Random Fact Generator: 250 True Facts in Six Topics: how it works
Press New fact and read one true thing. This random fact generator holds 250 facts in six chips: space, animals, US history, the human body, geography and movies. Each was read in September 2026 on a page from a body such as NASA or the National Archives, and each card names that body. A claim that was not on the page is not in the list.
One fact, one source page
Each fact starts from a single page, such as a NASA planet page, a NOAA ocean page or a film's entry in the AFI Catalog. We wrote the fact in our own words, then searched the page again for every number and name in it. Some famous lines did not pass. The story of a 1960 thriller that shut its doors to latecomers may be true, but its catalog entry does not say so, and it is not here.
Set the topic with a chip
Tap Movies and the page deals random movie facts only: 36 of them, from the first film released in stereo to a shower scene shot with chocolate syrup. The chip joins the address as #film, so a link you send opens on the movie facts. Tap Space before a science lesson, or Animals or Human body for a younger group.
Tips
For a quiz round, set the count to 5 and hold the smaller line back until people guess.
No fact repeats until every one under your chip has come up, so a class can press 30 times and never hear one twice.
The fact of the day is the same for everyone, so a group chat can start from one card.
Questions and answers
How do I know the facts are true?
Each fact was read on a page from a body that keeps the records, such as NASA, the National Park Service or the AFI Catalog. The line under each fact names its source, and the sites are listed under the full list. Facts that change from year to year, such as populations and sports records, are left out.
Can I draw random movie facts only?
Yes. Tap the Movies chip and every draw comes from 36 film facts, each taken from that film's entry in the AFI Catalog. They cover how well-known films from 1925 to 1994 were made: casting, sets, sound and awards. This page is not affiliated with any studio or film named on it.
Does the page make up new facts?
No. The page shuffles a fixed list of 250 facts that people wrote and then checked against a source page. A fact joins the list only after that check. To ask and not just tell, draw from the random questions.
A comet can grow two tails, one of dust and one of electrically charged gas.Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs. Source: NASA.
A day on Mars lasts 24.6 hours, only a little longer than a day on Earth.A day on Mars is called a sol. Source: NASA.
A day on Venus lasts longer than a year on Venus.One spin takes 243 Earth days. One trip around the Sun takes 225. Source: NASA.
About 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun.The Sun is a yellow dwarf star about 4.5 billion years old. Source: NASA.
About 48.5 tons of space rock and dust fall on Earth every day.A space rock that burns up in the air is called a meteor. Source: NASA.
All the asteroids put together have less mass than Earth's Moon.Most of them circle the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Source: NASA.
Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969. Its lander, nicknamed Eagle, reached the Moon on July 20.The command module, Columbia, is on display in Washington, DC. Source: National Air and Space Museum.
Ceres was the first dwarf planet visited by a spacecraft. NASA's Dawn arrived in 2015.Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801. Source: NASA.
The core of the Sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.That is about 15 million degrees Celsius. Source: NASA.
Earth is the only planet known to have liquid water on its surface.Ocean covers about 71 percent of the surface. Source: NASA.
Earth is the only planet whose English name does not come from Greek or Roman mythology.The name comes from old English and Germanic words. Source: NASA.
The Hubble Space Telescope circles Earth about once every 95 minutes.It moves at about 17,000 miles per hour. Source: NASA.
In 2011 Neptune finished its first trip around the Sun since people discovered it.One Neptune year lasts about 165 Earth years. Source: NASA.
The International Space Station is 356 feet long, one yard short of a football field with its end zones.Its living space is larger than a six-bedroom house. Source: NASA.
Jupiter has the shortest day of any planet. It spins once in about 10 hours.A year on Jupiter lasts about 12 Earth years. Source: NASA.
Jupiter is so big that about 1,000 Earths could fit inside it.It is the largest planet in the solar system. Source: NASA.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.Jupiter is a gas giant with no true surface. Source: NASA.
Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. It is bigger than Mercury.It is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field. Source: NASA.
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.Phobos circles Mars three times a day. Source: NASA.
Mars looks red because iron minerals in its soil rust.Ancient Egyptians called it Her Desher, meaning the red one. Source: NASA.
Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon.It is the smallest planet in the solar system. Source: NASA.
Mercury is the fastest planet. It circles the Sun once every 88 Earth days.It moves at nearly 29 miles every second. Source: NASA.
