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Totally True Useless Facts
1001 - 1100
  1. In Scotland early golf courses had varying numbers of holes. Some courses even had as few as five holes.
  2. Grog is the term for rationed rum on board a sailing vessel, discontinued in 1970. In 1740, Admiral Vernon ordered the rations be diluted with water. He wore a coat of rough material, a mix of wool and mohair, known as grogram, came to be known as "Old Grog", hence the nickname of grog.
  3. The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979) is said to be the first rap recording.
  4. Unlike most cats, tigers love the water and can easily swim three or four miles.
  5. The ancient Egyptian language was a mix of Cushitic and Berber languages from North Africa and a few words from Semitic languages in Asia.
  6. The average human needs 18,250 gallons for an 80 year lifespan.
  7. The first Emmy Award, presented in 1949, went to a puppet.
  8. The ancient Greeks used to make dice out of sheep's shoulder blades.
  9. People who ran illegal dice games in England three centuries ago would employ someone whose sole job was to swallow the dice in case of a raid.
  10. The Bible is the world's best selling book, as well as the most often stolen.
  11. The encyclopedia "Elements of Mathematics", written by several mathematicians under the pen name "Nicholas Bourbaki", dedicates 200 pages to the number 1.
  12. The door to the vault of the US gold reserve in Fort Knox, Tennessee, weighs 20 tonnes.
  13. More babies are born in September than any other year.
  14. The fastest wind speed recorded was 318 mph during an Oklahoma, US, tornado on May 3, 1999.
  15. The most narrow living space is 75 1/2 Bedford Street in Greenwich Villiage, New York City, at 9 1/2 feet wide. Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (born February 22, 1892) and actor John Barrymore have resided there.
  16. Termites eat wood twice as fast when they listen to heavy metal music.
  17. Only 10% of graduates from clown college are offered jobs.
  18. The human brain feels no pain. It's the surrounding membrane laced with nerves which transmit sensations to the organ.
  19. Cashews don't come in shells because they're not nuts, they're seeds.
  20. President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other simultaneously.
  21. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
  22. There are more chickens in the world than people.
  23. 2/3 of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey, USA.
  24. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
  25. The main character in "A.I." does not blink during the entire movie.
  26. Shrews are the mammal with the highest metabolism. If they don't eat every 3-4 hours, consuming several times their body weight a day, they will die.
  27. Bananas grow from an herb.
  28. Ants can remember how they got through a maze if there was food at the end.
  29. Attila the Hun died in 453 AD, bleeding to death from a nosebleed on his wedding night.
  30. Sir Francis Bacon died in 1626 of pneumonia. He was trying to freeze a chicken by stuffing it with snow.
  31. No witches were burned during the Salem witch trials. 150 were arrested, 31 of which (including 6 males) where tried and sentenced to death in 1692. 19 were hung, 2 died in jail, and one pressed to death by stones.
  32. Tennis balls are fuzzy to increase air resistance to make it slower and to keep the ball on the strings of the racket a split second later for more control.
  33. Even with one kidney, a lung, spleen, much of the liver, and more than half of the intestines removed a person could still live.
  34. An average person's nose produces a cup of mucus a day, most of which dries and protects the membrane.
  35. October 5 to October 14, 1582, did not exist, due to a decree from Pope Gregory XIII which changed the calendar from the Julian model to the Gregorian model.
  36. If slime moulds are cut into pieces and placed in a labrynith with food, bacteria for them, the pieces will reassemble and head for the food.
  37. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the only magnetic moon in the solar system.
  38. McGuffins are diversionary props in stories, such as the briefcase in "Pulp Fiction" or the falcon in the "Maltese Falcon". Master of the form Alfred Hitchcock coined the word.
  39. The Great Wall of China can not be seen from outer space.
  40. The self-proclaimed capital of toilet paper of the world is Green Bay, Wisconsin.
  41. In the Bible, the miraculous food, manna, which Israelites were provided with in the middle of desert was probably lichen scraped from rocks and mixed with water.
  42. The "snow" seen on a tv set when there is no signal is a mix of white background (true absence of signal) and wandering black dots (ElectroMagnetic Interference, from pc's, radio stations, vaccuum cleaners, etc.).
