70 Amazing Facts

Here are 70 amazing facts that will blow your mind! These are a mix of fun, surprising, and mind-boggling truths:

1. Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren’t.
2. Octopuses have three hearts—two pump blood to the gills, and one pumps it to the rest of the body.
3. The shortest war in history lasted just 38 to 45 minutes. It was between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896.
4. Sharks are older than trees—they’ve been around for over 400 million years, while trees evolved around 350 million years ago.
5. Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still edible.
6. The Eiffel Tower can grow taller in the summer because of the expansion of iron in heat.
7. A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus due to its slow rotation.
8. The longest hiccuping spree lasted 68 years.
9. Wombat poop is cube-shaped to prevent it from rolling away.
10. Cows have best friends and get stressed when separated from them.
11. A single teaspoon of honey represents the life work of 12 bees.
12. The Great Wall of China is not visible from space with the naked eye, contrary to popular belief.
13. The world’s largest snowflake on record was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.
14. Dolphins have names for each other and can call out to one another specifically.
15. You can’t hum while holding your nose because humming requires air to pass through your nose.
16. The shortest commercial flight in the world is only 47 seconds long, between two islands in Scotland.
17. There’s a planet made of diamond—55 Cancri e, also called “the diamond planet.”
18. Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins, up to 40 minutes underwater.
19. Shakespeare invented more than 1,700 words in the English language.
20. There’s a jellyfish that is biologically immortal, called Turritopsis dohrnii.
21. The longest place name in the world is in New Zealand: “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.”
22. Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump.
23. The first computer virus was created in 1983 and was called the “Creeper.”
24. A group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance.”
25. The shortest war in history (38 to 45 minutes) took place between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896.
26. Humans share about 60% of their DNA with bananas.
27. The world’s largest pizza was 1261.65 square meters (13,580.28 square feet).
28. Polar bear skin is black under their white fur.
29. Sharks can live for up to 400 years—the Greenland shark has the longest lifespan of any vertebrate.
30. Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.
31. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
32. Cows can walk upstairs but cannot walk downstairs due to their knee joints.
33. The unicorn is Scotland’s national animal.
34. Vikings did not wear horned helmets—that was a myth created by later artists.
35. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches.
36. Shakespeare invented the word “eyeball.”
37. The Earth’s inner core is as hot as the surface of the sun—about 9,932°F (5,500°C).
38. There’s a type of mushroom that can “eat” plastic.
39. Sea otters hold hands while sleeping to keep from drifting apart.
40. Rats can laugh when tickled.
41. The largest volcano in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars—it’s nearly 14 miles high.
42. A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
43. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
44. The fastest animal on the planet is the peregrine falcon, reaching speeds of over 240 mph in a dive.
45. The inventor of the Pringles can is buried in one.
46. There’s a species of frog that can freeze and thaw itself.
47. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
48. The Eiffel Tower grows by about 6 inches in summer due to the heat.
49. New Zealand has more sheep than people.
50. An astronaut’s height can change in space—they can grow by about 2 inches while in zero gravity.
51. The world’s oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9,000 years old.
52. Giraffes have no vocal cords, and communicate mainly through body language and low-frequency sounds.
53. A group of owls is called a parliament.
54. The Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the world’s oxygen.
55. Mice can sing, but their songs are too high-pitched for humans to hear.
56. The longest hiccuping spree by a human lasted 68 years.
57. Cats have the ability to rotate their ears 180 degrees.
58. A day on Mercury is longer than a year on Mercury. It takes 59 Earth days to rotate once and only 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun.
59. Humans share 60% of their DNA with bananas.
60. The total weight of all ants on Earth is greater than the weight of all humans.
61. There’s a species of jellyfish that is biologically immortal: Turritopsis dohrnii.
62. The smell of freshly-cut grass is actually a plant’s distress signal.
63. A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds.
64. Sharks have been around longer than trees, having existed for more than 400 million years.
65. The Great Wall of China is not a single continuous wall but rather a series of walls built by different dynasties.
66. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents.
67. Cleopatra’s reign occurred closer to the moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
68. Bees can recognize human faces and associate them with rewards like food.
69. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar in the U.S. currency system.
70. The Eiffel Tower can grow taller by about 6 inches during summer due to the heat expansion of iron.