The Moon drifts about an inch farther from Earth every year.About 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in the gap between Earth and the Moon. Source: NASA.
The moon Phobos creeps about six feet closer to Mars every hundred years.In about 50 million years it will crash into Mars or break up into a ring. Source: NASA.
More than 150 asteroids are known to have a small moon of their own.Some even have two. Source: NASA.
Neptune is the only planet you cannot see with your eyes alone.It is more than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth is. Source: NASA.
Neptune was the first planet found by math. Its place was worked out before anyone saw it.It was discovered in 1846. Source: NASA.
People have lived on the International Space Station without a break since November 2000.The crew circles Earth 16 times a day. Source: NASA.
The Perseid meteor shower comes from the dusty trail of comet Swift-Tuttle.The comet takes 135 years to circle the Sun. Source: NASA.
Pluto has five moons. The largest, Charon, is about half the size of Pluto itself.The other four are Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. Source: NASA.
Pluto is about 1,400 miles wide, roughly half the width of the United States.It was called the ninth planet until 2006. Source: NASA.
Pluto was named in 1930 by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old girl from Oxford, England.She suggested the name of the Roman god of the underworld. Source: NASA.
Saturn is the only planet less dense than water.A day on Saturn lasts just 10.7 hours. Source: NASA.
Saturn's moon Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have rivers, lakes and seas.They hold liquid methane and ethane, not water. Source: NASA.
Seen from Mercury, the Sun would look more than three times as large as it does from Earth.Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun. Source: NASA.
The solar system takes about 230 million years to circle the center of the Milky Way.It travels at about 515,000 miles per hour. Source: NASA.
The Sun holds 99.8 percent of all the mass in the solar system.Everything else, planets included, shares the rest. Source: NASA.
Uranus spins on its side, so it rolls around the Sun like a ball.It is tilted at nearly 90 degrees to its path around the Sun. Source: NASA.
Uranus was the first planet found with a telescope. William Herschel spotted it in 1781.He tried to name it Georgium Sidus after King George III. Source: NASA.
Venus is the hottest planet, even though Mercury sits closer to the Sun.Its surface is hot enough to melt lead. Source: NASA.
Venus spins backward, so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.Most planets spin the other way. Source: NASA.
Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 and reached the space between the stars in August 2012.No spacecraft has traveled farther from Earth. Source: NASA.
Voyager 1 will not reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud for about 300 years.It could take 30,000 years to fly out the far side. Source: NASA.
Animals 56
A giant anteater's tongue is two feet long and can flick in and out 150 times a minute.It has no teeth. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
A group of meerkats is called a mob.Meerkats take turns standing guard through the day. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
A jellyfish is about 95 percent water and has no brain, no blood and no heart.Out of the water, a jellyfish turns into a shapeless blob. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
A Komodo dragon can eat up to 80 percent of its body weight in one meal.It can run at up to 13 miles per hour. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
A naked mole-rat can close its lips behind its front teeth, so it can dig without eating dirt.It is not fully hairless. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
A platypus has no teeth. It finds food with sensors in its bill that pick up electric signals.It can stay under water for up to two minutes. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
A single sea lamprey can kill about 40 pounds of fish in a year.Its skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
A two-toed sloth climbs down from its tree about once a week to go to the bathroom.Food can stay in its gut for about a month. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Alligators live mainly in fresh water. They can stand salt water for only a few hours or days.They live in swamps, rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
An elephant's trunk has no bones. It is a nose and an upper lip joined into one.An Asian elephant's trunk holds about 150,000 muscle units. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The Australian box jellyfish is thought to be the most venomous animal in the sea.About 50 kinds of box jellyfish exist, and only a few can kill a person. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The black tear marks on a cheetah's face may help cut the glare of the sun.At top speed a cheetah covers 23 feet in one stride. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The bowhead whale has the largest mouth of any animal.It lives in cold Arctic water all year. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Bowhead whales may live for more than 200 years.Their layer of blubber is 1.6 feet thick. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The cheetah is the fastest land mammal. It reaches 60 to 70 miles per hour, but only for about 300 yards.It can go from a standstill to 45 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Christmas tree worms are about 1.5 inches long and live in holes they bore into live coral.Each worm has two tree-shaped crowns. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Corals are animals, not plants or rocks.A single coral polyp is often no thicker than a nickel. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The electric eel is not a true eel. It is closer kin to catfish and carp.It can make a shock of up to 800 volts. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Elephants make rumbles too low for people to hear. Other elephants pick them up more than two miles away.Female Asian elephants have small tusks called tushes. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Every gorilla has a nose print unlike any other gorilla's.Gorillas are the largest of the great apes. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Fish do not sleep the way land mammals do, but most of them do rest.Some float in place and some wedge themselves into mud or coral. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Flamingos get their pink color from the algae and shrimp they eat.They feed with their bills upside down. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