  43. It was taboo to eat woodpeckers in the Roman Empire.
  44. There are more than 30 references to salt in the Bible.
  45. "A picture is worth a thousand words" is not a proverb; it was created in 1921 by Street Railways Advertising Co.'s national advertising manager Fred R. Barnard. Originally in Printer's Ink as "One look is worth a thousand words", Barnard credited it to "a famous Japanese philosopher". In 1927 Barnard printed another, "One picture is worth ten thousand words" for Royal Baking Powder, and called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously". Since it was said to be Chinese it was immediately credited to Confucious.
  46. The mortarboards graduates wear are modeled after the Middle Ages Catholic church officials' biretta, worn to symbolize their knowledge, experience, and high place. The cardboard was added to keep the high crown from flopping in the graduate's face.
  47. The leader of the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz" was named Nikko.
  48. The oldest existing government parlimentary body of Ireland, the Althingi, has been around since CE 930.
  49. Mickey Mouse was the first non-human to earn an Academy Award.
  50. Chicago is known as the "Windy City" but ranks only number 21 out of the 68 windiest cities in the States. Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Great Falls, Montana, are at the top of the list.
  51. Among common firewoods the Rock Elm generates the most heat.
  52. The first company to ever issue stock was "The mysterie and companie of Merchants adventurers for the discoverie of regions, dominians, islands, and places unknown", chartered in 1553, later simplified to "The Russia Company".
  53. U.S. president Harry S Truman's middle name was "S".
  54. Soft skin sea slugs can swallow jellyfish sting cells and use them for themselves on their outer skin. They defend themselves by taking other animal's defenses and use them as their own.
  55. The Grammy Awards were created to counter the growing "threat" of rock music.
  56. A camel's hump stores fat. Undernourished camels don't have a hump.
  57. Plowshares were invented during the 7th century AD.
  58. Nixon was the first US president to attend a regular season NFL game while in office.
  59. James J. Kilroy was a Massachusetts shipyard inspector who marked his work with the infamous "Kilroy was here".
  60. If any volunteer in the WWII Japanese kamikaze pilot programme wanted out they were executed as a traitor.
  61. Coventry, England, was the town Lady Godiva rode through naked. She did this to have her husband, Leofric, lift the taxes and to enlighten the peasants to beauty, not eroticism, in the nude figure.
  62. Venus flytraps eat flies for the nitrogen its soil lacks.
  63. The "Mahabhrata", the Asian Indian epic poem, is eight times the length of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" combined.
  64. The fizzy taste of sodas has nothing to do with the bubbles breaking on the tongue. What happens is that carbonic dioxide in the soda reacts with carbonic anhydrase in saliva to produce carbonic acid, and a low intensity pain stimulus in the tongue's branch of the trigeminal nerve. This is the same nerve responsible for toothaches, sinus pain, and some types of headaches. Acetazolamide, used for alleviating air sickness, blocks the enzyme's action. [Fizzy water: it hurts so good (6 Oct 1999)]
  65. Moxie began as a medicinal tonic in 1876, a beverage in 1884, and has survived to be the oldest carbonated drink still sold, available at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. More at (features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2000/02/07.html.
  66. Patents for the fax machine, then the "pantelegraph", date back to 1843. A fax line operated between Paris and Lyon in France 1865-1870. In 1876 the telephone was patented, and the radio in 1896.
  67. The three favourite foods of Ren Hoek, of "Ren and Stimpy", are chicken pot pie, chocolate covered raisins, and glazed ham.
  68. If placed against the mainland of the States the moon would reach from Cleveland to San Francisco.
  69. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, who with his wife discovered the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet in 1994, was buried on the moon in 1999.
  70. Since it is fermented with the grape skin, red wine is served at room temperature to lessen the taste of the acidic components, such as tannins, which are brought out while chilling. White wines do not have tannins and simply taste better cold.
  71. Dolphins can't sleep, if they did they would drown. Instead, they are awake for 8 hours and let each side of their brain take 8 hours off at a time.
  72. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.
