Fun Facts That Are

During a war between France and England in 1697, Louis XIV ordered the release of a captured English engineer who had been building a lighthouse. His reasoning: "France is at war with England, not with humanity."

In Portugal, it's illegal for your employer to contact you outside of working hours — companies face fines of nearly €10,000 per violation.

In 1978, Richard Branson tried to impress his girlfriend by pretending to buy a Caribbean island listed at $6 million. He jokingly offered $100,000 and was thrown off the island — but a year later, with no other buyers, the desperate owner accepted just $180,000.

In 1869–1870, boosters called Washington vulnerable and pitched St. Louis as the nation’s natural center, even hosting a Capital Removal convention.

In 1930, six anonymous Chicago businessmen formed a secret vigilante organization to take on the city's rampant crime. They investigated bombings, kidnappings, and bank robberies — and Al Capone himself said they were responsible for bringing him down.

About 2% of people worldwide can hear a mysterious low-frequency humming sound known as "The Hum" — and despite decades of research, no one has been able to fully explain it.

A group of kids learned sign language just so they could wish their deaf janitor a happy birthday.

A Burger King cook in Vancouver was fired for taking home a fish sandwich, fries, and a drink after 24 years of service. A judge ruled it was a misunderstanding and awarded her $46,000.

The rarest shark in the Gulf of Mexico is 5 inches long, glows in the dark, and shoots clouds of luminous fluid from tiny pockets near its fins — basically a living flashbang grenade.

Quokkas are known as the world's happiest animal because they always look like they're smiling. But when a predator shows up, mothers eject their baby from the pouch and let it flop around on the ground as a distraction while they run away.

Lemurs chew toxic millipedes and rub the secretions on their fur to repel mosquitoes, but the side effects accidentally send them to another dimension.

When you clap, the sound you hear isn't skin hitting skin. It's Helmholtz resonance — air trapped between your palms gets compressed and shoots out at up to 90 m/s, vibrating like blowing across a bottle. Cupped hands = deeper clap. Flat hands = sharper clap.