For its size, the vampire squid has the largest eyes of any animal.It squirts glowing slime at attackers in place of ink. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Giant pandas do not roar. They chirp, honk, bleat and bark.A giant panda is about the size of an American black bear. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Glass sponge reefs were thought to have died out 40 million years ago. In 1987 living ones turned up off Canada.The reefs off British Columbia are about 9,000 years old. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It stretches 1,429 miles.It is made of nearly 3,000 separate reefs. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The green sea turtle is named for its green fat, not its shell.The color comes from the plants it eats. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Greenland sharks live at least 250 years, longer than any other animal with a backbone.Scientists work out their age from proteins in the eye. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Horseshoe crabs are closer kin to spiders and scorpions than to crabs.They were here more than 200 million years before the dinosaurs. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Horseshoe crabs have blue blood, colored by copper.Their blood is used to test medicines and vaccines for safety. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
In a lion pride, the females do most of the hunting.A pride can number up to 40 lions. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard. The biggest one measured was 10.3 feet long.That lizard weighed 366 pounds. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The leatherback is the largest sea turtle. It can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.It has tough, rubbery skin in place of a hard shell. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Male emus sit on the eggs until they hatch.An emu can run up to 31 miles per hour. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The male platypus is one of the few mammals that make venom. The stingers sit on the heels of its back feet.The platypus lives only in Australia. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Much of the white sand on Hawaii's beaches is parrotfish poop.A big parrotfish can make hundreds of pounds of sand a year. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Naked mole-rats are the longest-living rodents. Some live close to 30 years.They live in colonies led by one queen, as bees do. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The nautilus moves by jet power. It pulls water in and shoots it out to push itself along.Animals much like it have lived in the sea for about 500 million years. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.The Amur tiger is the largest kind, at up to 660 pounds. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The opah, or moonfish, is the only fish known to be fully warm-blooded.Scientists reported the finding in 2015. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The ostrich is the fastest bird on land. It can run up to 43 miles per hour.One ostrich egg weighs about three pounds. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Penguins cannot fly, but they can swim at 15 to 25 miles per hour.Some kinds spend up to 75 percent of their lives in the water. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Portuguese man o' war is not a jellyfish. It is a colony of tiny animals working as one.Its tentacles average about 30 feet and can reach about 100 feet. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The red panda has a false thumb, a wrist bone that helps it grip bamboo.It is the only living member of its animal family. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Right whales got their name from whalers, who called them the right whales to hunt.They swim slowly and float after death. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The ruby-throated hummingbird beats its wings more than 50 times a second.It can cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Sea sponges are animals, and they have been around for about 600 million years.About 8,550 kinds are alive today. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Sea stars have no blood. They pump sea water through their bodies instead.There are about 2,000 kinds of sea star. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Some corals can live for up to 5,000 years.NOAA calls them the longest-living animals on Earth. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Some sea cucumbers shoot out their own insides to scare off an attacker, then grow them back.There are more than a thousand kinds of sea cucumber. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The sunflower sea star can move one meter a minute on its 15,000 tube feet.Some sea stars have 10, 20 or even 40 arms. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The warmth of the sand decides whether a sea turtle egg hatches as a male or a female.Cooler nests make males and warmer nests make females. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The whale shark is the biggest fish in the sea. It can grow to 40 feet long.It eats tiny plankton. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Without their coats, lions and tigers look so alike that only experts can tell them apart.A lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
The word orangutan means person of the forest.The name comes from the Indonesian and Malaysian languages. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
You can tell a sea lion from a seal by its ear flaps. True seals have none.Sea lions swim with their front flippers. Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo.
