Hannah Twynney holds the dubious honor of being England’s first tiger fatality. According to history, Hannah was a barmaid at Malesbury’s White Lion Pub in the 1700s. A traveling zoo came to town, and Hannah was fascinated with the animals — who wouldn’t be, at that time? Hannah was so into the animals that she wouldn’t stop poking at them through the bars of their cages. The tiger, in particular, got tired of being prodded and teased. It turned around, swiped out a paw, and mauled Hannah to death. She died October 23, 1703, at the age of 33.
Today I Learned …
Today I Learned …
The town of Vincennes, Indiana, rings in the New Year with its annual Watermelon Drop, where watermelons are placed in an 18 foot, 500 pound steel-and-foam artificial watermelon and hoisted 100 feet into the air. At the stroke of midnight, a trap door in the bottom of the giant watermelon opens and the fruit inside drops to the “splatform” below.
The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas: Day Nine — Today I Learned …
On the day after Christmas, movie stars Cary Grant and Clark Gable would get together to swap monogrammed gifts they didn’t want.
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The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas: Day Two — Today I Learned …
Twin sisters Lorraine and Levinia Christmas decided on the spur of the moment to deliver presents to one another’s houses on Christmas Eve 1994. The country road between their villages in Norfolk, England was treacherously icy and the 31-year-old sisters were involved in a head-on crash — with each other. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Eye-popping Oddities)
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Today I Learned …
December 7 not only marks the anniversary of Pearl Harbor — it’s also something a lot sweeter. National Cotton Candy Day predates the Pearl Harbor attack by fifty years. It was a collaboration between confectioner John C. Wharton and dentist William Morrison, who thought up the occasion in 1897.
Today I Learned …
Daniel Craig is the only Bond actor who is shorter than Ian Fleming’s six-foot original. (From 1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop, by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, and James Harkin)
Today I Learned …
Anglerfish have black-lined stomachs to stop their insides from giving them away after they eat something luminous. (From 1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop, by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, and James Harkin)
Today I Learned …
Bob Ross, the painter with the famously frizzy hair, didn’t come by his ‘do naturally. It was a perm. Before his painting show took off, Ross was quite poor, and at that time, it cost less for him to get his hair permed than to get it cut. By the time he was making big bucks from the show and could afford a nicer haircut, his “look” had become familiar to his audience, and the show’s producers made Ross continue to get his hair permed rather than cut.
Today I Learned …
Most kangaroos are left-handed. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! 9)
Today I Learned …
When clocks are set back an hour in the fall, every on-time Amtrak train stops running at 2 am and sits on the tracks for an hour to get back on schedule.
Today I Learned …
Camel milk doesn’t curdle.
Today I Learned …
When male chameleons see their reflection in a mirror, they change color, thinking that the image is a rival. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! Animals)
Today I Learned …
One more reason to feel sorry for the honeybee: bees are electrostatically charged while they are flying. This attracts viruses and bacterial spores in the air, which then stick to the bee’s body.
Today I Learned …
Hugh Hefner’s original Playboy Mansion was in Chicago. The seventy-two room mansion was located in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood. The brass plate on the mansion’s front door was inscribed with the Latin phrase: “Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tininnare” (“If you don’t swing, don’t ring.”)
Today I Learned …
The reason Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s picture is on the dime is because of his association with the March of Dimes.
Today I Learned …
Abraham Lincoln appears on both sides of the penny.
Today I Learned …
The world’s largest insect is six times longer than the world’s smallest bird. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! Animals)
Today I Learned …
Naked mole rats can move their front teeth separately, like chopsticks. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! Animals)
Today I Learned …
During World War II, one of the oddest military tactics was used in the Pacific. A lot of the fighting there was done on islands with sandy beaches. Undercover agents strapped foot-shaped rubber soles onto their boots. When they landed on one of those sandy beaches, they left tracks that looked like “bare feet” footprints, making it look like locals had gone for a stroll along the shore. No soldiers here, nope, not a one.
Today I Learned …
12 + 1 = 11 + 2, and “twelve plus one” is an anagram of “eleven plus two”.
Today I Learned …
Every few hours your central nervous system automatically switches which nostril you primarily breathe through.
Today I Learned …
Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.
Today I Learned …
During his 1905 inauguration as president, Theodore Roosevelt wore a ring containing a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! 8)
Today I Learned …
Some plants can hear themselves being eaten. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! 8)
Today I Learned …
A study found that children whose families wash dishes by hand have fewer allergies than kids whose families use a dishwasher. (From National Geographic Kids Weird But True! 8)
Sylvia Shults, author 