50 Interesting Random Facts That Will Melt Your Brain And Shock Your Friends

Published August 21, 2021
Updated November 7, 2023

From Abraham Lincoln's wrestling career to the killer habits of cats, these random facts are guaranteed to boggle your mind.

Interesting Random Facts Abraham Lincoln Wrestling
Abraham Lincoln is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, having lost only once in more than 300 matches.Public Domain

Random Facts Costs Of Making Pennies
It costs the U.S. Mint almost twice as much to mint each penny and nickel as the coins are actually worth. Taxpayers lost more than $100 million in 2013 just because of the cost it took to make the coins.Public Domain

Christopher Columbus Never Landed In America
Christopher Columbus never set foot in mainland North America.Getty Images

Planet Earth
The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun during summer (in the Northern Hemisphere).Wikimedia Commons

Incestous Marriages Of Einstein And Darwin
Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their cousins.Wikimedia Commons

Tongue Print
Tongue prints are as unique as fingerprints. Public Domain

Genghis Khan Descendants Interesting Random Facts
About eight percent of men in 16 populations spanning Asia are related to Genghis Khan.Wikimedia Commons

Napoleon's Height
Napoleon was actually slightly taller than average.Wikimedia Commons

Buzz Aldrin
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first man to pee on it.NASA

Humans Evolving From Chimpanzees
Humans did not evolve from chimps or any other extant primates, but instead, chimps and humans evolved from the same, now extinct, common ancestor. Wikimedia Commons

Random Facts About Twins
The longest time between two twins being born was 87 days.Wikimedia Commons

How Many Birds Do Cats Kill
Domestic cats kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 and 20.7 billion mammals every year.Wikimedia Commons

Highway Lights
Light doesn't always travel at the speed of light. In fact, it's been clocked at speeds as low as 38 miles per hour.Public Domain

Betty White Older Than Sliced Bread Interesting Random Facts
Betty White is actually older than sliced bread. Public Domain

Largest Ant Colony On Earth
There is a single mega-colony of ants that spans three continents, covering much of Europe, the west coast of the U.S., and the west coast of Japan. Public Domain

Dancing Plague
The Dance Fever of 1518 was a month-long plague of inexplicable dancing in Strasbourg (in present-day France), in which hundreds of residents danced continually for no apparent reason. Several danced themselves to death.Wikimedia Commons

World Record For Being Struck By Lightning
A United States park ranger named Roy C. Sullivan held the record for being struck by lightning the most times, having been struck — and survived it — seven times between 1942 and 1977. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1983.Wikimedia Commons

No Words That Rhyme With Wolf
There are no words in the English language that rhyme with "wolf."Wikimedia Commons

Human Senses Random Facts
Humans have far more than five senses, with some scientists putting the number above 20.Wikimedia Commons

Frank Hayes Won A Horse Race After He Was Dead
In 1923, a man named Frank Hayes won a steeplechase at Belmont Park in New York. Before crossing the finish line, he suffered a fatal heart attack, making him the first – and only – dead man to win a horse race. Wikimedia Commons

Yasuke The Samurai
The first foreign-born samurai was named Yasuke and was of black African origin.Wikimedia Commons

Dropping A Penny From The Empire State Building
A penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building could not actually kill anyone.Wikimedia Commons

Ketchup On Cottage Cheese
One of Richard Nixon's favorite snacks was cottage cheese topped with ketchup.Wikimedia Commons

Amazon River
There are no bridges over the Amazon river.Wikimedia Commons

Nazi's Anti-Smoking Campaign
German doctors were the first ones to link smoking and lung cancer. As a result, the Nazis initiated the first government anti-smoking campaign in modern times.Wikimedia Commons

William Higinbotham
Physicist William Higinbotham worked on the first nuclear bomb and what is thought to be the first video game ever, "Tennis for Two."Wikimedia Commons

Real Cowboys
Cowboys mostly didn't wear cowboy hats, but instead bowlers, derbies, and the like.Getty Images

Interesting Random Facts Dummy
In 1993, San Francisco held a referendum over whether a police officer named Bob Geary was allowed to patrol while carrying a ventriloquist's dummy named Brendan O'Smarty. He was.YouTube

Isaac Newton's Apple Tree
The apple tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton is still growing at his family home. Getty Images

Vatican Wine Interesting Random Facts
Vatican City consumes the most wine per capita at 74 liters per citizen per year.Wikimedia Commons

Bulls And The Color Red
Bulls aren't enraged by the color red and, in fact, can hardly perceive it at all.Public Domain

Duck Eye
Ducks can keep their eyes open underwater due to a third, sideways eyelid.Wikimedia Commons

The Largest Living Organism On Earth
The largest living organism on Earth is a giant fungus. Wikimedia Commons

Waking Up A Sleepwalker
There is no added danger in waking a sleepwalker.Wikimedia Commons

Sunset On Mars
Sunsets on Mars are blue. NASA

Sammy Davis Jr.
The head of Columbia Studios once threatened Sammy Davis Jr. with the Mob to prevent him from marrying a white woman.Wikimedia Commons

Saddam Hussein Key To Detroit
Detroit once gave Saddam Hussein a key to the city.Wikimedia Commons

Gorilla Birth Control
Human birth control pills work on gorillas.Public Domain

Stewardesses
"Stewardesses" is the longest word able to be typed using only the left hand.Wikimedia Commons

Kangaroo Interesting Random Facts
Female kangaroos have three vaginas.Wikimedia Commons

Grover Cleveland Non-Consecutive Terms
Although Donald Trump is the 45th president, he is only the 44th person to be president. That's because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and the 24th president.Wikimedia Commons

Bats Aren't Actually Blind
Bats are not actually blind.Wikimedia Commons

Random Facts The First Breast Implant Surgery
The first "breast implant" surgery occurred in 1895 and was perfumed by Dr. Vincenz Czerny.Getty Images

Pearl Harbor
The film Pearl Harbor cost as much as the actual rebuilding of Pearl Harbor and lasted an hour longer than the attack.Wikimedia Commons

Inventor Of Game Boy
Gunpei Yokoi, the inventor of the Game Boy was originally the janitor at Nintendo.Wikimedia Commons

Napoleon After Death
After his death, Napoléon Bonaparte’s penis was removed from his body during autopsy, displayed at a museum, and eventually sold for $2,700 in the 1970s.Public Domain

Chicken Head
You can tell what color a chicken’s egg will be by looking at its earlobes.Public Domain

Lego Tires
The world's largest tire manufacturer is LEGO.Public Domain

Longest-Serving Prisoner
The longest-serving prisoner is American history was Paul Geidel, who served 68 years and 245 days between 1911 and 1980 for second degree murder. He was released at age 86.Public Domain

Largest Organ Interesting Random Facts
Your largest organ is actually outside of your body — it’s your skin.Public Domain

If you're looking for a fact or two to impress all of your friends, look no further. These interesting random facts will teach you everything you never knew about animal eyeballs, incestuous historical figures, Betty White, Abraham Lincoln's wrestling career, and maybe even your own body.

And you may also find that you've been wrong about plenty of things you only thought you knew. Like that old saying "blind as a bat"? Is it actually true or not? And has anyone ever told you that if you drop a penny from the top of the Empire State Building, it could kill whoever it lands on? Well, let's find out the truth.

Explore these topics and others in the collection of interesting random facts above.


After checking out these fascinating random facts, have a look at interesting facts about the world and fun facts perfect for trivia night.

author
Katie Serena
author
A former staff writer at All That's Interesting, Katie Serena has also published work in Salon.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.