US history 42
The 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote, was ratified on August 18, 1920.Congress had passed it on June 4, 1919. Source: US National Archives.
A bell ordered from London in 1751 cracked on its first test ring. Two local men recast it as the Liberty Bell.The metalworkers were John Pass and John Stow of Philadelphia. Source: National Park Service.
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.He gave warning with an early version on September 22, 1862. Source: US National Archives.
The Americans who bought Louisiana had only been cleared to spend $10 million, on New Orleans and the Floridas.France then offered them the whole territory. Source: US National Archives.
Benjamin Franklin's print shop pressed the patterns of real leaves into paper money to stop counterfeiters.His firm printed the notes in Philadelphia in 1739. Source: Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The best flight the Wright brothers made on their first day of flying covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.Wilbur was at the controls. Source: National Air and Space Museum.
The bronze Statue of Freedom on top of the US Capitol dome is 19 feet 6 inches tall.Ten points tipped with platinum guard her against lightning. Source: Architect of the Capitol.
Charles Lindbergh could not see straight ahead in the Spirit of St. Louis. He used a periscope or a side window.He was flying for a $25,000 prize for the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Source: National Air and Space Museum.
Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but delegates did not start signing it until August 2.The signed parchment is kept at the National Archives. Source: US National Archives.
Congress sent 12 amendments to the states in 1789. The 10 that passed became the Bill of Rights.They were ratified on December 15, 1791. Source: US National Archives.
Every piece of US paper money issued since 1861 is still good at full face value.The first federal notes were nicknamed greenbacks. Source: Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The first powered airplane flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.Orville Wright was the pilot on December 17, 1903. Source: National Air and Space Museum.
The first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence carried only two names: John Hancock and Charles Thomson.Thomson was the secretary of the Congress. Source: US National Archives.
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is exactly as wide as it is tall: 630 feet.Its outer skin is stainless steel. Source: National Park Service.
The Gateway Arch is built to sway up to 18 inches in a 150 mile-per-hour wind.The 1,076 stairs inside are only for emergencies and repairs. Source: National Park Service.
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered settlers 160 acres of public land if they lived on it for five years.The act became law on May 20, 1862. Source: US National Archives.
In a strong wind the Statue of Liberty can sway up to 3 inches, and her torch up to 6 inches.From the ground to the tip of the torch she stands 305 feet 1 inch. Source: National Park Service.
Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the US Congress in 1916.That was four years before the 19th Amendment. Source: US House of Representatives history office.
The last spike of the first railroad across America was driven at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.The new line cut a trip of several months down to about a week. Source: US National Archives.
The Lincoln Memorial is ringed by 36 Doric columns, each 44 feet tall.Two more columns stand at the entrance. Source: National Park Service.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the United States for about four cents an acre.The price was $15 million for 828,000 square miles. Source: US National Archives.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony printed the first paper money in the American colonies in 1690.It paid for military expeditions. Source: Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The men who wrote the US Constitution kept the windows shut and swore to keep their talks secret.They met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Source: US National Archives.
More than 10,000 Chinese workers helped build the Central Pacific Railroad.The Union Pacific hired more than 8,000 immigrants of its own. Source: US National Archives.
More than 20,000 people came to see the cornerstone of the Washington Monument laid on July 4, 1848.Three future presidents were in the crowd: Buchanan, Lincoln and Johnson. Source: National Park Service.
The Pony Express ran for only 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861.The telegraph line across the country put it out of business. Source: National Park Service.
Pony Express riders carried mail more than 1,800 miles in 10 days.The route ran from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Source: National Park Service.
The Statue of Liberty's copper skin is only as thick as two pennies pressed together.The copper weighs 176,000 pounds. Source: National Park Service.
The Statue of Liberty's crown has seven rays and 25 windows.Her tablet reads July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals. Source: National Park Service.
The Statue of Liberty's index finger is 8 feet long, and her nose is 4 feet 6 inches long.The torch she holds today dates from 1986 and is covered in gold leaf. Source: National Park Service.
The statue of Lincoln in his memorial was carved from 28 blocks of marble and stands 19 feet tall.It weighs 120 tons. Source: National Park Service.
Thomas Edison did not invent the electric lamp. His 1880 patent improved it with a carbon filament.He held 1,093 patents in all. Source: US National Archives.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, less than two cents an acre.Critics called it Seward's Folly until gold was struck in the Klondike in 1896. Source: US National Archives.
