Today I found out there once was a little person who played in Major League Baseball. This man was 26 year old, 3 feet, 7 inch tall Eddie Gaedel. Gaedel was signed by Bill Veeck to a Major League contract of $15,400 ($100 per game), which was the set minimum one could pay a little person performance act, per event. […]
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Today I found out Eric Clapton was to meet up with Jimi Hendrix on the night Hendrix died. He was also with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the night he died. Clapton was good friends with Jimi Hendrix and was supposed to meet him on the night of Hendrix’ death at a Sly and the Family Stone concert. Clapton had bought […]
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Today I found out the word “droid” is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. Shortly before Verizon launched their “DROID” line of mobile devices, Lucasfilm Ltd. swept in and filed a trademark on October 9, 2009 for the term “Droid”. Specifically claiming the term for: Wireless communications devices, including, mobile phones, cell phones, hand held devices and personal digital assistants, […]
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Today I found out what “E pluribus unum” means. E pluribus unum translates from Latin to English as follows: “e” meaning “from” or “out of”; “pluribus” being the ablative plural of the Latin for “more”; and “unum” meaning “one”. Thus, “E pluribus unum” simply means “from many, one” or “out of many, one”. This Latin phrase was once the United […]
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The myth that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday has been widely spread since 1907 and even today is sometimes stated by such people as former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig. For instance, in 2010 he stated: “As a student of history, I know there is a great debate whether Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright really founded the game […]
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Today I found out all snakes can swim. If you’re one of those people who are afraid to swim in lakes, rivers, and the like, here’s another reason for you to stay out of the water: all snakes can swim. Thus, all snakes are technically “water snakes”, even though only some are given that designation, usually due to their propensity […]
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Today I found out apple seeds contain cyanide. The seeds of apples, also known as “pips”, contain a sugar/cyanide compound called “amygdalin”, which turns into hydrogen cyanide when it is metabolized in your body. Hydrogen cyanide was one of the key ingredients to Zyklon B, the trade name of the pesticide used by the Nazis in their gas chambers. Other […]
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Today I found out there was once a one man invasion attempt of the island of Sark. Andre Gardes was an unemployed nuclear physicist from France. Mr. Gardes believed himself the rightful heir and “Seigneur” of the small formerly feudal state of Sark. In August of 1990, Gardes decided to stage an invasion to forcefully set himself up as the […]
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Today I found out the origin of the green, yellow, and red color scheme for traffic lights. While some of the specifics have been lost to history, it is known that this color scheme derives from a system used by the railroad industry since the 1830s. At this time, railroad companies developed a lighted means to let train engineers know […]
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Today I found out that it currently costs more than double what pennies and nickels are worth to produce them. In 2006, the U.S. Mint sent a letter to Congress informing them that for the first time in history, it cost more to produce a penny and nickel than the coins themselves were worth. Including materials, machinery, labor, shipping, and […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of Daily Random Facts, Jon. Today I found out Charlie Sheen once bought 2,615 tickets to a single Angels’ baseball game, hoping he’d be able to catch a home run ball. Charlie grew up with a love for acting and baseball. As with acting, Sheen started out […]
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Today I found out there is an octopus with a detachable penis. Known as the Argonaut, this male mollusc has a very sacrificial way of impregnating their female counterparts. The male has one arm longer than his others, known as a hectocotylus, which is used to transfer sperm to the female. The arm stores up the sperm, and when the […]
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Today I found out honey can be used for a variety of medicinal purposes. You may be skeptical about this because many such “natural” alternatives to medicine put forth are not backed by any scientific research. These types of claims are often based primarily on anecdotal evidence, which can be misleading. (I personally was extremely skeptical about honey’s medicinal value, […]
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Today I found out how baseball groundskeepers achieve checkerboard patterns in the ballpark grass. Most of us have had the opportunity to stand in awe as our eyes perceive the beauty of a perfectly mowed grass in a baseball stadium. Stripes, checkerboard style, or even artistic expressions add flair to a baseball field. But how exactly do they get these […]
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Today I found out squirrels can purr. In September 2010 a baby squirrel named Rocky fell out of his nest in Mississippi. The family who found poor Rocky decided that their nursing cat, Emmy, would be the perfect mother for the little rodent. Rocky quickly became one of the litter and began to purr along with the other kittens. This […]
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Today I found out the famous Star Trek line “…to boldly go where no one has gone before” is thought to have been inspired by a passage in a White House issued pamphlet on space. Specifically, it is thought to be from this passage in the pamphlet, “Introduction to Outer Space“: It is useful to distinguish among four factors which […]
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Today I found out split infinitives are not incorrect grammatically. As mentioned in the recent Star Trek “to boldy go” article (check that out here), the majority of modern English grammar guides list split infinitives as being perfectly acceptable. This has also been the case, not just in modern usage, but throughout most of the history of the English language […]
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Today I found out the origin of the term layman. The term layman has today come to mean “a person who does not belong to a particular profession or who is not expert in some field.” It also has a somewhat less commonly known meaning of “a person who is not a member of the clergy”, which is its original […]
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