99 Fun Facts That Are Perfect For Trivia Night

Published August 28, 2021
Updated November 9, 2023

Want to be the expert the next time you play trivia? Just remember some of these fun facts.

From history to science to the hilariously bizarre past profession of Danny Devito, enjoy these fun facts that will have you destroying your trivia competition in no time:

Fun Facts About Bubble Wrap
Bubble wrap was originally intended to be used as 3D wallpaper.

Fun Trivia Facts
The last movie ever rented at a corporate Blockbuster was "This Is The End" at a store in Hawaii.

Fun Fact About Glitter
Glitter is so unique it can be used as forensic evidence if matching glitter is found at the crime scene and on the suspect since glitter often goes unnoticed by the suspect.

JK Rowling Facts Trivia
J.K. Rowling became the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. However, she also lost her billionaire status because she donated so much money to charity!

Cost Of Movie popcorn
Movie popcorn costs more per ounce than Filet Mignon.

Fun Facts For Trivia
At the Wife Carrying World Championships in Finland, first prize is the wife's weight in beer.

Fun Trivia About Swearing
Researchers have found that swearing when in pain may release pain-killing endorphins.

How Lamborghini Got Started
Enzo Ferrari told a man "you may be able to drive a tractor but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari properly." The man was so angry that he vowed to create the perfect car. His name was Ferruccio Lamborghini.

Blood Donation In Ireland
It's a tradition in Ireland that if you donated a pint of blood, they give you a pint of Guinness to replace the iron.

Boris Yeltsin Bill Clinton
When Boris Yeltsin met President Clinton in 1995, his first question was "Do you think O.J. did it?"

Capuchin Monkeys Greeting
When two white-faced capuchin monkeys meet, they say hello by sticking their fingers into each other's noses.

Fun Facts American Psycho
Christian Bale studied Tom Cruise's mannerisms to prepare for his role as a psychotic killer in American Psycho.

Designer Of US Flag
The designer of the current United States flag was 17 at the time, and created it for a high school project. He received a B-.

Alexander The Great Beards
Alexander the Great encouraged his men to shave so enemies couldn't grab their beards during battles.

Czech Jedis
In the 2011 census for the Czech Republic, over 15 thousand people listed their religion as Jedi.

Danny Devito
Danny Devito used to work as a hairdresser. For corpses.

Defense Budgets Fun Facts
The United States defense budget of $698 billion is more than the next seventeen nations combined.

Bill Gates Philanthrophy
Bill Gates plans to donate 95% of his $81.1 billion dollar wealth to charity. That's about $77 billion dollars!

Doctors Handwriting Trivia
Doctors' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people annually in the United States.

Fun Facts Nutella
Nutella was invented during WWII, when an Italian pastry maker mixed hazelnuts into chocolate to extend his chocolate ration.

Engagement Rings
The idea that a man should spend two months salary on an engagement ring was popularized by De Beers' ad agency.

Trivia Facts About Scorpions
Scorpions are incredibly resilient: scientists have frozen scorpions overnight, left them in the sun the following day, and when thawed, the arthropod walked away unscathed.

Weight Of Clouds
A typical cloud weighs around 1.1 million pounds.

442nd Infantry Regiment
The 442nd Infantry Regiment, a largely Japanese American unit that served during WWII, did so while their families were held in internment camps. Their motto was "Go for Broke" and they were the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.

First Female Medical Student
The first American woman to go to medical school was admitted as a joke. Geneva Medical School thought it was joke when Elizabeth Blackwell applied to attend 1847. She graduated in 1849, started her own practice, and opened an infirmary for the poor.

Blood Vessels
There are around 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. If you took them all out and laid them end to end, they’d stretch around the world more than twice.

Chickens
Almost all chickens eaten today come from the winner of the 1948 'Chicken of Tomorrow' Contest whose genetics now dominate poultry farms worldwide.

The Origins Of Netflix
Reed Hasting started Netflix after receiving $40 in late fees when returning Apollo 13.

The Catholic Church On Evolution
The Catholic Church considers the Theory of Evolution to be "virtually certain", and believes that intelligent design "isn't science even though it pretends to be."

Commercial Flights
Commercial flights were allowed to fly any course to their destination and would often detour over points of interest. This ended in 1956 when two planes crashed mid-flight over the Grand Canyon.

Fun Facts Oxford University
Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.

Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie said she came up with many of her book plots while sitting in her bathtub while eating apples.

Facts About Ants
For every human on Earth, there are 1.6 million ants.

Fun Trivia Facts About Surviving Atom Bombs
A man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb dropped. He was wounded, but returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, where the very next day the second atomic bomb was dropped. He survived both blasts and lived to 93.

Marilyn Monroe Dress SIze
Contrary to popular belief, Marilyn Munroe was nowhere near a 'plus' size 12 - 16, she was closer to a US size 0.

