|
Cool Fun FactsWelcome to CoolFunFacts.com. Find cool amazing facts, interesting facts, bizarre, useless trivia quickly. Database of over 2000 facts.
In the movie, 'Star Wars', during the scene in which Luke gets out of his X-wing fighter after blowing up the Death Star, he accidentally calls Princess Leia 'Carrie' (her real first name).
The scene in the movie, 'Carrie', in which Sissy Spacek gets pig blood dumped on her is impossible. The pig's blood was gathered and placed in a bucket several hours before the prom. Real blood would have congealed unless EDTA or heparin was added to it (and I sure don't recall John Travolta doing that in the movie). Thus nothing would have fallen on Sissy in the infamous prom scene. Confederate ironclad, Arkansas, fought through two Union fleets at Vicksburg to save the bastion from falling to the North. (Civil War) The first torpedo boat was deployed in the Civil War by the Confederacy. The boat, named David, was equipped with a large mine and would said at top speed toward an enemy ship. Once close enough, the mine would be released and the boat would high tail it out of the explosion site. The first attack was by the David against the Union ironclad New Ironsides. The result of the attack was putting the New Ironsides in dry dock for one year. The largest defeat suffered by U.S. troops at the hands of Indians was not at the Little Bighorn but was General St. Clair's defeat on the Wabash. During this rout, St. Clair lost over 600 men and many camp followers to Miami Indians. Most people think of the U.S. Cavalry from the Old West being all white, but they're wrong. The 9th and 10th Cavalry were all black regiments. Collectively they were known as the 'Buffalo Soldiers' because their hair reminded Indian adversaries of buffalo hide. One of the most amazing battles between a handful of defenders and hordes of attackers took place during the Zulu War of 1879 at a place called Rourke's Drift. A small force of about 100 British soldiers was besieged by 4,000 Zulus. The tiny force inflicted heavy losses on the Zulus and held out until a relief force appeared. Incidentally, 11 Victoria Crosses (a high British honor) were awarded to the garrison, more than were awarded at any other engagement. The largest defeat ever suffered by a 'modern' army at the hands of native troops was Isandlwana in Southern Africa in the year 1879. The British army was fighting the Zulu empire and, during a battle between 1,400 British colonial forces armed with cannon and rifles and 30,000 Zulus armed with spears, the British lost (surprise, surprise!). Deaths on the British side were guestimated to be approximately 1,000 soldiers mainly from the 24th Regiment (Foot) and 300 native allies. Zulu losses were thought to be about 3,000. Woman are overwhelmingly unpredictable [Editor's note: This is definitely a fact. Even though experience is a poor source and I would normally reject this, I'm going to add it] The Union ironclad, Monitor, was the first U.S. ship to have a flush toilet. There is a McDonalds in Maine that is painted all blue. If you think snakes are slimy, you're wrong. They are warm and dry. Correction: Some sharks can actually stop swimming and still breath by opening and closing their mouths to pump water over the gills. In his will, Shakespeare left his wife his second best bed. Did you know that you lose 25-125 hairs a day? Think about it! Jumping spiders have been known to jump on a daddy-longlegs back (which are spider cousins) and feast on them. The anaconda or water boa can grow to 30 feet in length and can take on a jaguar... and win! Eagle owls have been known to catch a full grown fox, hawks, and even other species of owl! In the movie The Blue Lagoon, with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, Christopher walked in a cut-out trench in their scenes because Brooke was so much taller than he was. Five of the top 15 selling cookies are Girl Scout Cookies! The woman who has the longest legs is called Nadja Auerman. Her legs were 1.14m long. The tallest model is Elle Macpherson who is 1,85m. The middle name of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is Angela. Until 1997, China was the country with most pigs in the world: 424,680,000! The US was in second place with 59,992,000 pigs. Until 1997, there were 2.14 pigs for each habitant in Denmark. Certain Species of Brown Rats , Rattus Norvegicus have been known to attack poultry, domestic animals , and small children and can grow to approximately 16 in. 14% of Americans