← FACTSlides → Random Facts Page #38

24 is the age you're most likely to shop at IKEA, according to a study.

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Finland's passport became a flipbook when it was redesigned in 2012. It features a moose that walks across the page as you thumb through it.

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Oscar Wilde was tried in 1895 for gross indecency over a relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, and sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour.

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Homosexuality was against the law in Britain until 1967.

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42% of of highly-mobile and regular home workers worldwide suffer from insomnia, as opposed to 29% of regular office workers, according to a UN study.

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The Kindlifresser, or "Child Eater", is one of oldest statues in Bern, Switzerland, and nobody is sure why it has a baby half stuffed into his mouth, and three more over its shoulder.

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Hydra are believed to be biologically immortal, meaning, they don't age.

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Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't arrested for killing JFK. He was actually arrested for fatally shooting a police officer 45 minutes after the death of Kennedy.

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According to a study, up to 50% of the world's natural history specimens in museums are labeled incorrectly.

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Austria, Belgium, France, and Germany hold elections on weekends or have made election day a holiday. All surpass America in voter turnout.

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Similar to "fake news", the "Lügenpresse" accusation was used by the Nazis to discredit unsupportive media outlets.

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Down syndrome has been disappearing in Iceland since prenatal screening tests were introduced in the early 2000s. Almost 100% of women who had a positive test for Down syndrome decided to terminate their pregnancy.

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Robert E. Lee himself, after the Civil War, opposed monuments, specifically Confederate war monuments.

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Sperm count in Western men has dropped over 50% since 1973.

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During Stalin's three decades of rule, which ended with his death in 1953, an estimated 15 million to 30 million people were executed or died in labor camps or starved to death.

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Chewing gum became a truly global phenomenon during WWII when it was included in American GI rations.

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"Ostalgie" is a German term referring to nostalgia for East Germany.

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Taylor Swift has trademarked the phrases "this sick beat", "party like it's 1989," and "Nice to meet you. Where you been?"

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A University of Bristol physicist determined that the optimum time to dunk a biscuit is 3.5 seconds.

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After the assassination of JFK, all three U.S. TV networks interrupted their regular programming to cover it for 4 straight days, the longest uninterrupted news event until 9/11.

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Apollo Astronauts couldn't get life insurance. They made their own by autographing cards to be sold by their families if they didn't return.

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The term “to masticate” comes from the Greeks, who used a resin made from the mastic tree to exercise their jaws.

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In the 60s, the Fisher Pen Company reportedly invested $1 million to create a "space pen," one that could write upside-down, in frigid or roasting conditions. They sold 400 units to NASA and 100 to the Soviet Union.

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A British study found that one third of vegetarians eat meat when drunk.

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The Statue of Liberty employs gum-cleaning staff who use specially designed "GumBuster" machines.

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A grasshopper becomes more sociable if you stroke its hind legs.

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In Sweden, IKEA is pronounced "ee-kay-uh" not "eye-kee-ah". The word is made up of the initials of the founder's name and the village he grew up in.

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During Germany's hyperinflation that peaked in 1923, a loaf of bread cost 428 billion marks and a kilo of butter would run you roughly 6 trillion.

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32% of journeys in Amsterdam are by bicycle, while in Copenhagen it's 35%.

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The Quandt family, one of the richest in Germany and the largest shareholder of BMW, took over scores of Jewish businesses and used tens of thousands of slave labourers at its factories during Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

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