Facts You Probably don’t Need
- Nearly 12,000 amendments have been proposed in Congress since the Constitution was ratified in 1788. Only 27 have been ratified into law.
- There are six U.S. state capitals west of Los Angeles.
- Venezuela is named after Venice, Italy.
- Hugh Trenchard, a British soldier sometimes called “the Father of the Royal Air Force,” became partially paralyzed in combat during the Boar War. During his recovery, he took up bobsledding as a hobby as it did not require much use of his legs. After a major accident, his spine was somehow readjusted, and he regained use of his legs.
- At full sprint a cheetah spends more time flying than in contact with the ground.
- Simon the cat, a feline aboard Royal Navy Ship “The Amethyst,” was awarded The Dickin Medal for gallantry under fire. The gallantry? He protected the ship’s food supplies from an infestation of rats.
- When you look at a clock, and the second hand seems to freeze for a moment, your brain is actually generating a false memory, and your perception of time stretches slightly backward. This effect is called chronostasis.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
