(Photo: READER'S DIGEST, SHUTTERSTOCK (2))
Random fun facts catch us off guard in the best possible way. They’re unexpected or unusual bits of knowledge from the worlds of science, history, and pop culture that delight and entertain us—and anyone we share them with. But these interesting facts aren’t just amusing pieces of information that will make you a whiz at answering trivia questions: They’re legitimately fascinating, and once you get started, you’ll want to keep reading until your curiosity is satisfied.
Whether you’re into weird facts that almost don’t sound true (but totally are), random trivia, science trivia, animal trivia, movie trivia, game facts, or book trivia, you’ll find plenty of new information here. And if you’re looking for trivia questions for kids to entertain them during a family dinner or a long road trip, we’ve got plenty of those too!
Fact: Abraham Lincoln was a bartender
You know the facts about U.S. presidents you learned in school, such as that Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, fought for the freedom of enslaved people and the Union. But what you didn’t know about him is that he was a licensed bartender. Lincoln and his friend, William F. Berry, received their 1833 liquor license to run a tavern in New Salem, Illinois. There was a penalty of $300 if Lincoln and Berry didn’t uphold the liquor laws of the state, one of which included not selling whiskey to children—something we trust Honest Abe didn’t do!
Fact: Beethoven was the first composer to use the trombone in popular music
Although the trombone had been used in sacred music, no composer had used it in a nonreligious piece of music until Beethoven. He included the instrument in his famous Fifth Symphony, which premiered in Vienna in 1808.
Fact: Japan released sushi-inspired KitKats
For a limited time in 2017, Tokyo’s KitKat Chocolatory shop sold three types of the chocolate bar that were inspired by sushi but didn’t actually taste like raw fish. The tuna sushi was raspberry, the seaweed-wrapped one tasted like pumpkin pudding, and the sea urchin sushi was the flavor of Hokkaido melon with mascarpone cheese. All were made with puffed rice, white chocolate and a bit of wasabi.
Fact: An espresso maker was sent into space in 2015
Coffee lovers will appreciate this interesting space fact: Italian Samantha Cristoforetti was the first astronaut to have this warm and cozy piece of home while in orbit. The European Space Agency worked with Italian engineering firm Argotec and coffee manufacturer Lavazza to get the ISSpresso coffee maker and pod capsules into space.
Fact: The word aquarium once referred to a watering place for cattle
Of course, today’s aquariums aren’t for cows. The first public aquarium, called the Fish House, opened in 1853 at the London Zoo, which led to a Victorian craze to have one at home. According to Guinness World Records, the term aquarium was coined in 1854 by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse with the publication of his book The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea. But some didn’t initially like the term, as it had been used to mean “a watering place for cattle.”
Fact: An employee at Pixar accidentally deleted almost all of Toy Story 2 during production
Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar, wrote in his book Creativity Inc. that the year before the movie came out, someone entered the command ‘/bin/rm -r -f *’ on the drive where the files were saved, which immediately removes everything from the file system. Scenes started deleting, and 90% of the film was erased. Still, they panic—until they realized their backup system wasn’t working correctly. It would have taken a year to recreate what was deleted, but luckily another employee had a second backup of the entire film on her laptop at home.
Fact: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne started Apple on April Fools’ Day
The three technology innovators founded Apple Computer Co. on April 1, 1976—but only one of them turned out to be something of a business “fool.” The little-known third Apple founder, Ronald Wayne, was a mature 40 years old while the others were in their early 20s, and he feared the investment would go south and he’d lose his assets. So just 12 days after the founding, Wayne sold his 10% share back to them—for just $800. If he had kept it, he would be a billionaire today—so the sale is considered one of the most “fool”ish (get it?) mistakes in business history. In 2018, Apple became the country’s first trillion-dollar publicly traded company.
Fact: The inventor of the tricycle personally delivered two to Queen Victoria
In 1881, Queen Victoria was on a tour on the Isle of Wight when she saw a woman riding a tricycle. Intrigued by the bike, the queen proceeded to order two. She also asked that the inventor, James Starley, arrive with the delivery. Though you might associate tricycles with toddlers, Queen Victoria made them cool among the elite at the time.
Fact: Your brain synapses shrink while you sleep
This is not a brain myth! Researchers at the Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied mice to observe what happens to their brains while they sleep. Dr. Chiara Cirelli and Dr. Giulio Tononi found an 18% decrease in the size of synapses after a few hours of sleep. Don’t worry, though—this nighttime brain shrinkage actually helps your cognitive abilities.
Fact: A waffle iron inspired one of the first pairs of Nikes
Before he co-founded Nike, Bill Bowerman was a track and field coach in the 1950s who didn’t like how running shoes were made. He first created the cushioned Cortez shoe, but wanted a sneaker that was even lighter and could be worn on a variety of surfaces. During a waffle breakfast with his wife in 1970, he came up with the idea of using the waffle texture on the soles of running shoes. Waffle-soled shoes made their big debut in the 1972 U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon.
Fact: Boars wash their food
If you thought boars weren’t one of the smartest animals, think again. At the Basel Zoo in Switzerland, zookeepers watched wild boars pick up sandy fruit, carry them to water in their enclosure and wash them before eating. The zookeepers aren’t quite sure why wild boars clean their food, but they think chewing on sand or gravel isn’t comfortable, especially when it comes to their teeth. Experiments also showed that the boars could distinguish between clean and sandy apples—they only washed the sandy ones. According to the Basel Zoo’s website, “washing dirty food is behavior which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective.”
Fact: Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs
People have been playing baseball since the mid-19th century. In the early days, umpires would officiate the games while reclining in a rocking chair located 20 feet behind home plate. And here’s another fun fact: In 1878, the National League declared that home teams must pay umpires $5 per game.
Fact: The first commercial passenger flight lasted only 23 minutes
Bet you didn’t know this piece of airplane trivia: In 1914, Abram Pheil paid $400 (which would be $12,624.20 today) for a 23-minute plane ride. The Florida flight flew between St. Petersburg and Tampa, where just 21 miles of water separate the cities. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, and the pilot, Tony Jannus, were the only passengers. This momentous flight paved the way for air travel as we know it.
Fact: The world’s first novel may be missing its ending
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is considered the world’s first novel. After 54 intricately crafted chapters, the story stops abruptly, almost as if it wasn’t finished. One translator believes the work is complete as is, but another says we’re missing a few more pages of the story.
Fact: A French-language Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French
In 2015, New Zealand native Nigel Richards memorized the entire French Scrabble dictionary, which had 386,000 words, in nine weeks to earn his title, because he didn’t actually speak French. He won the French Scrabble World Championship again in 2018 and has also won five English-language world titles, including both U.S. and U.K. championships. And that’s not all: In 2024, Richards won the 2024 Spanish World Scrabble championship, despite the fact that he doesn’t speak a word of Spanish. This comes almost 30 years after Richards first played Scrabble at the age of ripe old age of 28.
Ren Ecosystem