Facts You Probably don’t Need
- Martin Van Buren, the 8th president of the United States, did not mention his wife of 12 years in his 800-page autobiography.
- The South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area, a region in the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand, is routinely used as an area to crash spacecrafts that are no longer needed. It is known as the “Spacecraft Cemetery.”
- The phrase “to turn a blind eye” comes from British Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was blind in one eye. At the siege of Copenhagen, when he was signaled to stop firing at Danish ships, he held up a telescope to his blind eye and said, “I really do not see the signal,” and attacked anyway.
- Japan and Russia still have not signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Island dispute.
- The U.S.A. is the only country that does not dip its flag to the host country during opening ceremonies at the Olympics. When the U.S. flag holder was asked to do so for King Edward VII at the 1908 London games, he supposedly responded, “This flag dips to no earthly king.”
- Bryan Cranston played two different Power Ranger villains in 1993.
- We can udnretsnad any msseed up stnecene as lnog as the lsat and frsit lteetrs of wdros are in crrcoet plaecs.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