The US Army ran Yellowstone National Park from 1886 to 1918.The National Park Service was not created until 1916. Source: National Park Service.
The US Capitol has more than 600 rooms.George Washington chose its design in 1793. Source: Architect of the Capitol.
The US Constitution has 39 signatures, but only 38 delegates signed it.George Read of Delaware signed twice, once for John Dickinson, who was absent. Source: US National Archives.
The Washington Monument went up in two stages: from 1848 to 1854, then from 1876 to 1884.The society building it went bankrupt in 1854, with the tower 156 feet high. Source: National Park Service.
When it was finished in 1884, the Washington Monument was the tallest building in the world.It stands just over 555 feet tall. Source: National Park Service.
The wide gap in the Liberty Bell is a repair job from 1846, not the crack itself.Look closely and you can see more than 40 drill marks. Source: National Park Service.
The Wright brothers made more than a thousand glider flights before they tried a powered one.They also designed their own propellers. Source: National Park Service.
The Wright brothers tossed a coin to decide who would fly first. Wilbur won, but his try on December 14 failed.Orville made the first real flight three days later. Source: National Air and Space Museum.
Yellowstone became the world's first national park in 1872.Native peoples had lived, hunted and traveled there long before. Source: National Park Service.
Human body 42
A baby is born with about 300 bones. An adult has 206, because many grow together.Bones are alive, and your body rebuilds them all the time. Source: National Institutes of Health.
A hiccup is your diaphragm jerking, then your vocal cords snapping shut. The snap makes the hic sound.The diaphragm is the muscle under your lungs. Source: MedlinePlus.
A normal resting heart beats 60 to 100 times a minute.The lub-dub sound is your heart valves closing. Source: National Institutes of Health.
A red blood cell lives about 120 days. A platelet lasts only about 6.Your body makes new ones all the time. Source: MedlinePlus.
About 85 to 90 percent of people in Western countries are right-handed.Many identical twins favor opposite hands. Source: MedlinePlus.
The bones of a baby's skull can shift at birth. They join together as the child grows.The joints between skull bones do not move in adults. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Brown is the most common eye color in the world.Eye color depends on how much melanin is in the iris. Source: MedlinePlus.
The cochlea in your inner ear is shaped like a snail shell and filled with fluid.Tiny hair cells inside it turn movement into nerve signals. Source: National Institutes of Health.
The colored part of your eye, the iris, sets how much light gets in by changing the size of the pupil.The clear dome at the front of the eye is called the cornea. Source: National Institutes of Health.
During REM sleep your arm and leg muscles are briefly paralyzed, which stops you from acting out your dreams.You spend more of the night in stage 2 sleep than in any other stage. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Each of your kidneys holds about a million tiny filters called nephrons.The kidneys sit just below your rib cage, one on each side of your spine. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Friedrich Miescher first saw DNA in the late 1800s. Its twisted-ladder shape was worked out in 1953.The shape is called a double helix. Source: National Human Genome Research Institute.
The human body is made of trillions of cells.Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things. Source: MedlinePlus.
Human DNA has about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of them are the same in every person.The four bases are written as A, T, G and C. Source: MedlinePlus.
The Human Genome Project started in October 1990 and finished in April 2003.It read the full set of human DNA for the first time. Source: National Human Genome Research Institute.
Humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes.A gene can be a few hundred DNA bases long or more than 2 million. Source: MedlinePlus.
Identical twins do not have the same fingerprints.The ridges are fully formed by the sixth month before birth. Source: MedlinePlus.
The joint at the base of your thumb is shaped like a saddle, which lets the thumb swing across your palm.A pivot joint in your neck lets you turn your head. Source: National Institutes of Health.
More than half of your blood is a liquid called plasma.New blood cells are made in your bone marrow. Source: MedlinePlus.
Most human cells carry 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs.One pair, the sex chromosomes, differs between males and females. Source: MedlinePlus.
New babies sleep as much as 16 to 18 hours a day.Sleep may help a young brain grow. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Red hair comes from a pigment called pheomelanin.Black and brown hair have more of a pigment called eumelanin. Source: MedlinePlus.
The ridges that make fingerprints also cover your toes, your palms and the soles of your feet.They start to form in the third month before birth. Source: MedlinePlus.
