Jack Goldstein - 101 Amazing Facts about Everything - Volume 1

Title Page

101 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING

Volume 1

Jack Goldstein & Jimmy Russell

Publisher Information

Published in 2013 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The rights of Jack Goldstein and Jimmy Russell to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2013 Jack Goldstein and Jimmy Russell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All facts contained within this book have been researched from reputable sources. If any information is found to be false, please contact the publishers, who will be happy to make corrections for future editions.

Introduction

Did you know that President Theodore Roosevelt had a guinea pig called Fighting Bob Evans along with many other hilariously named pets? Were you aware that a certain Brazilian Emperor didnt oppose a military coup because he no longer enjoyed his job? Brought to you by renowned trivia historians Jack Goldstein and Jimmy Russell, this eBook is full of facts that will make you laugh, gasp in amazement and possibly blow your mind. Find out what percentage of the worlds wood is used just by IKEA, the unusual job Sylvester Stallone once had, who wrote the worlds first knock-knock joke and much, much more.

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General Facts

1. Oxford University erupted into a riot over the quality of wine in 1355 which left nearly 100 people dead.
2. St. Valentine is the patron saint of plagues.
3. The name Wendy was first popularised by the book Peter Pan.
4. The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer that the Wright Brothers first flight.
5. The youngest pope ever was just 11 years old.
6. President Theodore Roosevelt (who of course the Teddy Bear is named after) was particularly fond of animals, having five guinea pigs called Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, Admiral Dewey, and Father OGrady. 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 - fantastically - a snake known to his family as Emily Spinach.
7. When you play peekaboo with a baby, they actually believe you have disappeared behind your hands. This is why they are so pleased to see you when you reappear.
8. A serial killer by the name of Pedro Lopez murdered more than 300 people. He was caught and in 1994 was sent to an insane asylum in Columbia. They declared him sane in 1998, released him and he has never been seen since.
9. Mauritania in West Africa only declared slavery illegal in 1981.
10. In and around Austria, a goat-horned spirit called the Krampus accompanies Santa Claus on his rounds, beating children who have been naughty with a whip.

Famous People

1. Andrew Jackson was so vulgar that his pet parrot (who had picked up some of the presidents favourite sayings) was ejected from his funeral for swearing.
2. Genghis Khan was such a prolific lover that despite the fact that there are over six billion people on our planet, theres a 0.5% chance that you are directly descended from him.
3. Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar had so much cash money stored in warehouses that it is estimated that rats ate nearly US$1 billion every year.
4. David Copperfield narrowly escaped being mugged in 2006 when he used a sleight of hand trick to convince the robber than he had nothing in his pockets.
5. Instead of paying his tab, surrealist painter Salvador Dali would draw pictures onto cheques. The sketches would be much too valuable to cash, so he would end up with a free lunch.
6. When he was a young soldier, Mr T was punished by being ordered to chop down trees. Until he was stopped four hours later, the crazy fool had managed to fell over seventy trees single-handedly.
7. Emperor Pedro II of Brazil took no part in preventing being overthrown by a military coup in 1889, as he hated being the Emperor anyway.
8. Marilyn Monroe, considered by many to be the most beautiful woman ever, had six toes on each foot.
9. Five of the last seven American Presidents have been left handed. Thats 71%. Compare that to everyone else in the world, where the chances of being left handed are 15%. Is this a conspiracy?!
10. Sylvester Stallone once had a job as a lion cage cleaner.

TV & Film

1. When Peter Jackson asked Sir Christopher Lee to imagine how a man being stabbed in the back sounds whilst filming Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , Sir Christopher replied that as a former member of the British Secret Service, he didnt have to imagine it.
2. Nearly 90% of the lines for the character of Shrek were originally voiced by Chris Farley before he passed away, leading to Mike Myers stepping in to re-record them all.
3. In movie credits, the word and and the symbol & have different meanings. If two writers are joined with an ampersand (&) this means the writers collaborated on the script; the word and however means that they worked on the script separately and at different times.
4. During the second world war, metal was reserved for important uses such as weapons and ammunition. As a result of this, the Oscars given away that year were made of plaster.
5. Charlie Chaplin once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
6. Disney was sued for defamation by an animal researcher who felt that their portrayal of Hyenas in The Lion King as evil was unfair.
7. Sidney Sheinberg, executive producer of Back to the Future wanted to change the title of the film to Spaceman from Pluto , as no successful film has the word future in the title.
8. Before Elton John was chosen to write the music for Disneys The Lion King , ABBA had been asked - but declined as Benny was already working on another project.
9. In 2006 a film called Zyzzyx Road premiered in Dallas. Despite having a $1.2m production budget, only six people went to see it in the entirety of the movies run, meaning it made just $30, a record low.
10. OJ Simpson was the original choice for the role of The Terminator , however director James Cameron thought he was too nice to be playing a killing machine.

Health and the Human Body

1. 7,000 people die each year as a consequence of doctors sloppy handwriting.
2. The average lifespan for a single hair is 4-7 years.
3. The colder the room in which you sleep, the more likely you are to have nightmares. So put that heating on!
4. There is enough iron in your body to make a nail around 10cm long.
5. You can go longer without food than you can without sleep.
6. You can survive with an amazing number of body parts missing. You can technically get rid of your arms, legs, stomach, spleen, a kidney, a lung, 75% of your liver and 80% of your intestines.
7. Stomach acid is so strong that it can dissolve razor blades. But please dont try swallowing any.
8. It is believed that the human brain can store the equivalent of 1000 terabytes of information.
9. The average male produces enough sperm in six months to repopulate the entire planet.
10. Our eyes stay the same size from the day were born. But our ears and nose keep on growing until the day we die.

Animals

1. Cats can drink sea water without getting dehydrated.
2. Not only is the blue whale the largest animal on earth, but its the largest animal which has ever lived.