1. The US Secret Service uses code names (assigned by White House Communications agency) for the US Presidents, first ladies, and prominent persons. Earlier it was for security purposes but now it’s just for brevity, clarity, and tradition. – Source
2. The goat is the Navy mascot partly because sailors used to leave goats on remote islands to propagate and become a source of food for passing ships, a practice which caused long-standing environmental issues due to the introduction of an invasive species. – Source
3. There were 8 African-American men from Southern states elected to Congress in 1870, just five years after the Civil War. Another black man wouldn’t be elected from a Southern state for the next 72 years. – Source
4. Curiously for a superhero, the Green Lantern known as John Stewart doesn’t wear mask to conceal his identity. According to the comics, upon being given the mask at the start of his superhero training, Stewart cast the mask aside stating, “This black man lets it all hang out!” – Source
5. Scientists created a completely enclosed, artificial environment called Biosphere 2 and made one mistake that caused all the trees to fall down before maturation: there was no wind so trees failed to develop stress wood, which is necessary for them to stand. – Source
6. Musician Stevie Wonder was in a near fatal car crash in 1973 that left him in a coma. Doctors could not get him to respond to any external stimuli. After four days, his tour director sang the melody of “Higher Ground” into the singer’s ear, and Wonder responded by moving his fingers in time with the song. – Source
7. There have never been snakes in Ireland because being cold-blooded, they couldn’t survive the frozen ground during the ice age in the past. – Source
8. Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica in 2010, because of a misplaced border on Google Maps. – Source
9. Elon Musk was bullied a lot during school. He was once sent to a hospital after bullies threw him down stairs and kicked him until he was unconscious. – Source
10. Steven Spielberg initially negotiated with Warner Bros to direct “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone”. If he would have had his way, it would have been an animated movie with American actor Haley Joel Osment (The 6th Sense) as the voice of Harry. – Source
11. There’s a French delicacy that involves blinding Ortolan Bunting (a small bird) and force feeding it before you drown in Cognac. It is then eaten in one bite with a napkin over the face to preserve the aroma. – Source
12. In the early 1900s, 6-day long bicycle races were quite popular. The winner was whoever rode the greatest distance in 6 days. Almost all the participant got extremely little sleep and hallucinated on the track. – Source
13. Sylvester Stallone sold his dog for 40$ because of poverty. A short time later he made money from selling the Rocky script and bought the dog back for 15.000$, losing heavily on his investment. He could have bought 375 new dogs for the same amount. – Source
14. Hungary adopted a new constitution in the year 2011. – Source
15. Fort Jefferson, a massive but unfinished coastal fortress in the Florida Keys, is composed of over 16 million bricks and is the largest masonry structure in the Americas. – Source
16. The Coca-Cola Company was ordered by a US judge to turn over their secret formula twice. They refused both times. – Source
17. A commons wift (bird) can spend its first two to three years in the air flying before breeding and making its first ever landing. – Source
18. Zebras have been known to kill lions with one kick. – Source
19. Popular San Diego high school teacher John Corcoran was secretly illiterate during his 17-year classroom career, finally faced his shame and learned to read at age 48. He went on to write books and a create a foundation to promote literacy. – Source
20. Seagulls off the coast of Argentina have taken to attacking and eating right whales. Area police now have orders to shoot the birds. – Source
21. While the Roman Senate was debating about possible conspirators of an attempted coup, Julius Cesar received a note. Cato, who opposed to Julius Cesar accused him of corresponding with the conspirators and demanded the letter to be read aloud. The note was a love letter from Cato’s sister. – Source
22. In 1963, a 16-year-old sent a four-question survey to 150 well-known authors (75 of which replied) in order to prove to his English teacher that writers don’t intentionally add symbolic content to their books. – Source
23. In 1514, a revolt leader in Hungary was condemned to sit on a red-hot iron throne with a red-hot iron crown on his head and a red-hot scepter in his hand. His partially roasted body was then force-fed to six of his fellow rebels, who had been starved for a week beforehand. – Source
24. In 1970, Jimmy Carter let a prisoner convicted of murder obtain a work release to serve as a maid at the governor’s mansion. He was so impressed that when he was elected president in 1976 he volunteered to be her parole officer and let her continue working at the White House. She was later exonerated. – Source
25. A small chunk of Mars landed in Morocco in 2012. It’s one of the few meteorites from the Red Planet. – Source
26. Philippines has banana ketchup. During WW2 there was a shortage of tomatoes and they had to use bananas as a replacement to replicate ketchup. It’s made from mashed banana, sugar, vinegar, and spices. – Source
27. In 1981, India launched its first satellite that was transported on an ox-cart, with the rocket parts carried on the back of bicycles. – Source
28. Astronaut John Young got really bad flatulence from drinking orange juice during the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. Unknowingly, he broadcast this fact to the world. “I have the farts again. I got them again, Charlie.” – Source
29. Jellyfish live in every ocean and have survived five mass extinctions, for possibly 700 million years or more, despite most of them lacking specialized digestive, osmoregulatory, central nervous, respiratory, or circulatory systems. – Source
30. In a soccer match between Iran and Denmark, an Iranian player mistook a whistle from the crowd as being the referee’s half-time signal and picked the ball up with his hands in the penalty area. Danish player Morten Wieghorst missed the resultant penalty on purpose, and Denmark lost 1–0. – Source