The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and the left side controls the right.The two halves talk through a thick band of nerve fibers. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Scientists think the mitochondria in your cells were once free-living bacteria.Mitochondria still carry a little DNA of their own. Source: National Human Genome Research Institute.
The tallest man ever measured was Robert Wadlow, who stood 8 feet 11.1 inches in 1940.He was from Alton, Illinois. Source: Guinness World Records.
Tendons are the tough cords that tie your muscles to your bones.Your heart is made of a special muscle found nowhere else in the body. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Three tiny bones in your middle ear pass sound along: the malleus, the incus and the stapes.They boost the vibrations from your eardrum. Source: National Institutes of Health.
The tips of your chromosomes lose a little DNA each time a cell divides.The tips are called telomeres. Source: National Human Genome Research Institute.
When you chew, smells from your food reach your nose through a channel at the back of your throat.That is why food tastes dull when your nose is blocked. Source: National Institutes of Health.
The wrinkled outer layer of your brain is only as thick as a stack of two or three dimes.It is called the cerebral cortex. Source: National Institutes of Health.
You are born with about 10,000 taste buds.After age 50 you may start to lose them. Source: National Institutes of Health.
You first reach REM sleep, the stage with the most vivid dreams, about 90 minutes after you fall asleep.Your eyes dart from side to side behind closed lids. Source: National Institutes of Health.
You have more than 650 muscles.There are three kinds: skeletal, smooth and cardiac. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your body's master clock is a large group of nerve cells in the brain called the SCN.It makes you sleepy at night, based on the light that reaches your eyes. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your bones are at their strongest and thickest in your mid to late 20s.Bone is built from collagen and a mineral called calcium phosphate. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your brain weighs about three pounds.Its deep folds make room for more surface area. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute.Each kidney is about the size of a fist. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your right lung has three sections, called lobes. Your left lung has only two.The left lung is a little smaller, because your heart takes up space on that side. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your skin is your body's biggest organ.It has three layers. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your skin makes vitamin D when sunlight hits it.Billions of tiny microbes also live on your skin. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Your tongue can pick up five basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami.Umami is the savory taste. Source: National Institutes of Health.
Geography 31
A nautical mile is one minute of latitude, a little longer than a mile on land.It equals 1.1508 land miles. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
About 97 percent of Earth's water is in the ocean.The rest is in ice, under the ground, and in rivers and lakes. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
About half of the oxygen made on Earth comes from the ocean.Tiny drifting plants and bacteria make most of it. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Arctic is the smallest ocean. It is about one and a half times the size of the United States.It covers about 6.1 million square miles. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Atlantic Ocean covers about 20 percent of Earth's surface.It is a little more than half the size of the Pacific. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Bits of dead plants and animals drift down through the deep sea like snow. A flake can fall for weeks.Scientists call it marine snow, and deep-sea animals eat it. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States.More than 150 rivers and streams drain into it. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The deepest known spot in the ocean is the Challenger Deep, about 35,876 feet down.It is named after HMS Challenger, a ship that sounded its depth in 1875. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Earth is not a perfect ball. It bulges around the equator.The spin of the planet causes the bulge. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Ferdinand Magellan named the Pacific Ocean in 1520, after he sailed into a calm patch of water.Pacific means peaceful. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Great Lakes have tides, but the biggest is less than five centimeters high.Wind and weather change the lake levels far more. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The highest tides in the world are in Canada's Bay of Fundy.The highest tides in the United States are near Anchorage, Alaska. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Hot springs on the sea floor, called hydrothermal vents, were first found in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands.The vents called black smokers spout dark clouds of iron sulfide. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Icebergs are not always white. Some are blue, and algae can paint green stripes on others.Tightly packed ice soaks up red light, so it looks blue. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The International Date Line was set up in 1884 and has no legal standing.It zigzags around borders, such as the one between Russia and Alaska. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere is called Old Sow. Its small side whirlpools are called piglets.It swirls between Maine and New Brunswick and can be 250 feet across. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The longest mountain range on Earth is under the sea. The mid-ocean ridge runs 40,389 miles.About 90 percent of it lies under water. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Most of Earth's volcanoes are hidden on the ocean floor.About 60 percent of active volcanoes sit where plates of crust meet. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The ocean is about 12,080 feet deep on average.That is 3,682 meters. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The ocean looks blue because water soaks up red light and leaves the blue.The water works like a filter on sunlight. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Pacific is the largest ocean. All of the world's continents could fit inside its basin.It covers about 63 million square miles. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Point Nemo in the South Pacific is the spot in the ocean farthest from any land.It is named after the submarine captain in a Jules Verne novel. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The Sargasso Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, is the only sea with no coast.It is named after Sargassum, a brown seaweed that floats on the surface. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Scientists think 91 percent of the species in the ocean have not yet been described.The ocean is that big and that hard to search. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The sea floor has more than 100,000 seamounts that stand at least 1,000 meters tall.People have explored fewer than one in a thousand of them. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Starboard comes from Old English words for steer and side. Early boats were steered from the right.The left side was once called larboard, which sounded too much like starboard. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Sunlight rarely reaches deeper than 200 meters in the ocean. Below 1,000 meters there is none.The dark zone below 1,000 meters is called the midnight zone. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
There is really one world ocean, and it covers about 71 percent of Earth.The Southern Ocean is the newest named part of it. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The top of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is farther from Earth's center than the top of Mount Everest.Earth bulges at the equator, and Chimborazo sits one degree south of it. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The United States has 95,471 miles of shoreline.The count includes the Great Lakes and US territories. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
The world's largest waterfall is under the sea, in the Denmark Strait.Cold water there sinks from about 2,000 feet below the surface to 10,000 feet. Source: NOAA National Ocean Service.
Movies 36
The African Queen (1951) was shot mostly on location in the Belgian Congo and Uganda.In the story, the Congo stands in for German East Africa. Source: AFI Catalog.
Alfred Hitchcock did not let theater owners or reviewers see Psycho (1960) before it opened.He released no photos of the key scenes either. Source: AFI Catalog.
Alfred Hitchcock shot all of Rear Window (1954) on a single set.The courtyard set held 31 apartments. Source: AFI Catalog.
Alfred Hitchcock shot Psycho (1960) mostly with the crew from his television series.It kept the cost of the film down. Source: AFI Catalog.
The blood in the shower scene of Psycho (1960) was chocolate syrup.Hitchcock said he chose black and white because color would have been too gory. Source: AFI Catalog.
Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz (1939) but fell ill, and Jack Haley took over.Ebsen had first been cast as the Scarecrow. Source: AFI Catalog.
Casablanca (1942) began as a stage play called Everybody Comes to Rick's that had never been produced.Warner Bros. paid $20,000 for it. Source: AFI Catalog.
The chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959) runs just under ten minutes on screen and took ten weeks to film.The arena set covered more than 18 acres. Source: AFI Catalog.
Charlie Chaplin released City Lights (1931) as a silent film with music, years after talking pictures had arrived.Chaplin is credited as the composer. Source: AFI Catalog.
Citizen Kane (1941) was the first film that composer Bernard Herrmann scored.Herrmann had worked with Orson Welles on the radio. Source: AFI Catalog.
Duck Soup (1933) was the last Marx Brothers film to feature Zeppo.Zeppo played a character named Bob Roland. Source: AFI Catalog.
Fantasia (1940) was the first film released with stereo sound, through a system called Fantasound.The sound gear filled 45 cases and weighed about 15,000 pounds. Source: AFI Catalog.
Filming of Star Wars (1977) began in March 1976 in the desert of Tunisia.The studio would pay no more than $7 million to make it. Source: AFI Catalog.
The first draft of the script for Rocky (1976) was written in three and a half days.The director was given 28 days to shoot the film. Source: AFI Catalog.
The first scene shot for Gone with the Wind (1939) was the burning of Atlanta, filmed on December 10, 1938.Seven Technicolor cameras caught the fire on a studio backlot. Source: AFI Catalog.
The giant ape in King Kong (1933) was mostly an 18-inch model.On screen he looks 18 feet tall in most scenes. Source: AFI Catalog.
Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award, for Gone with the Wind (1939).She won as Best Supporting Actress. Source: AFI Catalog.
In the opening credits of Frankenstein (1931), the actor who plays the monster is listed only as a question mark.Boris Karloff is named in the end credits. Source: AFI Catalog.
