Test your knowledge with these 125 fascinating fun facts (2024)

Knowing a handful of offbeat and interesting facts is a great way to connect with others. Whether you're trying to come up with an icebreaker at work or impressing your in-laws with your world history wisdom, there's an interesting fact for nearly every situation.

Awkward silence at a dinner party? Share with the rest of the table that it’s impossible to hum while holding your nose.

Trying to connect with your social media-obsessed teens? Enlighten them that the real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe. (Don’t be too offended if they roll their eyes in response.)

If you want to impress your fellow sports fans on game night, tell them referees for the final NFL Super Bowl game get Super Bowl rings, too.

It's always a nice feeling when you teach your friends or family something they didn't about a specific moment in history. Knowing just a little bit more about a popular food or destination can be satisfying when going about your day-to-day life.

In search of some interesting facts for younger ones? Teach them that a pelican can hold up to three gallons of water in its mouth, or that M&M'S were the first candy eaten in space.

No matter your age, there's always something so satisfying about learning new, interesting fun facts. Even better when you get to share those tidbits in conversation. Lull, avoided. People, delighted. It's a win-win.

Do you have a go-to interesting fact like those? Why not upgrade your interesting fact files with some new ones? Below, we’ve got 125 of the best random facts just waiting to be learned and shared.

Interesting Facts for Adults

• The oldest living land animal on earth is a 192-year-old tortoise named Jonathan.
• The hardest bone in the human body is the femur.
• A group of owls is called a parliament.
• The deepest part of the ocean is approximately 35,876 feet down.
• A silverback gorilla can lift over 1,763 pounds.
• Winds on Neptune can blow faster than 1,200 miles an hour.
• Salvador Dalí designed the logo for the Chupa Chups lollipop brand.
• The Caesar salad was invented in 1924.
• The sun is about 400 times larger than the moon.
• The average person blinks 14 to 17 times per minute.
• 90 percent of the world’s population livesin the Northern Hemisphere.
• Honey does not spoil.

• Central Park in New York City is larger than the entire country of Monaco.
• Cuvier’s beaked whales can hold their breath underwater for over two hours.
• The average golf ball has 336 dimples.
• Over sixty percent of the world’s lakes are located in Canada.
• The International Space Station orbits Earth approximately every90 minutes.
• Somewhere between 50% and 80% of earth's living organisms are in the ocean.

• Australia is wider than the moon.
• Venus is the only planet to spin clockwise.
• Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.
• Human teeth are the only part of the body that cannot heal themselves.
• Competitive art used to be an Olympic sport.
• The specks on strawberries are single seeds called achenes.

• The first person processed at Ellis Island was a 15-year-old girl from Ireland.
• Google Images was created after Jennifer Lopez wore the green dress at the 2000 Grammys.
• Lemons float in water, but limes sink.
• The Eiffel Tower was originally made for Barcelona.
• It would take 19 minutes to fall to the center of the Earth.
• The Venus Flytrap is considered a Carnivorous plant and eat insects for nutrients.

• The real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe.
• Neil Armstrong’s hair was sold in 2004 for $3,000.
• The longest English word is 189,819 letters long.
• The tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store pocket watches.
• People once ate arsenic to improve their skin.
• The largest bowling alley in the world is in Japan and has 116 lanes.

• “The Terminator” script was sold for $1.
• A fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
• The quickest commercial flight in the world is in Scotland.
• Penicillin was first called “mold juice.”
• The first commercial passenger flight lasted only 23 minutes.
• There are eight NFL teams currently without cheerleaders.

• No number before 1,000 contains the letter A.
• There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs were alive.
• Sudan has more pyramids than any country in the world.
• The human circulatory system is more than 60,000 miles long.
• The Pope can’t be an organ donor.
• Tug of war was in the Olympics from 1900 to 1920.

• The world’s longest concert lasted 453 hours.
• It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose.
• Africa is the only continent in all four hemispheres.
• All mammals get goosebumps.
• Japan has one vending machine for every 40 people.
• Cleopatra was born in Egypt but comes from Macedonian descent.

