In a very early draft of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones carried brass knuckles instead of a bullwhip.

See also:
- Indiana Jones Official Site

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Adolph Hitler played chess daily. He always played the white pieces, and insisted on being allowed to replace one of his bishops with a second queen.

See also:
- Chess.net

keywords: entertainment, history, famous people, government, nazi, world war ii, holocaust, germany, game, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, enjoyed a successful career as an architect despite having dyslexia and a paralyzing fear of heights.

See also:
- Eiffel Tower official site

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First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was so convinced the White House was haunted that she kept a vial of holy water on her nightstand.

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- Eleanor Roosevelt

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On Christmas Day, 1968, a scheduling mixup left Checkpoint Charlie unmanned for 12 hours.

See also:
- Checkpoint Charlie Museum

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The site where the Parthenon was built had to be cleared of hundreds of dinosaur bones (then called giants' bones) before construction could begin.

See also:
- The Parthenon
- Prehistoric life

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The Red Baron wasn't particularly patriotic - he just wanted to fly. He applied to both the German Army Air Service and the British Royal Air Force.

See also:
- NOVA: Who killed the Red Baron?

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The practice of shrinking heads, strongly associated with primitive tribes of South America, was also a common custom among the Knights Templar.

See also:
- Shrunken Head Museum

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Princess Diana had her navel pierced - and fitted with a 2.8-carat diamond stud - just a few hours before her fatal accident.

See also:
- TIME: 100 Heroes

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Archimedes endured a tragic fate at the hands of drunken Roman soldiers. After forcing him to cut off and eat his own nose, they boiled him in oil.

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- Archimedes

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The striped mittenfish, a deepwater species recently discovered in the Java Sea, can change its sex at will by turning its entire body inside out.

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- Hermaphroditic Fish

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Counterculture icon Timothy Leary was afraid of barbers. He learned to cut his own hair at the age of nine, and never again visited a barbershop.

See also:
- Official site of Timothy Leary

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The lion used in the original MGM movie logo killed its trainer and two assistants the day after the logo was filmed.

See also:
- MGM official site

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In 2004, a lab at a university in Texas received a $6 million federal grant to breed radioactive armadillos for possible use in warfare.

See also:
- Texas Parks and Wildlife

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In 1903, a stone phallus weighing 2.2 tons was unearthed in rural Ohio.

See also:
- Archaeological Institute of America

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Sesame seeds were so prized during the Middle Ages that in some parts of the world they were worth their weight in gold.

See also:
- Ancient Trade Routes

keywords: spice trade, spice routes, food preservation sesamum, sesame oil, history, food and drink, culture and places, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

The face of Uncle Sam, the fictional personification of the United States, was modeled after a door-to-door salesman from Canada.

See also:
- Library of Congress: Uncle Sam

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At the 2006 World Gourmand Expo, Asian desserts took last place in every category: taste, texture, aroma, appearance and presentation.

See also:
- The Food of Asia

keywords: food and drink, culture and places, asia, cuisine, chopsticks, grass jelly, pat bing soo, china, thailand, cambodia, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

Gregor Mendel, best known as the "father of modern genetics" for his experiments with pea plants, was also the father of the modern nudist movement.

See also:
- Mendel's genetics

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High-heeled shoes were originally designed for male aristocrats.

See also:
- How to walk in high heels

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Nomadic herdsmen of northern Africa commonly used the "Pythagorean theorem" – two centuries before Pythagoras was born.

See also:
- Thinkquest.org

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The museum that housed the largest collection of original Smokey the Bear memorabilia was burned to the ground by an arsonist.

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- Smokey the Bear

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On April Fool's Day, 1975, pranksters broke into London's Big Ben and switched its gears so that it ran counter-clockwise.

See also:
- Big Ben

keywords: entertainment, history, culture and places, clock, england, clock tower, westminster, parliament, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

Roman governor Pontius Pilate had a tattoo of an angel across his back.

See also:
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Pontius Pilate

keywords: history, religion, culture and places, christianity, famous people, ludaea province of rome, jesus christ, crucifixion, passion, procula, cross, jew, jewish, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

Johnny Appleseed planted twice as many pear trees as apple trees.

See also:
- Factropolis, The Obscure Trivia Authority

keywords: history, food and drink, famous people, nature, agriculture, pioneer, nurseryman, missionary, john chapman, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

The Vikings wore primitive tube socks made from sheeps' bladders and peat moss.

See also:
- Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga

keywords: science and technology, history, fashion, culture and places, scandinavia, sweden, norway, longship, horned hat, norse, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

William Shakespeare was dyslexic.

See also:
- International Dyslexia Association
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

keywords: entertainment, literature, history, famous people, arts, romeo and juliet, dyslexia, disorder, english, globe theater

Emperor penguins appear in one of the ancient Minoan frescoes on the Santorini archipeligo in the Aegean Sea.

See also:
- The Thera Foundation

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Marilyn Monroe was a pipe smoker.

See also:
- MarilynMonroe.com

keywords: entertainment, famous people, some like it hot, blonde bombshell, actress, model, sex symbol, norma jean mortenson, playboy, tobacco, nicotine, addiction, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

Major League Baseball's elite players are supplied by a small gum manufacturer renowned for unique flavors, which include "tobacco" and "beef jerky."

See also:
- MLB.com

keywords: entertainment, science and technology, food and drink, sports, chewing gum, mlb, nicotine, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day