It Happened One Night (1934) was the first film to win all five top Oscars.The five are picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay. Source: AFI Catalog.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) grew out of a short story its author mailed to friends in his 1943 Christmas cards.The story was called The Greatest Gift. Source: AFI Catalog.
The Jazz Singer (1927) was not the first talking picture, though many people think it was.Al Jolson's first spoken words in it are wait a minute, wait a minute. Source: AFI Catalog.
King Vidor directed the black-and-white farm scenes of The Wizard of Oz (1939), including the song Over the Rainbow.Victor Fleming had left to take over Gone with the Wind. Source: AFI Catalog.
Marlon Brando turned down his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather (1972).Sacheen Littlefeather spoke at the ceremony in his place. Source: AFI Catalog.
Modern Times (1936) was the first film in which audiences heard Charlie Chaplin's voice. He sang a nonsense song.The rest of the film uses title cards in place of spoken lines. Source: AFI Catalog.
Only two songs were written new for Singin' in the Rain (1952). The rest were older tunes.The new ones were Make 'Em Laugh and Moses. Source: AFI Catalog.
The park bench scenes in Forrest Gump (1994) were filmed in Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia.They took three days to shoot. Source: AFI Catalog.
Parts of Schindler's List (1993) were filmed in Krakow, Poland, at the real factory from the story.Filming began on March 1, 1993. Source: AFI Catalog.
The plot of Some Like It Hot (1959) came from a 1951 German film, Fanfaren der Liebe.Billy Wilder directed the American version. Source: AFI Catalog.
The scene in The Gold Rush (1925) where Charlie Chaplin eats his shoe was inspired by the Donner Party.Snow scenes were shot near Truckee, California. Source: AFI Catalog.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was Walt Disney's first feature-length film.Artists made about two million drawings for it. Source: AFI Catalog.
The Sound of Music (1965) traces back to Maria von Trapp's 1949 book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.A Broadway musical of 1959 came between the book and the film. Source: AFI Catalog.
Stagecoach (1939) was the first film John Ford shot in Monument Valley.Other scenes were shot along the Kern River. Source: AFI Catalog.
The three mechanical sharks built for Jaws (1975) were each 25 feet long, and the crew called all of them Bruce.The film was shot off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Source: AFI Catalog.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) was nominated for eight Academy Awards.It won three of them. Source: AFI Catalog.
Vertigo (1958) is based on a French novel, D'entre les morts.One working title for the film was From Among the Dead. Source: AFI Catalog.
West Side Story (1961) won ten Academy Awards.Marni Nixon sang the songs for Natalie Wood's character. Source: AFI Catalog.
How this list was compiled: We wrote all 250 facts ourselves, in our own words. Each one was read on a page published by a primary body, and the address of that page is saved with the fact. Every source page was fetched and checked on 2026-09-18. Space: NASA (https://science.nasa.gov/ and https://www.nasa.gov/), plus one fact from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (https://airandspace.si.edu/). Animals: NOAA Ocean Facts (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/) and the Smithsonian's National Zoo (https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals). Geography: NOAA Ocean Facts and the National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/). US history: the US National Archives milestone documents (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents) and founding documents pages, the National Park Service, the National Air and Space Museum, the Architect of the Capitol (https://www.aoc.gov/), the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (https://www.bep.gov/) and the US House history office (https://history.house.gov/). Human body: the National Institutes of Health institutes (https://www.nih.gov/), MedlinePlus (https://medlineplus.gov/), the National Human Genome Research Institute (https://www.genome.gov/) and, for the one record, Guinness World Records (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/). Movies: the AFI Catalog entry for each film (https://catalog.afi.com/). The spelling of George Read follows the signature transcript at https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm. Facts that change from year to year, such as the moon counts of the giant planets, populations and sports records, are left out. A fact we could not find on its source page was dropped. Each fact's detail line ends with the name of the body whose page it was read on; the address of the exact page is saved in the dataset (x.src). Fix pass on 2026-09-19: two facts that rested on a whitehouse.gov page were replaced, because that address had already moved and the site is rewritten with each administration. The two new facts, on the building of the Washington Monument, were read that day at https://www.nps.gov/wamo/learn/historyculture/index.htm. The History chip was renamed US history, since all 43 of its facts are about the United States. Last reviewed 2026-09-19. Licence: own work