Today I found out how one-way mirrors work (also known as “two-sided” mirrors). Interestingly, there is no such thing as a true one way mirror. This would actually violate the laws of physics (for more on that see the Bonus Factoids below). What’s actually going on here with one-way mirrors is that we have a piece of glass with an […]
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Today I found out that ‘Uncle Sam’ was a real person- Samuel Wilson, born September 13th, 1766 and died on July 31st, 1854. In 1789, Wilson and his brother Ebeneezer moved to Troy New York where they set up a counting house. Sam Wilson later died, then came back to haunt Ebeneezer on Christmas Eve trying to get him to […]
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Today I found out about an encyclopedia finished in 1408 that contained nearly one million pages. This particular encyclopedia was called the “永樂大典”, which translates to “The Great Canon of the Yongle Era”; today it’s just called, in English, the “Yongle Encyclopedia”. This encyclopedia was originally commissioned by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty in China. It was not only […]
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Today I found out the first fully professional baseball team was the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, ten men on salary for eight months from March 15th to November 15th. The team was organized by Harry Wright, who also played center field for the team and managed the defensive positioning, which was something that typically wasn’t done at that time. The […]
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Today I found out that Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, before starting the Wendy’s franchise helped save the KFC franchise and was a high school dropout. Thomas first worked at a Knoxville restaurant at the young age of 12 years old, from which he was eventually fired due to a misunderstanding with his boss about a vacation. At 15, […]
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Today I found out Leo Fender, inventor of one of the most popular electric guitar brands in the world, Fender Guitars, never learned how to play guitar. In addition to that, he actually was an accountant before losing his job in the Great Depression. When he lost his job, he decided to turn his hobby of tinkering with electronics, radios, […]
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Today I found tofu was popularly eaten as far back as the 2nd century BC in China. Tofu’s flavor is not the same as cheese but it is processed in a similar way by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft blocks. Often called ‘bean curd’, ‘bean cheese’, or ‘soy bean cheese’, tofu contains a low […]
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Today I found out the creator of Lamborghini S.p.A. originally owned a tractor company, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A., which produced tractors from surplus military hardware. He decided to get into making cars as a result of frustrations he had with a Ferrari he had purchased which ultimately resulted in him being insulted by Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the famed Ferrari […]
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Today I found out that the earthquake in Japan on March, 11, moved the Earth on its axis by about 4 to 6 inches, which resulted in shortening of a day by around 1.8 microseconds. Massive earthquakes typically affect the Earth’s rotation with the impact of every individual earthquake depending on its magnitude, location, and the details of how the […]
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Today I found out where the word “mouse” comes from. “Mouse” comes from the Sanskrit word for mouse, “musuka”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit “mus” meaning “thief” or “robber”, presumably referring to the fact that mice like to steal food from humans, particularly grains and fruits. The Ancient Romans then used the word “mus” to refer to rodents […]
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Today I found out the baseball box score was first developed and introduced by Henry Chadwick, “The Father of Baseball”. Chadwick also authored Baseball’s first rule book; devised the batting average and earned run average; compiled the game’s first instructional guides and player and statistical reference books, among a variety of other contributions to the game. He is also the […]
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Today I found out Chef Boyardee was a real person. Ettore Boiardi was an Italian-American immigrant born in 1897. He worked as a cook at his first restaurant at the tender age of 10 years old in Italy. He later immigrating to America at the age of 16 and took the name “Hector Boiardi” as he passed through Ellis Island. […]
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Today I found out why we are supposed to take our hats off for the national anthem. The origins of this tradition happen to be the same as the origins of the tradition of saluting. Knights, wearing helmets that covered their heads, would typically lift their visors to show their faces to their monarchs and others as a sign of […]
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Today I found out that one Calorie is equivalent to one gram of TNT in terms of energy. (It is important to note the capital “C” in calorie signifies a kilo-calorie, also known as a “food calorie” because the value listed on food labels are typically in kilo-calories.) A Calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature […]
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Today I found out how flies land on the ceiling. A popular notion of how they accomplished this used to be that the flies would do a half barrel roll sideways just before landing on the ceiling and then let their momentum carry them the rest of the way up. This was shown to be incorrect when, in 1958, Natural […]
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Today I found out South African earthworms can grow as large as 22 feet long, with the average length being about 6 feet long. The largest one ever found so far, being 22 feet long, was found on a road side in 1967. Other varieties of large earthworms include the Giant Gippsland earthworm of Australia, which grows about 3 feet […]
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Today I found out the human gut contains about 100 trillion bacterial cells, about 10 times as many cells as make up the human body. The human gut is basically sterile until you are born. For the first year of your life, the cultures of bacteria and other microbes in your gut fluctuate wildly and begin settling down around the […]
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Today I found out that the “S.O.S” in S.O.S brand scrub pads stands for “Save Our Saucepans”. The name was originally thought up by the wife of the creator of the S.O.S pad, Ed Cox. In 1917, Cox was an aluminum pot salesman. When Cox would introduce himself to potential new customers, he would give them a little steel wool […]
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