• McDonald’s once made bubblegum-flavored broccoli.
• Finland has more saunas than cars.
• The longest time someone has spent holding their breath underwater is 24 minutes and 37 seconds.
• Frida Kahlo painted 55 self-portraits.
• Avocados are actually fruits, not vegetables.
• The shortest war in history, the Anglo-Zanzibar war, lasted 38 minutes.

• NFL Super Bowl referees also get Super Bowl rings.
• It’s illegal to own only one guinea pig in Switzerland.
• Only four countries in the world have national anthems with no lyrics.
• The letter “Q” doesn’t appear in any American state’s name.
• Walt Disney currently holds the most Academy Awards at a lifetime total of 26.
• The Paris Catacombs contain the remains of over six million people.

• The average cloud weighs over one million pounds.
• Wearing a necktie could reduce blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5 percent.
• Animals can also be allergic to humans.
• Finland has ranked as the happiest country in the world for 7 years straight.
• Bottlenose dolphins are the only other species to have names for themselves.
• All clown fish are born male and can become female later in life.

• Your brain alone burns around 400 to 500 calories each day.
• Approximately 10% of people are left-handed.
• Besides water, tea is the most popular beverage worldwide.
• Your heart beats an average of 100,000 times each day.
• The first animals to travel to outer space were fruit flies.
• The longest-named dinosaur is the Micropachycephalosaurus.

Interesting Facts for Kids

• Dolphins can hold their breath underwater foreight to ten minutes.
• A baby kangaroo is called a joey.
• A group of hyenas is called a cackle.
• Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is unique.
• An ostrich’s eye is biggerthan its brain.
• Octopuses have three hearts.

• The plastic or metal tip of your shoelace is called an aglet.
• Cats sleepan average of 15 hours per day.
• The femur is the longest bone in the human body.
• Baby hedgehogs are called hoglets.
• Bats are the only flying mammals.
• A watermelon is 92% water.

• Tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable.
• Chihuahuas are the smallest dog breed.
• Snakes smell with their tongue.
• Buzz Lightyear’s original name was Lunar Larry.
• A chicken once lived for 18 months without its head.
• Pineapples can take two to three years to fully grow.

• Ketchup was once sold as medicine.
• A sheep was the first animal to be cloned.
• Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
• The closest planet to the sun is Mercury.
• A mile is 5,280 feet long.
• Only male toads make loud croaking sounds.

• Platypuses sweat milk.
• Massachusetts is the home of basketball and volleyball.
• Bananas glow blue under black lights.
• A woman in the United Kingdom once called the police when her ice cream didn’t have enough sprinkles.
• Russia has 11 time zones.
• The American white pelican can hold up to three gallons of water in its mouth.

• Japan released sushi-inspired Kit Kats.
• Comets smell like rotten eggs.
• The oldest cat ever recorded lived to be 38 years and three days old.
• Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.
• Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
• Almonds and peaches are related.

• Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch.
• Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long.
• The Hollywood sign used to say Hollywoodland.
• Peanuts aren’t a type of nut. (They are actually legumes.)
• Blue whale tongues can weigh as much as an elephant.
• New Zealand has more sheep than humans.

• Skin is the body’s largest organ.
• President Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena.
• The national animal of Scotland is a unicorn.
• Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
• Shrimp’s hearts are located in their heads.
• The Amazon River is the biggest river on earth.

• The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the world’s tallest building.
• The largest continent in the world is Asia.
• Ants don’t have lungs.
• The fastest animal in the world is a cheetah.
• There’s a planet made almost entirely of diamonds.
• Golf was the first sport played on the moon.

• Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States.
• The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the world's largest coral reef.
• The largest animal in the world is the blue whale.
• Sea otters sleep while holding hands.
• Dogs sweat through their paws.
• Butterflies can taste food with their feet.

• Flamingos aren’t born pink.
• Your nose and ears never stop growing.
• Cats can’t taste anything sweet.
• The surface of the sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Male deer shed their antlers every year.

• Approximately one quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.
• Horses and cows usually sleep standing up.
• There are more than one million different species of insects on the planet.
• Around 80 percent of orange cats are male.
• The world’s largest butterfly, Queen Alexandra’sbirdwing, has a wingspan of around 10 inches.
• M&M's were the first candy that eaten in space.
• Lions can sleep up to 21 hours in a day.