have once skinny dipped with a member of the opposite sex. Pigs are NOT the only animals that can get sunburned. Beluga whales can obtain severe sunburns; dog's noses are also subject to sunburn. The bird of paradise can sleep upside down. Most cats live to be 14 years old, but many reach the age of 18 or 19 and some have lived past 30. Cats have five toes on their forefeet and four toes on their hind feet. Adult cats have 30 teeth. Kittens have 26 teeth called milk teeth which they lose at about 6 months of age. A healthy cats tongue is pink and its nose feels cool and moist. Cats eyes shine at night because of the light reflected by the tapetum, a layer of cells forming a large part of the inner eye. Cats cannot see in complete darkness. Adult cats shed their coats three times a year spring, summer, and in autumn. Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip. 70% of new restaurant openings are outside the US In 1997, systemwide sales for MacDonalds were US $33,638 million. One new McDonald's opens somewhere in the world every six hours. There are currently 23,346 McDonald's restaurants in 110 countries world-wide. In 1996, McDonald's overtook Coca-Cola as the best-known brand in the world. Kangaroos usually have one young annually. The young kangaroo, or joey, is born alive at a very immature stage, when it is only about 2 cm long and weighs less than a gram. Kangaroos need very little water to survive and are capable of going for months without drinking at all. When they do need water, they dig 'wells' for themselves, frequently going as deep as three or four feet. These 'kangaroo pits' are a common source of water for other animals living in the kangaroo's environment. All kangaroos have a chambered stomach that is functionally similar to those of such ruminants as cattle and sheep. They regurgitate the vegetation they have eaten, chew it as cud, and then swallow it again for final digestion. Kangaroos possess soft, wooly fur, and some have stripes on the head, back, or upper limbs. Australia had increased to the point that kangaroos had to be systematically reduced by hunting because its natural predators (such as the thylacine) had been virtually eliminated by Australian farmers. Kangaroos are found in Australia and New Guinea. Most are terrestrial and all are herbivorous, grazing and browsing for their food. The slipper-shelled snail starts life as a male and gradually turns female as it grows up. mc donald's in india doesn't serve beef -- only chicken, mutton and fish shreya@quackquack.com The original name of the San Antonio River was Yanaguana. It was renamed (on the day of its discovery by a Spanish exploration) by Fr. Damien Massanet on June 13, 1691, the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua. It's believed that in the Payaya Indian dialect Yanaguana meant place of clear and restful waters. The Texas Theater in San Antonio was built in 1926. What remains of it (the facade) sits on Houston Street between the River Walk and N. St. Mary's St. In 1980 a bank purchased the old theater and started tearing it down from the back to the front. The Conservation Society took them to court and they managed to save the facade but the compromise was that they would build a modern office building behind it. Neither side felt they'd won this battle. In 1927 the movie 'Wings' premiered at the Texas. It was a WWI silent film epic that was the silver screen debut for Gary Cooper. It was filmed entirely on location in San Antonio at the military bases and in 1929 it was the first movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The remains of the Heroes of the Alamo are entombed in the San Fernando Cathederal in downtown San Antonio. The San Fernando Cathederal is unique in that its front doors face east where as most cathederals face west. The Hilton Palacio del Rio Hotel in San Antonio was the first modular construction hotel. It was completed in a record setting 202 working days! The first four floors were built on sight (on the River Walk) the rest of the hotel was built one room at a time 8 miles south of town by the H.B. Zachary Company. The rooms were completely furnished and carpeted. They even came with a bible in the dresser. They were brough into town on flatbed trucks and hoisted into place by a giant crane and plugged into the hotel's main utility line. The Ben Milam Bldg. in San Antonio was the first fully air-conditioned high-rise office building in the world. The St. Anthony Hotel, three blocks away, was the first air-conditioned