101 Amazing Facts Quotes

“One of the world’s most fascinating mysteries is surely the Tamam Shud case. In December 1948, an unidentified man was found dead on a beach in Adelaide. The only clue to a possible identity was a tiny piece of paper found in a hidden pocket sewn into the trousers of the dead man with the words ‘Tamam Shud’ scribbled on it. The phrase is used on the last page of a collection of poems of Omar Khayyam called The Rubaiyat, a copy of which was found with a scribbled code in it, which was believed to have been written in there by the dead man. What does the code mean? What was it leading him to? Why and how did he die? All of these questions remain completely unanswered to this day and the case is as much of a mystery now as it was the very day the body was discovered.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“In possibly one of the cutest facts you will ever read, sea otters hold each other’s paws whilst they are asleep so they don’t drift apart from each other.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“The original title for The Lion King was King of the Jungle - until someone pointed out that Lions don’t actually live in the jungle.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“In the early 20th century, one of the most popular visitor attractions in Paris was a human zoo, which millions of people visited every year to see ‘specimens’ from Madagascar, India, China, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and the Congo.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“sea otters hold each other’s paws whilst they are asleep so they don’t drift apart from each other.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“In 1450, a pack of wolves killed and ate forty people in the middle of Paris. The leader of the wolves was called Courtaud (which translates as ‘Bobtail’) and was said to be a deep red in colour. The wolves were lured into the heart of the city and were speared and stoned to death in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Many Americans often refer to Elizabeth II as ‘Queen Elizabeth of England’ - however, as any Brit will tell you, that’s wrong - they’ll say she is in fact Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But of course they’re wrong as well. Her majesty is in fact Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“show from the last 20 years, look out for a detective by the name of John Munch. Always played by the same man, Richard Belzer, he was originally a character on Homicide: Life on the Street, before joining the cast of Law & Order Special Victims Unit. But there’s more; he has also been seen on episodes of The X-Files, Arrested Development, The Wire, 30 Rock and many more - always the same actor as the same character. Weird, but amazing nonetheless.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“The identity of Jack the Ripper is surely one of the all-time classic crime mysteries. In the late 19th Century, the Ripper is believed by general consensus to have committed five murders (although a number of later killings did also bear his hallmarks, and the fifth of the ‘confirmed’ killings still raises a number of doubts). At the time police were stumped, even arresting a man purely on anti-Semitic hearsay before apologising and letting him go. Since then, more than eighty suspects have been proposed, from members of royalty to mad surgeons, and even a suggestion that the Ripper was in fact ‘Jill’ rather than ‘Jack’. The case became muddied when a number of letters were sent to the police; some obvious hoaxes, some in fact likely to have been written in the killer’s own hand. One even included half a kidney (it should be noted that one of the victim’s had a kidney removed at the scene of the attack) with a note saying the other half had been fried and was very nice to eat. Everyone has their own view on who the Ripper was, and why the killings stopped just as suddenly as they began.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“If a baby stork is not happy with the way it is being reared, it sometimes abandons its parents and wanders into another nearby nest to be fed by a new family!”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Property is often left on the trains of the London Underground. Unusual items that have found their way into the lost property office include a coffin, a samurai sword, a stuffed puffer fish and a human skull.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“The Beatles were working on an album called Everest (actually named after a brand of cigarettes). When it was suggested they should get the photo for the record cover taken at the actual place the album was named after - and being too lazy to travel to the Himalayas - they renamed it to Abbey Road, which was the street on which their recording studio was.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“James Earl Jones, who voices Darth Vader, was so convinced that Star Wars would be a flop that he initially refused to allow his name to be used in the credits.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“President Theodore Roosevelt (after whom the Teddy Bear is named) was particularly fond of animals, having five guinea pigs called Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Admiral Dewey, and Father O’Grady. He also owned a small bear called Jonathan Edwards, a lizard by the name of Bill, Baron Spreckle (a hen), a badger called Josiah, Eli Yale the parrot and - brilliantly - a snake known to his family as Emily Spinach.