James Bond Fun Facts
George Lazenby wasn't an actual actor. He got himself a suit, a Rolex and a new haircut, then met with the producer and made up movies he had been in. He later landed the role of James Bond.

Funny Facts
More people are bitten each year by New Yorkers than by sharks.

Fun Facts Restore Your Faith In Humanity
Former billionaire Chuck Feeney has given away over 99% of his 6.3 billion dollars to help under privileged kids go to college. He is now worth $2 million dollars.

Funny Facts London Spanker
In the late 1600s, London was plagued by an attacker who would spank his victims with a rod and shout "Spanko!" before running away.

Sun And Moon Facts
The sun and moon appear to be the same size in the sky because of an astonishing coincidence: the moon is 400 times smaller but 400 times closer.

Denmark Holocaust
After Hitler ordered the deportation of Denmark's Jewish population, Danish citizens organized a massive evacuation of the Jews to neutral Sweden, despite the risks. In the end, 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust.

Giraffe Mating
Before mating, the female giraffe will first urinate in the male's mouth.

Trivia Facts
John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, was born in 1790. He has a grandson that is alive today.

Warren Buffet Email
Warren Buffett has only sent one email in his life. It was sent to Jeff Raikes of Microsoft, and Buffett said it became his first and last email when it ended up in court.

Funny Facts Polish Bear
During World War 2, a bear named Wotjek joined the Polish army. He carried ammunition and occasionally drank beer.

Gandhi Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Committee declined to award the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948 because "there was no suitable living candidate." This was meant as tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated earlier that year without receiving the Prize.

Parmesan Cheese Bank
Italy's Credem Bank takes parmesan cheese from local producers in exchange for cheap loans, charging 3-5% interest depending on the cheese quality and a fee ensuring the cheese matures properly in the bank vault. 200 million dollars of parmesan wheels are stored there.

Glass Winged Butterfly Trivia
The glass winged butterfly lacks colored scales, which makes its wings transparent and helps it avoid predators.

Google
Google's founders were willing to sell to Excite for less than $1 million in 1999, but Excite turned them down.

Fun Facts St. Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day began as a "feast day". To honor him, Christians could put aside their Lenten restrictions on food and alcohol consumption, which is why excessive drinking has become linked to the celebration.

Grasshopper Mice
Grasshopper Mice have evolved to turn scorpion venom into a pain-killer. They now prey on scorpions.

Spelling Wizard
If you take all the letters from the word "wizard" and swap them with opposite letters (a->z, b->y), it spells wizard backwards.

Guinness Brewery
The Guinness brewery supported all of it's employees who chose to fight in WW1. They were paid half of their wages while away, and their jobs were guaranteed upon their return. The brewery also sent them care packages containing chocolate and condensed milk.

War Pigs
War pigs were used in ancient warfare to counter against war elephants, which feared the pigs (and their squeals) and would bolt. War pigs were sometimes lit on fire to enhance this effect.

Barbie Girl
Mattel once tried to sue Aqua over their song "Barbie Girl". The judge literally told them to "chill".

Bill Murray
Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd dusted off their Ghostbusters costumes to visit a terminally ill child who was a fan of the film and wanted to meet them.

Boeing 727
You can buy a completely renovated and converted Boeing 727 jet that accommodates 23 people for less than the cost of a Ferrari.

Jeremiah Clarke Suicide
An English composer, Jeremiah Clarke, couldn't decide if he should commit suicide by hanging or drowning himself. He flipped a coin and after the coin landed on its edge in the mud he went home and shot himself instead.

Sun
One in four Americans thinks that the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Facebook Like Buttons
Mark Zuckerberg said a voting mechanism that says whether posts are good or bad is 'not something that we think is good for the world'.

Longest Beard In The World
In 1567, the man said to have the longest beard in the world died after he tripped over his beard running away from a fire.

Fun Facts John Kelly Medals Of Honor
US Marine John Kelly was the last person to be awarded 2 Medals of Honor. He ran 100 yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machine gun nest, killed the gunner with a grenade, shot another man with his pistol, and returned with 8 prisoners. He was 19.

Naming Of Portland
Portland was named by a coin flip. Had the coin landed the other way, the city would be known as Boston, Oregon.

Will Smith Matrix
Will Smith turned down the role of Neo in the Matrix. He starred in Wild Wild West instead.

National Animal Of Scotland
The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.

When The New York Giants Met President Reagan
When the Super Bowl champion Giants visited the White House in 1987, they dumped popcorn on President Reagan.

Eye Care
A Nepalese doctor has restored the sight of over 100,000 often poverty-stricken people in the last thirty years across Asia and Africa using a 5 minute procedure and an inexpensive artificial lens.

Penguins
Penguins spend approximately 75% of their life in the water.

Exotic Dancer Audited By IRS
An exotic dancer was busted by the IRS for failing to pay income tax on 1 million dollars in income she received in exchange for sex, from a single man.