hotel. The Nix Professional Bldg (2 blocks from the hotel) was the first air-conditioned hospital and the first building to house a hospital, doctor's offices, laboratories, a parking garage and a minor emergency clinic under one roof. The Nix is the birthplace of Carol Burnett (actress), Oliver North (Lt. Col. USMNC, RET), George Strait (country music superstar) and Henry Cisneros (former San Antonio mayor and HUD Secretary). As it happens, the phrase 'The whole nine yards' has nothing to do with the amount of cloth needed for a suit. In fact, it was the length of the strip of gun ammo loaded into WWII fighter planes. When they came back empty, crews would remark that they had given them 'the whole nine yards'. Hitler owned 9000 acres of land in Colorado The name of that hill in New Zealand (which i won't reproduce here), the longest place name still in use, means this: 'The Hill where Tamatea, the great warrior, climbed over after returning from a long voyage abroad and played the flute to his beloved upon arrival' Or words to that effect. 1999 will have two blue moons, January 31st and March 31st. 'Blue moon' is the name given to the second full moon in a month, and it occurs very rarely (as the saying goes). 40 below is the only temperature common to both Celcius and Farenheit scales. In response to a post about 'Assasins'- Assasins did not come from Japan; they came from the middle east. They were part of an extremist muslim sect who took it as their sacred duty to 'remove from office' i.e. 'kill' unworthy or plain old tyrannical rulers. They would smoke hashish before doing the deed, hence the name 'hashashin' which later became 'assasin'. The C.S.S Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship,the U.S.S Houstica, was fourth submarine built for war purposes. The Hunley's weapon was a metal canister on a metal rod extending from the submarine carring 100lbs. of black gunpowder designed to enter the enemy ships hull and then the Hunley would back away about 130ft. before detonating. The Hunley was an iron coffin after sinking several times and killing over 20 people, including its creater, Horance L. Hunley. After trying several times to sink an enemy ship the succded, but was also sunk in the explosion since it could not get for enough away using its hand cranked propeller. It was found over a 120 years later by a team of divers contracted by NUMA(National Underwater and Marine Agency) in Charleston Harbour. Efforts are underway to find a way to raise and preserve the famous rebel craft. In Quebec, Canada, an old law states that margarine must be a different colour from butter. This law is the result of Quebec dairy lobbyists' pressure to ''protect'' their dairy business. They claimed margarine was beginning to resemble butter, as to be mistaken for real butter. Make margarine unattractive, and consumers would stick to butter. The Quebec government caved in, and tried to impose a dark vermilion-coloured margarine, which was disgusting. The colour, finally, at the other extreme, is a pallid almost-white-colourless margarine. In 1883 the 20 story Gold Medel Flour Plant in downtown Minneapolis exploded and killed 13 people. The ruins still stand today and is now a museum. Comoto Dragons have two penises. If you're a woman weighing more than 200 pounds and like to wear shorts, don't go to Ridgeland, South Carolina and eat onions in a restaurant or public place. It's specifically against the law for a woman over 200 pounds and attired in shorts to be seen eating onions in a restaurant or any public picnic. In Blue Hill, Nebraska, no female wearing a 'hat which would scare a timid person' can be seen eating onions in public. By law, in Bourbon, Miss., one small onion must be served with each glass of water in a restaurant. In Tamarack, Idaho, you can't buy onions after dark without a special permit from the sheriff. In Grants Pass, Ore., you can throw onions at 'obnoxious salesmen' if they won't stop knocking on your door or ringing your bell. To make an onion milder, soak it in milk or pour boiling water over the slices and let stand. Rinse with cold water. How can you keep from crying when you're peeling or slicing an onion? To reduce tearing, chill the onion for 30 minutes. Onions, onions, who's got the onions? Did you know that California produces 25 percent of the nation's onions and 43 percent of the nation's green onions? Onions were grown in ancient Egypt, and eventually arrived in Rome where they became known as 'onion,' from the Latin word, 'Unio,' meaning 