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Bangkok, capital of Thailand is the city holds the record for the world’s longest place name. Its full ceremonial name is Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“The shortest national anthem in the world is the Japanese one, which only consists of four lines. The Greek anthem on the other hand features an incredible 158 verses.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“At one point during the war, the Germans built fake airfields out of wood to draw British bombers away from their real targets and to fool the allies into thinking they were strategically more powerful than they actually were. However, the British weren’t fooled - and took the mickey out of the Germans by dropping wooden bombs on the decoys!”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“During the Second World War, the good people of the great Mosque in Paris looked after many of the city’s Jewish population, supplying them with Muslim identity certificates so they would not be taken away to concentration camps.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“There is a real medical condition for which Japanese tourists are sometimes treated after visiting Paris. It is called Paris Syndrome, and symptoms include depression and nausea due to realising that the city isn’t as beautiful and romantic as they had previously been led to believe.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“In 1251, the King of Norway gave Henry III a polar bear as a present.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“There was no such thing as the Vietnam War. This rather surprising statement is in fact 100% true - on a technicality. As the US Congress never actually declared war officially against the country, the correct title is the Vietnam Conflict.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“in 1955 the CIA released the whooping cough virus over Tampa, Florida without telling anyone, so they could see how quickly it would spread; they got their data, and twelve innocent civilians died.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Using a daring and audacious method, the citizens of Konstanz in Germany managed to prevent allied forces from dropping a single bomb on their city during the Second World War... they left all of their lights on at night! As the city is very close to the border with Switzerland - who were neutral in the war - the allied forces assumed the city was Swiss, and didn’t target it.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“The night of September the 14th, 1814, saw heavy bombardment of Baltimore by the British. Despite this, the next morning, the large American flag was still flying undamaged over Fort McHenry. Such a sight made lawyer Francis Scott Key feel extremely patriotic, and he wrote four verses called Defence of Fort McHenry, which he set to the music of To Anacreon in Heaven, a British drinking song. When it was later sold as sheet music, the publishers used a different title for Key’s ditty, and in 1931 it was chosen to be America’s national anthem. Yes - The Star Spangled Banner is based on a British drinking song!”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Mosquitos prefer to bite children rather than adults - and prefer blondes to brunettes! No-one knows why.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“In 2009, KFC decided to promote their brand by giving Oprah viewers the opportunity to print out a coupon entitling them to a free lunch. The company however had underestimated the sheer number of people who would print out the voucher - sixteen million in total - and when massive queues formed, food began to run out and the company tried to backtrack on its promise, customer staged sit-ins and even began to riot.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Mongols invaded India, one general built a pyramid in front of the walls of Delhi to terrify the remaining enemies into surrender. Pyramids aren’t scary though, surely? Well, this one was, being made from ninety thousand human heads.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“having five guinea pigs called Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Admiral Dewey, and Father O’Grady. He also owned a small bear called Jonathan Edwards, a lizard by the name of Bill, Baron Spreckle (a hen), a badger called Josiah, Eli Yale the parrot”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Animals President Theodore Roosevelt (after whom the Teddy Bear is named) was particularly fond of animals, having five guinea pigs called Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Admiral Dewey, and Father O’Grady. He also owned a small bear called Jonathan Edwards, a lizard by the name of Bill, Baron Spreckle (a hen), a badger called Josiah, Eli Yale the parrot and - brilliantly - a snake known to his family as Emily Spinach. In its lifetime, an albatross is believed to fly around fifteen million miles. To put that into perspective, it is the same as flying half way to Mars when it is at its closest distance to the Earth. In possibly one of the cutest facts you will ever read, sea otters hold each other’s paws whilst they are asleep so they don’t drift apart from each other. Elephant shrews are more closely related to elephants than they are shrews. Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find anything else to eat. Amazingly, they can consume up to 95% of their own bodyweight and still survive.”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts

“Many Americans often refer to Elizabeth II as ‘Queen Elizabeth of England’ - however, as any Brit will tell you, that’s wrong - they’ll say she is in fact Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But of course they’re wrong as well. Her majesty is in fact Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Phew!”
― Jack Goldstein, 101 Amazing Facts