Microsoft held a mock funeral for the iPhone because they believed Windows Phone 7 would crush Apple in sales.

Ostrich farms often have difficulty getting male ostriches to breed because they frequently find human caretakers more attractive than female ostriches.

There are fewer than 100,000 Britons older than Queen Elizabeth (96). She is the only monarch known to 85% of her subjects.

In 1907, Yoshitaro Shibasaki and his team completed the climb of Mount Tsurugi—a mountain considered the last unclimbed peak in the Japanese archipelago—and discovered an ancient sword at the summit, which was later determined to have been there for over 1,000 years.

The only children to survive on the Titanic without their parents were two brothers, aged two and four. Their father had kidnapped them from his ex-wife and boarded the ship under a false name. Their father did not survive, and for weeks the boys were known as Titanic orphans until their mother was found.

A 2019 study showed that evening primrose plants can “hear” the buzzing of nearby bees and respond by producing sweeter nectar.

Nabi, the beloved daughter of U.S. President John Adams, was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a full mastectomy without anesthesia while strapped to a chair.

In 1985, French agents bombed Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship to prevent Greenpeace from sabotaging underwater nuclear tests.

There are approximately 50-60 blue terracotta hippopotamus statues preserved from ancient Egypt. Due to the danger hippos posed in the wild, they were often broken off their legs before being placed in graves so that the hippos could not devour the souls of the deceased.

Tom Dolan suffers from exercise-induced asthma and a narrowed trachea, which limits his access to about 20% of the air that an average person breathes—even though he was once considered the world's best swimmer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and a world record holder.

Traditionally, lawns were a symbol of wealth, as they indicated the owner's ability to maintain grass not used for food production.

Dandelions are edible and actually quite nutritious.

Sigmund Freud was a cocaine addict who personally prescribed the drug for his wife and friends.

The Fontana delle Tette in Treviso, northern Italy, is a 16th-century statue of a nude woman. During celebrations, it sprays red and white wine for free drinking.

The Ignalina nuclear power plant, located in eastern Lithuania, was built around the same time as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat. The plant operated until 2009 and was used as a filming location for the HBO Chernobyl miniseries.

In 1997, approximately 2.5 billion people watched the live broadcast of Princess Diana's funeral.

In 1983, executives from Hasbro traveled to the Tokyo Toy Fair to find new toys that could be launched in the United States. After finding a series of transforming robot toys, they partnered with Marvel Comics to create comic books and an animated series—"Transformers"—to sell these toys.

The United States has twice proposed to purchase Greenland from Denmark, once in 1946 and once in 2019. Due to its strategic location in the Arctic, the United States also occupied the island during World War II from 1940 to 1945 after Denmark fell to the enemy and built an air force base there.

Cigars can harbor beetle larvae. Under suitable temperature and humidity, these larvae can hatch and infest the entire cigar box.

The "Triple Crown of a Day" refers to a pilot who shot down 15 enemy aircraft in a single day. There were only five such pilots in the world, all of whom flew for the Luftwaffe during World War II.

In 1846, Joseph Leidy was the first person to use a microscope to solve a case. A farmer claimed that the blood on his clothes was chicken blood. Joseph Leidy used a microscope to prove that it was not chicken blood.

Listening to your favorite music for 15 minutes each day can lower stress levels and alleviate anxiety, sadness, and depression.

Bonsai trees are not a type of tree. They are a method of cultivating trees that aims to create the appearance of a mature, large tree within a miniature pot.

Pythagoras, who discovered the Pythagorean theorem, was a cult leader who claimed he could talk to animals, travel through time, and had an extreme hatred for beans.

The tiger beetles ran so fast that they were temporarily blinded. Moving at a speed of 120 body lengths per second, their vision blurred because their eyes couldn't gather enough light to form an image.

Nike's stock value dropped by $1.1 billion the following day after basketball player Zion Williamson slipped and twisted his knee while wearing Nike shoes during a game.

Bermuda has no natural water sources. Each house uses a white stepped roof to collect rainwater.

There are more people of Lebanese descent in Brazil than in Lebanon itself.

In 1014, Byzantine Emperor Basil II captured thousands of Bulgarian soldiers, divided them into groups of 100, and blinded 99 men in each group. The last soldier had only one eye gouged out and was ordered to take his blind friend home. Tsar Samuel, witnessing this, died of a heart attack.

Teeth from corpses recovered at the Battle of Waterloo were highly sought after, especially those of young and healthy men. The heavy casualties of the battle led to a large supply of "Waterloo teeth."