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images
10.
Raw pistachios have been known to spontaneously combust when stored in large quantities.
Yevgen Romanenko / Getty Images
12.
Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Mattel, Inc./Liaison / Getty Images
13.
Owls don’t have eyeballs. Instead they have elongated tubes held by sclerotic rings. Owls can’t move their eyes around, which is why they have to move their entire head to look in different areas.
Alan Tunnicliffe Photography / Getty Images
14.
In Japan, editors added a fifth finger to Bob the Builder’s hands, so viewers wouldn’t think he was associated with a feared Japanese mafia called Yakuza.
HIT Entertainment
According to BBC, members of Yakuza “cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted and have strength of character.”
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images
16.
The first college football game was played on Nov. 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton (formally known as the College of New Jersey). Rutgers won.
Scott Taetsch / Getty Images
17.
Flamingos can only eat when their heads are upside down, due mainly to the structure of their beaks.
Jonathan Ross / Getty Images/iStockphoto
18.
Before deciding on the name Google, the popular search engine was called BackRub.
Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images
“They called it this because the program analyzed the web’s ‘back links’ to understand how important a website was, and what other sites it related to,” according to Business Insider.
19.
Pound cake got its name because the original recipe for the dessert required one pound of each ingredient.
Debbismirnoff / Getty Images
21.
Walt Disney actually hated the character Goofy, calling him a “stupid cartoon.”
Disney Channel / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
22.
Thailand holds an annual Monkey Buffet Festival where residents of Lopburi honor the 3,000 monkeys that live near the Phra Prang Sam Yot temple by providing 4.5 tons of fruit, vegetables, and treats for them to eat.
Images From Barbanna / Getty Images
23.
Shredded cheese packages typically contains cellulose (also known as wood pulp or sawdust) to prevent them from clumping.
Mike Kemp / Getty Images/Tetra images RF
24.
Shakira’s school teacher told her she was bad at singing and banned her from choir. Her classmates stated she sounded like a goat.
Simone Joyner / Getty Images
25.
Dr. Seuss created Green Eggs and Ham because his publisher bet him he couldn’t write a book shorter than The Cat in the Hat.
Gene Lester / Getty Images
He obviously won that bet, because The Cat in the Hat had 236 different words, while Green Eggs and Ham used just 50 words, according to Biography.com.
26.
The Yoruba people of Nigeria are known for giving birth to more twins than anywhere else in the world — 50 per 1,000 births.
Visual7 / Getty Images
According to Reuters, twins are also believed to be magical in Yoruba culture.
Steve Granitz / FilmMagic / Getty Images, Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images
28.
Ears of corn typically have an even number of rows — most have an average of 16.
Peter Parks / AFP via Getty Images
29.
Jack Nicholson grew up believing his mom, June, was his sister, and that his grandmother, Ethel May, was his mother.
Patrick Mcmullan / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
June was 18 years old when she gave birth to Jack. In order to avoid gossip of having a baby out of wedlock, Ethel May decided to raise Jack as her son, and pretended June was his much older sister.
Jack didn’t learn the truth until after both June and Ethel May died, according to InStyle.
30.
And finally, long before New York received its iconic nickname “The Big Apple,” it was known as New Orange.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
When the Dutch captured New York from the English in 1673, they renamed the state New Orange to honor William III of Orange. But that didn’t last long, because the following year, the English regained control and renamed it New York, according to History.com.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/random-facts-you-probably-didnt-know
