Life is mostly about the pursuit of knowledge and, therefore, the collection of fun facts. All my fun facts were harvested personally … They started as a physical book purchase from Amazon, then moved to a Kindle download where I bookmarked them by hand; at the conclusion of a book they were transcribed into a Snoopy Moleskine, and finally, they appear here for your personal wonderment.
As little as five percent of American families account for half of all crimes and ten percent of families account for two-thirds of all crime … 2.3 million people are in prison on any given day in America, half of them have a close relative who has been imprisoned. Of the 600,000 criminals released each year, two-thirds will be rearrested within three years and three-quarters of them will be rearrested within five years.
As a lawyer, Abe Lincoln was involved in more than 3,000 cases, including more than twenty-five trials for murder. He argued cases before the Supreme Court and more than 300 times represented clients before the Illinois supreme court.
President John Tyler died in 1862 and there was no memorial service or public mention of his passing. That’s because he was a citizen of the Confederate States of America, the only U.S. president that at the time of his death was a citizen of another country.
Eight U.S. presidents died in office, in order William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren Harding, FDR, JFK (can you name, without Google, the VP who became the president? Answers below).
Ninety percent of Canadians live within 100 miles of the southern border with the U.S. while only twelve percent of Americans live with 100 miles of our Canadian border.
It takes a drop of water about 400 years to travel from Lake Superior (the westernmost Great Lake) across the other four Great Lakes and into the St. Lawrence River.
North Dakota is the most extreme weather zone in the world. Research indicates it has been such for thousands of years, fluctuating 180 degrees between seasons from -60 degrees to 120 degrees.
During World War II an estimated 1,400 Major League Baseball players, managers, umpires and coaches served in the armed forces
Rocky Marciano fought for the heavyweight title in Philadelphia in 1952 against Jersey Joe Walcott. His wife Barbara was seven months pregnant and she sat ringside next to Frank Sinatra.
Joseph Warren, the “Founding Father” you have probably never heard of was admitted to Harvard in 1755 – he was fourteen years old. He would later die a martyr at Bunker Hill.
Johnny Sain was the last major league pitcher to face Babe Ruth and he was the first major leaguer to throw a pitch to Jackie Robinson.
According to Ted Williams, the best five hitters of all-time were (in order): Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, Rogers Hornsby and Joe DiMaggio.
A dog rose has been growing in Lower Saxony, Germany for over 1,000 years. The so-called 1,000-Year Rose, the oldest living rose, is thirty-five feet tall and is growing up the sides of the Hildesheim Cathedral. The Cathedral was blasted during World War II and so was the rose, killing it above ground, but the roots stayed alive and the rose still grows today.
Millions of homing pigeons died in the line of duty during World War I, many received posthumous medals for gallantry.
Of the three million kids who play Little League baseball every year, only forty-five will make it to the Majors and only fifteen will last five years in the Big Leagues.
The ravens that reside in the Tower of London have a favorite snack: dog biscuits soaked in blood.
It is said that the typical rock & roll band has about an eighteen-month lifespan that, more or less, proceeds along these lines: a record deal, a hit single, a debut album, a difficult second album, a falling out, break up.
Beginning in the 1920s, the U.S. Department of Commerce began hiring “air-marking” pilots. They flew around looking for barns and warehouses that were at least 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, then they painted the town’s name on the roof of those buildings in large block letters to give other pilots some general idea of where they were.
Replacements for dead presidents: Harrison was replaced by Tyler; Taylor by Fillmore; Lincoln by A. Johnson; Garfield by Arthur; McKinley by T. Roosevelt; Harding by Coolidge; FDR by Truman; JFK by L.B. Johnson.