'large pearl.' In Middle English, the vegetable became known as 'unyon.' The onion's status skyrocketed when Stanislaus I, a former King of Poland, popularized French onion soup. Although the Las Vegas 'Strip' is a well-known insignia, it is not the official name of the 4-lane street which fronts the multitude of world-renowned Las Vegas casinos. What is the name of this world famous street? A. Las Vegas Boulevard South Hoover Dam's structural volume surpasses the largest pyramid in Egypt, which took 20 years and 100,000 men to complete. How long, and how many men did it take to complete Hoover Dam? A. 4 years and 5,000 workers What is the name of the first major resort built on the Las Vegas Strip in 1947? How many rooms did it have? A. El Rancho, with 63 rooms To date, Las Vegas has over 105,000 rooms. How long would it take for one person to sleep in every room? A. 288 years. On average, how many couples get married in Las Vegas each day? A. 150 couples 27% of U.S. internet users use the internet to make travel plans or reservations In the US alone, the Web will add over 16 million new users by the Fall of 1998 . These new users will bring the Web's total unduplicated reach to over 72 million people over the age of 16. Source: Intelliquest There are over 20 million internet users worldwide over age 16, compared to the current 58 million in the U.S. Predictions show a whopping 175 million U.S. users by the year 2001, and a grand total of 300 million worldwide. The zoo in Tokyo closes for two months of the year so animals can have a holiday from visitors Dallas' corner of Elm and Houston streets has a sordid history. The building completed there in November 1898 was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in May 1901. By the fall of 1901 it was rebuilt. In that same building 62 years later, Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President Kennedy from the sixth floor. According to Archives of General Medicine, coffee drinkers have sex more frequently and enjoy it more than non-coffee drinkers. According to the National Institute of Business Management, one of every eight boss-secretary romances ends in marriage. One out of 10 secretaries admits to having been romantically involved with her boss, with only 25 percent saying that the experience had negative impact on their careers. According to one theory, people who chew a lot of ice have a high sex drive. An American urologist once bought Napoleon's penis for $40,000. According to a couple of recent biographies, Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, was a repressed homosexual who was obsessed with looking at photos of naked young boys. One punishment for an adulterous wife in medieval France was to make her chase a chicken through town naked. In 1746, a special hospital for the treatment of venereal diseases known as a 'lock hospital' was opened on Harrow Road in London. In medieval times, lock hospitals only housed lepers. A favorite hangout for prostitutes in 17th century London was St. John's Park. Even though the gates were locked at 10 p.m., 6,500 people had authorized keys (many unauthorized keys were also in circulation. At the time, London had about 50,000 prostitutes. In 1964, a jury awarded $50,000 to a woman who claimed a cable car accident in San Francisco had made her into a nymphomaniac. Queen Anne had a transvestite cousin, Lord Cornbury, whom she assigned to be governor of New York and New Jersey. The colonists were not amused. Young women in Atlanta used to refer to their private parts as 'janers.' Erotodromomania is the abnormal impulse to travel to escape painful sexual situations. Trobriand Islanders (off the coast of New Guinea) have euphemism for having sex that translates to 'scraping the tapioca.' In 1822, Mary Ann Mantell of Sussex, England became the first person in history to discover a dinosaur fossil while correctly identifying it as something that was a part of a large reptile; earlier discoveries were identified as giant men, dragons, and other such large, dead things. However, her husband, Dr. Gideon Mantell, took credit for the discovery and identified the teeth that she found as part of an Iguanodon. Later, he wrongfully identified a body part as a horn, which turned out to be part of the creature's thumb. The name of the horse pictured on the Wyoming license plate is: Steamboat A hat trick originally meant three goals scored in a row, with no intervening goals by the other team. We use it to mean three goals scored by the same player.
|
|
|
|