



1- Although the Jurassic Park franchise portrayed them as larger than humans in size, velociraptors were actually the size of modern domesticated turkeys. And they may have actually had feathers.





Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde invented the equal sign in 1557 simply because he was fed up with having to continuously use the phrase is equal to.





After the death of her husband to a bomb raid in 1943, Polish-born Natalia Karp was sent to a concentration camp where she managed to save both herself and her sister by playing Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor on the piano so well, it impressed a commandant who decided to spare them.





Located in the Philippines, Vulcan Point is an island in the middle of a lake that's in the middle of an active volcano, which rises out of a bigger lake, which is in the middle of a bigger island.





A 2005 study revealed that of the 384 multi-child families researched, 74% of the mothers and 70% of the fathers preferred one of their offspring over the rest.





Held on May 28, 2006, the 90th Indianapolis 500 was the first of its kind to have only Honda engines in the field, as Chevrolet and Toyota had pulled out earlier. It was also the first time that no engine problems were reported for the entire month.





When given the role of Kate on the show This Is Us, Chrissy Metz became contractually obligated to continuously lose weight over the course of the show. She accepted the condition and has inspired numerous people to join her on her journey to a healthier self.





The longest insect discovered to date is Chan's Megastick. Found in Borneo, Malaysia, these creatures resemble long twigs, making it easy for them to conceal themselves from predators, and can grow over 35.7 centimeters in length.





The smallest insect ever discovered is the fairy flies of the temperate forest regions in Costa Rica. A member of the wasp family, these creatures are barely visible. Some were less than 0.14 millimeters long.





In 2009, police in Ireland discovered that there was a serial offender wracking up dozens of speeding and parking tickets under the Prawo Jazdy. However, after citing over 50 tickets to people with that name, the department was informed that Prawo Jazdy means driver's license in Polish. The officers had been reading the wrong part of the license.





The middle start in the sword portion of the Orion constellation isn't actually a star. It's the Orion Nebula, the only nebula visible from Earth with the naked eye.





When he couldn't get a ringside seat to the fight of the century, Mohammed Ali versus Joe Fraser, singer Frank Sinatra made a deal with Life Magazine to be their photographer, receiving a ringside ticket in the press box. In fact, four of his pictures were used in the magazine. One of them was on the issue's cover.





In 1958, 17-year old Robert G. Heft's design for the flag of the United States was accepted by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the official design. Heft's teacher had originally given him a B minus, but upon it being selected, he changed the grade to an A.





After the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, head baker Charles Joughin managed to keep his cool. He ordered the other bakers to bring up the bread and give it to the lifeboats so passengers could eat while awaiting rescue, and gave his seat to someone else who would be saved. Then, after some liquid courage, he began throwing chairs overboard so those in water could hang onto them before going down with the sinking ship. But most incredibly, he survived in the frigid water until he was rescued.





Less than an hour before being executed on March 20, 1995, 32-year old convicted murderer Thomas J. Grosso used his last words to complain about his last meal. He said, "I didn't get my SpaghettiOs, "I got spaghetti, I want the press to know this."





In 1971, Theo Albrecht, owner, and CEO of Aldi Nord supermarket chain was kidnapped and held for ransom for 17 days. He negotiated with his captors himself, eventually having seven million German marks paid to them, which he later successfully claimed as a business expense on his taxes.





French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte hated losing at games, especially card games. Thus, he would often cheat, with few people ever calling him out for it for fear of upsetting him. However, the one person who always did this was his mother. In response, Napoleon would often say, "Madame, you are rich, you can afford to lose, "but I am poor and must win."





In 1927, sitting President Charles King won the Liberian presidential election, amassing a whopping 234,000 votes, even though Liberia only had 15,000 registered voters. King holds the Guinness World Record for the most fraudulent election in history.





People with dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder, can have alternate consciousnesses with drastic physical differences. Documented changes include blood pressure, pulse, and amount of blood going to the brain. An alternate may even be able to see clearly when the main personality requires prescription glasses.





After serving as king of England for just over seven months, King Edmund Ironside was assassinated on November 30, 1016, while on a different throne. He was allegedly on the privy under which the assassin was hiding, and was stabbed several times from below.





In the state of New York it's illegal to sell your home if it's considered haunted, without disclosing that fact to the buyer.





There is a 400-year-old tradition in Japan in which sumo wrestlers try to make babies cry by shaking them and making faces. The crying is said to ward off evil spirits and bring good health, and also brain-damaged babies.





The smoke-filled room was an experiment conducted in the 1960s at Columbia University, in which students would fill out forms while smoke was pumped in through a vent. When the student was alone, they almost always left the room to let someone know. But oddly, when in a room with actors who pretended not to notice the danger, only one in 10 students did anything about it. The others waved the fumes away and tried to complete their forms while smoke literally filled the room.





On January 6, 2014, Iksas Hassan, a student in Pakistan, confronted a suicide bomber before he could enter the small school that Hassan and 2,000 other students attended. The 15-year old boy lost his life when the bomber detonated, but his sacrifice saved hundreds of lives. He was hailed as a national hero in Pakistan and was posthumously given the Star of Bravery.





Created in 1963 for the X-Men comic books, the characters Professor X and Magneto were modeled after real-life human beings who wanted acceptance during those times. Professor Xavier is based on Martin Luther King, Jr., and Magneto is based on Malcolm X.





The man who invented the electric light bulb, Thomas Edison, was afraid of the dark.





Divorce was actually illegal in Ireland until a referendum was passed in 1995. With 50.28% saying against just 49.72%. That means the margin of victory was just 0.56%.





