your thirst for
surprising information
totally quenched.
1
The word sneeze came
about through a
misspelling of the
original word fneze or
fnese.
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Sneeze is definitely a
silly-sounding word. But
it's not quite as silly-
sounding as fneze or
fnese, which is how
this bodily function was
once spelled. According
to the Oxford English
Dictionary
, the word sneeze
originates from the
Middle English word
fnese and came about
due to a misreading or
misprinting of the
original term. The
dictionary writes that
despite that, the word
sneeze was later
adopted because it
sounded appropriate.
2
Benjamin Franklin only
received two years of
formal education.
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After spending just two
years at the Boston
Latin School as well as a
private academy while
he was young, Benjamin
Franklin left formal
education behind to
work at his family's
candle and soap-making
business before
becoming an apprentice
at his brother's printing
shop.
However, Franklin
continued his education
independently by
reading whatever
books, essays, and
articles he could get his
hands on. His studious
ways not only helped
him become a revered
writer, politician, and
inventor, but also
allowed him to earn
honorary degrees from
Harvard, Yale, Oxford,
the College of William
and Mary, and the
University of St.
Andrews.
3
Whether or not you
dream in black and white
depends on whether
you watched black-and-
white television.
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If your dreams look
more vintage than HD,
there's a high chance
you grew up watching
black-and-white
television. According to
one 2008 study
published in the journal
Conscious Cognition,
most people born after
the year 1983 said they
almost never dream in
black and white,
whereas people born in
the year 1953 and
earlier said they dream
in black and white about
a quarter of the time.
Overall, 12 percent of
people dream entirely in
black and white, leading
the researchers to
suggest that true
greyscale dreams occur
only in people with black
and white media
experience.
4
The word unfriend was
first used in 1659.
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When you disconnect
with someone on social
media, you might say
that you've
unfriended them. The
now-common word was
even the New Oxford
American Dictionary
Word of the Year in
2009. But it turns out
that unfriend is much
older than you might
expect. According to
The Globe and Mail, the
word unbefriended is
cited several times in
the Oxford English
Dictionary beginning in
1629. But it wasn't until
1659 that Thomas Fuller
used the word as we
know it today. In his
book The Appeal of
Injured Innocence,
Fuller wrote, I hope,
sir, that we are not
mutually Unfriended by
this Difference which
hath happened betwixt
us.
5
It's against the law to
die in the town of
Longyearbyen, Norway.
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According to IFL Science,
Even if you've lived [in
Longyearbyen, Norway]
all your life, if you are
terminally ill, you will be
flown off the island to
live out the rest of your
days. If you do happen
to die suddenly in
Longyearbyen, your
body will be buried
elsewhere.
That's because, in 1950,
it was discovered that
bodies in the local
cemetery in
Longyearbyen were not
decomposing as usual
because there was so
much permafrost in the
area. That meant that
viruses could survive in
the human remains and
eventually infect those
living nearby when the
ground thawed each
year.
6
There are a ton of
misspellings on the
Stanley Cup.
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Winning the Stanley Cup
is the ultimate goal for
anyone in the National
Hockey League. And if
you do win it, you'll have
your name etched onto
the trophy itself.
Unfortunately, whoever
is responsible for that
task has committed
plenty of errors over
the years, including
accidentally spelling the
Toronto Maple Leafs as
TORONTO MAPLE LEAES
and the Boston Bruins
as BQSTQN BRUINS. Hall
of Fame goaltender
Jacques Plante won the
Stanley Cup for five
consecutive years and
his name is spelled
differently each time,
according to the NHL.
7
NASA thinks it's detected
the first marsquake.
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Earthquakes are
expected in many places
on Earth, but it turns
out they can happen on
other planets as well—
although they're
obviously not called
earthquakes. On April
6, 2019, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory
recorded a tremor that
they believe was a
marsquake, making it
the first quake
recorded outside of
either the Earth or the
Moon.