WTF?! (Strange But True Facts)

[jayamal]

 

[Jane29]

 

[Diditforfunx]

63% of all statistics are made up.

 

[Sexy_420_geek]

The entire state of Wyoming only has two escalators.

Having ridden on a Greyhound Bus from California to Maine, I can attest that Wyoming is the most boring state imaginable. 6 hours on one road, all I saw were 2 cows and a Port-a-Potty.

 

[SexyAsianBitch]

One of North Korea's top imports is feces used as fertilizer, fecal matter fertilizer theft is extremely popular among farmers

 

[Sexy_420_geek]

One of North Korea's top imports is feces used as fertilizer, fecal matter fertilizer theft is extremely popular among farmers

Lol gives new meaning to "somebody stole my s**t"

 

[Male_uk]

This tends to really surprise people who live in the US anywhere other than on the west coast. Surprised the hell out of me!

Reno, Nevada is farther west than Los Angeles, California.

Similar to this, New York City is closer to the equator than Rome

 

[TallulahBlue]

The town of Talkeetna, Alaska had the same mayor for just over 20 years. He was known affectionately as Stubbs, and served as mayor of the town from July 18, 1997 until his death on July 21, 2017, thus serving as the town's mayor for 20 years and 3 days.

Stubbs was a cat.

 

[daddytongue]

The earliest known version of Humpty Dumpty was published in Samuel Arnold's Juvenile Amusements in 1797 with the lyrics:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.

There are also various theories of an original "Humpty Dumpty". One, advanced by Katherine Elwes Thomas in 1930 and adopted by Robert Ripley, posits that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard III of England, depicted as humpbacked in Tudor histories and particularly in Shakespeare's play.

(From wikipedia)

Ls x

I believe Humpty Dumpty was a nursery rhyme derived from the tale of a Cannon which was placed on a wall in the town of Colchester Essex Uk at the Siege of Colchester during the English Civil war. The cannon apparently cast using inferior metal and when fired for the first time fell from the wall due to recoil and shattered. Colchester was a royalist stronghold hence the " all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put humpty together again.

Incidentally I was stationed in Colchester while serving in the Artillery when I heard this during a tour of Colchester Castle.

 

[SexyAsianBitch]

apparently looking it up and Humpty Dumpty was a 15th century English nickname for very large people

 

[Garm]

Half of all the world's serial killers have spent at least some portion of their lives in California.

 

[TallulahBlue]

Half of all the world's serial killers have spent at least some portion of their lives in California.

This is absolutely fascinating. I had never heard this before. Thank you for contributing!

 

[TallulahBlue]

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806), the father of acclaimed author Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Muskateers) and a General in the French Army, was born into both nobility and into slavery. His father was a French nobleman and his mother was an African slave.

But that isn't what gets him mentioned in this thread. Having achieved the rank of General, Dumas (a contemporary of Napoleon Bonaparte) is noted for being the highest ranking officer of African descent in any European army, an achievement that still stands 212 years after his death.

 

[Garm]

Contrary to popular belief, before the discovery of the Americas most educated Europeans knew the world was round. The concept of sailing around the world to the far east was dismissed as impractical because it was believed the route was just vast empty ocean that no ship could carry enough supplies to cross. Columbus inaccurately measured the distance and believed it was possible. His discovery of the new world was a grand fortuitous bungle, if their was no land they would have starved to death. Even after his discovery, Columbus stubbornly believed he was in Asia till the day he died. So Columbus day really celebrates lucky buffoonery, rather than thoughtful discovery.

 

[SexyAsianBitch]

Contrary to popular belief, before the discovery of the Americas most educated Europeans knew the world was round. The concept of sailing around the world to the far east was dismissed as impractical because it was believed the route was just vast empty ocean that no ship could carry enough supplies to cross. Columbus inaccurately measured the distance and believed it was possible. His discovery of the new world was a grand fortuitous bungle, if their was no land they would have starved to death. Even after his discovery, Columbus stubbornly believed he was in Asia till the day he died. So Columbus day really celebrates lucky buffoonery, rather than thoughtful discovery.

he also thought the world was pear shaped

 

[SexyAsianBitch]

ketchup originated in China as a boiled down brine of pickled fish and spices called Ke-Chiap

 

[TallulahBlue]

Contrary to popular belief, before the discovery of the Americas most educated Europeans knew the world was round. The concept of sailing around the world to the far east was dismissed as impractical because it was believed the route was just vast empty ocean that no ship could carry enough supplies to cross. Columbus inaccurately measured the distance and believed it was possible. His discovery of the new world was a grand fortuitous bungle, if their was no land they would have starved to death. Even after his discovery, Columbus stubbornly believed he was in Asia till the day he died. So Columbus day really celebrates lucky buffoonery, rather than thoughtful discovery.

So true! Love it. The celebration in our schools of this man astounds me.

 

[TallulahBlue]

Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid.

 

[Male_uk]

Humans lived closer in time to the Tyrannosaurus then the Stegosaurus did.

 

[TallulahBlue]

Michael Jackson's 1988 autobiography Moonwalk was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.