  73. The theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus is "The Liberty Bell March" by John Philip Sousa.
  74. The 22nd and 24th presidents of the United States was Grover Cleveland.
  75. In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Frankenstein's name is Adam.
  76. When Connecticut outlawed ninepins in the 18th century the locals simply added another pin to give us the familiar ten pins of today.
  77. Kit Kat's are named after a gentleman's club of the 18th and 19th century.
  78. Pepsi was originally named 'Brad's Drink' after the druggist Caleb Bradham who concocted the formula in the back of his pharmacy.
  79. 7-Up was created in 1929 by Charles Leiper Grigg and originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda. Some theories on why he changed the name: 'Seven Up' has 7 letters; the original bottle held 7 ounces; it has 7 ingredients; it comes from throwing a 7 in craps; he saw a cattle brand which looked like 7 UP and thought if it were unique enough for a cow it would be unique enough for him. 7-Up became popular during WWII since producing it required less sugar than other sodas and sugar was rationed at the time.
  80. In the 1920s and '30s people would have their teeth removed and replaced with false teeth as a status symbol.
  81. The tradition of playing "Taps" at military funerals originated during the Civil War. The military lacked the means to ship the bodies home, and the traditional three shot salute during burials could have been misinterpreted by the enemy as a resumption of hostilities. "Taps" was the song of choice with its association with day's end.
  82. The first bathrooms appeared on the Orkney Islands, off the Scottish coast, 10 millennia ago in the form of a primative drain system from their huts to the local stream.
  83. Edward Teach was also known as Blackbeard the pirate.
  84. Panama hats originated in Ecuador.
  85. The most frequently used street name in the States is Second Street.
  86. When the moon is aligned with the Earth and Sun it's called a syzygy.
  87. The shortest NBA player to win a scoring title (2001)is Allen Iverson at 6'.
  88. When water falls from a shower head it slows due to air resistance, causes turbulence, and forms a mini-storm system with low pressure at its center. The air pressure outside the shower is now higher, and that's what causes the shower curtain to be blown inwards during a shower.
  89. The Orient Express traversed its 1,700 mile trek from Paris to Istanbul from 1889 to 1977.
  90. The idea for halos on angels came from pagan sun worshipers, who wore rings of feathers on their heads to emulate the sun's rays. Artists thought this was too tacky so actual rays of the sun were used instead.
  91. Former US Supreme Court Justice Byron White once led the NFL in rushing.
  92. The first La-Z-Boy was a reclining lawn chair made of wood slats in 1928.
  93. Every monarch of England since the 1066 coronation of William the Conqueror have been crowned in Westminster Abbey.
  94. The "dog days" of summer are known as such because the ancient Romans saw the Dog Star, Sirius, rise with the sun in July and early August.
  95. Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores.
  96. Goat's milk is more easily digested by humans than cow's milk.
  97. The first item scanned in a supermarket was a pack of Wrigley's Juicyfruit gum at a Mars supermarket.
  98. The major flavouring in the soda Dr. Pepper is prune juice.
  99. There are only three words beginning with the letter "q" in the English dictionary which do not have "u" following the first letter.
  100. The human eye and mind first observes an object by shape, then colour, then the area around the object.
1 - 100, 101 - 200, 201 - 300, 301 - 400, 401 - 500, 501 - 600, 601 - 700, 701 - 800, 801 - 900, 901 - 1000, 1001 - 1100, 1101 - current
I do not claim that all of these are actually true, but I have weeded out some of the obvious ones.
If you have any more for me, or if you find a repeat, typo, or blatant fallacy in the above, please e-me about it.
Corrected TTUFs

Where I learn some of this crazy stuff:
The Learning Kingdom
MailBits.com
Win Ben Stein's Money
Accord Publishing's 1999 Nose It All Calendar
Hot Topic pay stubs
E-mails which worm their way into my inbox
Tyler Whitney's Completely Random Home Page
UselessKnowledge.com
The Danny Baker Show
PhiLL's Site Of Useless Information
Buy-ology - TLC
Spam page
Silly Putty page
Other interesting things too long for the TTUF's