Agent Orange
In 1966 and 1967, soldiers testing Agent Orange in Canada were told the chemical was completely safe and sprayed it on each other to cool off.

Pizza
Pizza only became popular in the United States after American troops occupying Italy during World War 2 became hooked on it and then popularized it back home.

Popular Names
For 67 consecutive years, Mary was America's most popular female baby name. Linda broke the streak in 1947.

Power Of Wolf's Jaws
The wolf's jaw can exert 1500 pounds of pressure per square inch, twice the jaw pressure of a German Shepherd. Wolves can crush large bones in just a few bites.

Richest Superhero
The richest superhero is actually Black Panther, who has an estimated of $500 billion, whereas Tony Stark is worth $100 billion and Bruce Wayne $80 billion.

San Francisco Interesting Trivia
In 1993, San Francisco held a referendum over whether a police officer called Bob Geary was allowed to patrol while carrying a ventriloquist’s dummy called Brendan O’Smarty. He was.

Holocaust
In 1945, Dwight D. Eisenhower predicted that people would try to dispel the holocaust as a falsehood, and ordered all possible photographs taken of the Nazi crimes to hinder any such attempts.

Predator
Following the release of Rocky IV, a joke was making rounds in Hollywood. Since Rocky had run out of opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth movie was made. Jim and John Thomas took the joke seriously and wrote a screenplay based on it, which later became the movie "Predator".

Lifespan Of A Scarlet Macaw
A Scarlet Macaw can live up to 80 years.

Clark Kent
Clark Kent (Superman in DC Comics) is also a character in the Marvel universe, where he's actually just a mild-mannered reporter and nothing more.

Self-Filling Bottle
A solar powered, self-filling water bottle has been invented for bike riders that condenses atmospheric moisture to automatically fill the bottle.

Shakespeare
Shakespeare is easier to understand, makes more sense, and is punnier when it's recited in its original pronunciation instead of a modern English accent.

Squid Facts
A species of squid has been observed to leap from the ocean by using pressurized water jets to achieve flight, going as far as 98 feet!

Stephen Hawking Trivia
Stephen Hawking is 73 years old and has outlived his shortened life expectancy due to ALS by over 50 years.

Suing Pepsi
A man sued Pepsi claiming he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. Pepsi attorneys stated that Mountain Dew will dissolve a mouse in 30 days, and showed his can was purchased 74 days after being manufactured.

Roy C. Sullivan Strike By Lightning
A U.S. park ranger named Roy C. Sullivan held the record for being struck by lightning the most times, having been struck — and surviving — seven times between 1942 and 1977.

Surface Area Of Russia And Pluto
Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.

The New York Times On Reddit
The first time Reddit was mentioned in the New York Times, it was described as "foolish collectivism" that "grinds away the Web's edges and saps it of its humanity".

Surviving In Space
You can survive being in outer space without permanent damage for about half a minute.

The Dead Jockey
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a race at Belmont Park in New York despite being dead — he suffered a heart attack mid-race but his body stayed in the saddle until his horse crossed the line for a 20–1 outsider victory.

Interesting Trivia Facts
A baby can cost new parents 750 hours of sleep in their first year.

Twitter CIA
The CIA reads up to 5 million Tweets a day.

US Mint
It costs the U.S. Mint almost twice as much to mint each penny and nickel as the coins are actually worth. Taxpayers lost over $100 million in 2013 just through the coins being made.

Vietnam Trivia Facts
Vietnam is one of the most pro-US countries in the world, with 76% having a favorable view. This is higher than Japan, the United Kingdom, and France.

Walt Junior In Breaking Bad
Walt Jr. never encountered Jessie in all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad.

Wasabi Mist Smoke Alarm
The Japanese created a smoke alarm for those who can't hear, which pumps super-spicy wasabi mist into the air to alert them.

JK Rowling Trivia

PlayStation Cost
Sony’s PlayStation 4 costs $381 to manufacture.

Whopper Facebook Campaign
In 2009, Burger King launched a campaign that if you unfriended 10 friends on Facebook, you were entitled to a free Whopper. The person you unfriended would get a message telling them that their friendship is worth less than a Whopper.

World War 2 Friends
A German and British aeroplane shot each other down in Norway during WWII. The crew met and helped each other survive. Two of them later visited each other many years after the war was over as friends.

Thank you to Mental Floss, r/TodayILearned, and Today I Found Out for inspiration and information for the trivia facts in this gallery.


Enjoy our collection of fun facts? Then be sure to check out All That Is Interesting's other posts on the most interesting facts about the world and space facts that prove Earth is boring.

author
Alec
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Alexander is a cofounder of All That's Interesting with an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in History and Economics and an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies in Economics. He specializes in American history, the Cold War, and true crime.
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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.
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Baldwin, Alexander. "99 Fun Facts That Are Perfect For Trivia Night." AllThatsInteresting.com, August 28, 2021, https://allthatsinteresting.com/fun-facts-trivia. Accessed November 8, 2024.