If conspiracy theorists were correct, and the Apollo 11 moon landing was, in fact, faked by the US government, then that would mean over 400,000 people would need to be in on the cover-up.





The basketball player's silhouette in the NBA logo was inspired by a picture taken of all-star Jerry West, who played for the LA Lakers from 1960 until 1974. Today, the logo brings in over $3 billion every year in licensing.





Early humans practiced a form of hunting that mimics that of some wolves, hyenas, and even spiders. It's called persistence hunting and involves tracking fast prey over long distances. Humans can sweat, granting them some protection from heat, and allowing them to endure longer runs. Thus, they would simply wear down prey until they couldn't run anymore, and then kill it.





On October 18, 2000, after his daughter reminded him on his death bed that he'd always wanted his final words to be memorable, radio announcer Charles Gusman pulled off his oxygen mask, and whispered, "And now, for a final word from our sponsor." They were, in fact, his last words.





On February 12, 1992, the British electronic band, The KLF, announced that they were leaving the music business while at the Brit Awards. As their set ended, musician Bill Drummond opened fire with a machine gun, shooting blanks as he aimed over the stunned audience's heads. Later after the party, the band dumped a dead sheep at the entrance, with a message that read I died for you, bon appetite.





The Beatles first performed in the United States on February 11, 1964, at the Washington Coliseum. According to the son of Harry Lynn, who owned the venue, the building smelled strong of urine for most of the night, as the female concert-goers lost their minds to the point where they wet themselves.





Formerly known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, the Outer Space Treaty is a real document which dictates laws while off Earth. 107 countries are parties to the treaty.





Using their sonar abilities, dolphins can actually utilize their own form of x-ray vision. They can see under the sea bed and even through other animals. So, literally, if you're swimming with a dolphin, you can see it's skin, while it can see your skeleton.





Instead of getting a new tie or breakfast in bed, father's day in Germany brings with it temporary freedom from parenting duties. Fathers travel in groups, usually dressed oddly and dragging a wagon full of alcoholic beverages behind them. The day is also known as accident day, as the roadways see over three times the usual number of vehicle accidents, mostly due to alcohol consumption.





In 2012, several local governments attempted to put a ban on the German father's day custom, but state-run courts overruled their decisions claiming that they violated their citizen's constitutional right to freedom of action in a country where beer drinking is part of the national culture.





Named after Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, Edwin Thomas Clint was an Indian child prodigy. Before his tragic death due to kidney failure in 1983, just shy of his seventh birthday, Clint had already created over 25,000 works of art.





Albert Einstein once wrote a letter to a magazine declaring that if he was a young man again, instead of getting into sciences, he would try to become a plumber. In response, the Chicago plumber's union offered him an honorary membership.





Located in the waters off the southeast coast of Asia, the mimic octopus can not only change its colors to blend in with its surroundings, but they can actually physically copy the movements and characteristics of aquatic animals. Manipulating their bodies and tentacles, they can mimic such creatures as eels, snakes, jellyfish, stingrays, and even starfish.





Gram for gram, crickets, those little insects that are always making noise on your lawn, contain twice the protein, three times the iron, and five times magnesium than beef does. So go ahead, eat some crickets, (slurps), mm, yummy.





In the 1920s a plan was considered by multiple European governing bodies to build several dams and drain the Mediterranean Sea. The motion would have created much-needed farmland and established a new continent, dubbed Atlanthropa. It would have provided food, employment opportunities, electric power, and a new bridge from Europe to Africa. But despite gaining a lot of popularity, the plan was abandoned.





On December 28, 1973, a three-man crew from NASA's Skylab IV mission held a one day mutiny in which they turned of all communication equipment with ground control for 24 hours. They spent the day relaxing and enjoying the view of the Earth. See, even astronauts need a day off :).





Until the introduction of sponsor decorated vehicles, Grand Prix cars were decorated with colors according to the country the represented. In 1934, the German team's traditionally white car came in overweight, so they shaved off every flake of lead paint, revealing the silver shine of the metal underneath. This led to Germany changing their color to silver and prompted Mercedes-Benz to launch the legendary Silver Arrows race car line.





Research conducted by scientists for the Journal of Neurology revealed that Parkinson's patients who received a placebo that doctors claimed to cost $1500 saw more positive results than those who were told that their medicine only cost $100. That, despite both shots being the only saline.





NASA has a plan for disposing of corpses when people die in long-term space exploration or settling. It involves allowing the person's body to freeze in the airlock before using a robotic arm to shake them violently until they crumble into tiny pieces of space dust. Let's hope none of us ever die in space.





Some species of ants have been documented using sap-sucking insects called aphids to collect honeydew that they smaller creatures release. The ants will actually guard their domesticated herds of aphids and milk them for sustenance using their antenna.





Tim Wong, an aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, single-handedly saved and repopulated an entire butterfly species, the California Pipeline Swallowtail. He did this inside a greenhouse in his own backyard.





In April of 1984, Phyllis Penzo was waiting tables at Sal's Pizzeria in Yonkers, New York, when she was asked to pick some numbers for a lottery ticket. Yeah, you probably know where this is going. The man who asked her, Robert Cunningham, wound up winning that week's $6 million prizes, and ever the gentleman, split the money with Penzo, giving the waitress $3 million. Would you do that, because for me I'd be like yeah, bye, move to an island?





Over 100 bars and restaurants in the Veltins Arena in Germany serve beer that comes from a five-kilometer long beer pipeline, which interconnects them all. The pipes can deliver over 14 liters of beer per minute, from four cooling centers located deep under the stadium.