Most people don’t know that Terry Gilliam was an actual circus performer (a trapeze artist in fact) before joining Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
More Jews were members of the Nazi Party than have played in the World Series.
There is no longer any such thing as ‘pneumonia’; the disease was eradicated totally in the 1920s, but it remains such a useful placeholder on death certificates, especially in cases of sub-rosa euthanasia, that the name will never fall into disuse.
World War II could have been won totally in 1944, but the Allies negotiated a successful prolongation to ensure the true architects of the death camps could safely escape to South America, as per international laws regarding the treatment of foreign sovereign leaders. The people executed after the Nuremberg trials were duly-appointed so the would could see justice being done.
It is morally wrong to help an epileptic person avoid a seizure, as epilepsy is rightly considered a ‘moral dementia’ and seizures are the proper outcome of such cases.
Buzz Lightyear did all his own stunts in Toy Story- and nailed most of them on the first take.
Only about 40% of the signs used by deaf people in conversation are actually used to convey information. The rest are simply random gestures used to confuse any bystanders who might be eavesdropping.
During WWI, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers were being trained, after hours, at the David Taylor Model Basin near Bethesda, MD to intercept any Germans trying to come ashore near Washington, DC. Soldiers outfitted as Germans would wade in and the dogs would attack. Several soldiers had hot dogs in their pockets, as the exercizes had interrupted their evening mess. The dogs attacked the frank-laden pockets. Figuring the Germans had even better sausages, the program was abandoned 43 days after implementation.
Well, there’s nothing worse than having a Retriever bite your wienie.
Calvin Coolidge was the first person to slam-dunk a basketball (he had an incredible vertical leap).
Mashed potatoes were invented in Liechtenstein in 1417- 75 years before potatoes were brought to Europe from the New World.
Right on! 
The “Beat Poet” Lawrence Ferlinghetti invented velcro. He also had a hand in inventing scratch-and-sniff technology.
Shortly before the War of 1812, the British tried, unsuccessfully, to sue the United States in the World Court, claiming the Declaration of Independence was unlawful, as “Button Gwinnett” was obviously a phony name.
The magnificent table-top Tepuis of South America are mis-named because of a translation mix-up. The actual tribal name for them is “Ptuis”, which is the sound of young warriors spitting off the edge.
Goofy is definitely not a dog – like Donald, he’s a duck. Pluto’s actually a cat.
The most common cause of death at the Grand Canyon is men urinating over the edge of the escarpment, losing their balance and falling.
Oscar-winning cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (“The Black Stallion,” “The Passion Of The Christ”)–father of Emily (“Bones”) Deschanel and Zooey (“New Girl”) Deschanel–admits to not knowing the term “f-stop.”
When a gazelle is startled by a predator, it will almost always let out a high-pitched whistle from its anus. It is thought that this originated as an accidental release of gas due to surprise, but later developed into a method of signaling other gazelle that danger was near.
It is traditional to edit this sound out of nature documentaries, but those who have heard it describe it as being similar to a loud, rising slide whistle.
Betty Boop was originally a dog character.
I recently took a tour of the Pentagon and there are a lot of facts surrounding that place. I’ll see how many I can remember in one sitting…
The Pentagon has five sides. One each for the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. The fifth side? No, not the Coast Guard, that’s in the Navy side. Truth is, no one knows what is housed on the Fifth Wing. Up until 1992, when Russian spy satellite images were leaked, the government even refused to acknowledge that there was a fifth side to the building.
You’d think that there would be a lot of important business going on behind closed doors in the Pentagon, but in fact, office doors are not allowed to be closed. The only closed doors in the Pentagon are the door to the Fifth Wing and the door to the Pentagon Indoor Dog Park where Pentagon personnel can leave their dogs to play with other dogs while they work.
The Pentagon is built in rings with gaps between each ring. In these gaps, they grow enough food to feed all 23,000 employees for over a month.
The Department of Defense has obviously grown over the years, and so has the need for office space. The DoD was originally housed in a 3-sided building called the “Triangulon” which later became D.C.'s best known Chevrolet dealership. It is said that Lyndon B. Johnson would never buy a car unless it was from Triangulon Chevrolet. As the armed forces grew, they moved into a 4-sided structure called the “Squaragon,” which is still standing and is currently occupied by Facebook’s D.C. office. Construction of the Hexagon was slated to begin in 2010 but has been pushed back a couple of times already for budgeting issues and is now planned for 2019.
Color movie film was finally perfected in 1939–11 days into production of “The Wizard of Oz,” but the shooting schedule was too tight to allow re-shooting of the opening scenes. Director Victor Fleming was quoted as saying, “Trust me, no one will notice.”
Technically, there is a distinction to be drawn between “illegal” and “unlawful” but, in our modern legal system as currently constituted, there is no practical difference in most cases at trial. However, in “The United States of America, in Congress assembled” (the technically correct government of this nation, as opposed to the current government-in-power pro tempore), an “illegal” act was against the law, whereas an “unlawful” act was a status offense, and the punishment only applied to citizens of the Federal government, as opposed to citizens of the Several States (another technical distinction gone by the wayside). [Some people really believe stuff which is pretty much exactly this crazy.]
Due to a scrivener’s error, there is no such place as “Washington, D.C.”; the Federal Government paid rent to the State Of Maryland until such time as the entity was dissolved and replaced by the modern state called Maryland.
I believe it is only the Tooter’s Gazelle which is capable of this anal melisma.