The Fact Ledger

Monowi, Nebraska, is the only town in the United States with a population of just one person.

Elsie Eiler is the only resident and holds every government job. She is the mayor, clerk, and treasurer. She even votes for herself in every election.

A violin called the 'Lady Blunt' sold for $15.9 million in 2011, making it the most expensive musical instrument ever sold at a public auction.

Antonio Stradivari built this violin in 1721. It is valuable because it is in nearly perfect condition. Most old violins show wear from centuries of use, but this one was kept by c...

Albert Einstein was offered the job of President of Israel in 1952.

Israel's first president died and the government wanted a famous leader to take his place. Einstein turned down the offer because he believed he was not good at working with people...

Mount Everest grows about 4 millimeters taller every year.

The mountain sits on two giant pieces of the Earth's crust called tectonic plates. These plates are slowly crashing into each other and pushing the land upward.

Pizza Hut delivered a six-inch salami pizza to the International Space Station in 2001.

The pizza traveled on a Russian rocket to reach the astronauts. It was a marketing project that took a year of planning with space scientists.

Alaska is the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in the United States.

The 180th meridian is the line that separates the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Because some of Alaska's islands cross this line, they are technically located in the Eastern Hem...

Many oysters start their lives as males and later change their biological sex to female.

This change helps the oyster colony survive. Larger oysters become female because they have more energy to produce millions of eggs.

The world's first gas station was a pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany.

In 1888, Bertha Benz stopped at this pharmacy to buy fuel during the first long-distance car trip. At the time, gasoline was sold in small bottles as a cleaning fluid.

Corn Flakes were first sold under the name Sanitas Toasted Corn Flakes.

The name Sanitas comes from the Latin word for health. Doctors created the cereal as a plain food for patients at a health spa in Michigan.

The winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon used rat poison and brandy to finish the race.

Trainers gave Thomas Hicks small doses of strychnine and alcohol because they thought it would boost his energy. This mixture is actually toxic and nearly killed him by the time he...

Dolphins sleep with only half of their brain at a time.

Dolphins must choose when to breathe, so they cannot fall completely asleep. One half of the brain stays awake to control breathing and watch for sharks while the other half rests.

An object in space will move in a straight line at the same speed forever unless something hits it or pulls on it.

This happens because of inertia. Objects naturally resist changes to their movement. On Earth, things slow down because invisible forces like air and friction push against them.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system with a surface temperature of 864°F (462°C). This temperature is high enough to melt lead.

Venus has a thick atmosphere made of carbon dioxide that traps heat. This gas acts like a heavy blanket that prevents heat from escaping into space. Even though Mercury is closer t...

Ancient Roman gladiators were mostly vegetarians who ate a diet of barley and beans.

This diet was high in carbohydrates. It helped fighters grow a thick layer of body fat to protect their organs from shallow sword cuts.

Some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile have not seen a single drop of rain for over 400 years.

Two mountain ranges block all wet air from reaching the desert. This creates a double rain shadow that keeps the ground completely dry.

The first solid chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by Joseph Fry in Bristol, England.

Before this, people only consumed chocolate as a liquid drink. Fry mixed melted cocoa butter with cocoa powder and sugar to create a paste that could be molded into a solid shape.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. President to ride in a car in public.

He rode in an electric car through Hartford, Connecticut, on August 22, 1902. This event helped people see cars as a real way to travel instead of just a dangerous hobby.

Ripe cranberries bounce like rubber balls and float in water because they have air pockets inside them.

Each berry contains four small air chambers. These chambers make the fruit light enough to float and springy enough to bounce when they hit a hard surface.

William Henry Harrison served the shortest presidency in U.S. history, dying only 31 days after taking office.

He gave a two-hour speech in the cold without a coat or hat. He became ill shortly after and was the first president to die while in office.

Water can boil and freeze at the same time at a specific temperature and pressure.

This state is called the triple point. It happens when the conditions are exactly right for water to be a solid, a liquid, and a gas all at once.

Wombats have pouches that face backward to keep dirt away from their babies while they dig.

A wombat's pouch opens toward its rear instead of its head. This prevents the pouch from filling with soil as the mother tunnels underground.

Astronauts grow up to 2 inches taller while living in space.

Gravity on Earth constantly pushes down on the human spine. In space, this pressure disappears, allowing the discs between the backbones to expand and stretch out.

Earth is the only planet in our solar system not named after a Greek or Roman god.

The other seven planets are named after ancient deities like Mars, the god of war. Earth's name comes from Old English and Germanic words that mean 'the ground.'

Mars is red because its surface is covered in rust.

The planet's soil contains a lot of iron. When this iron mixed with small amounts of water and oxygen long ago, it turned into iron oxide. This is the same chemical process that ma...

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth and is visible from space.

It is made of billions of tiny animals called coral polyps. These animals build hard skeletons that join together to form a massive underwater system over 2,300 kilometers long.

The oldest written recipe in the world is a 3,800-year-old poem about how to make beer.

Ancient Sumerians wrote the 'Hymn to Ninkasi' to honor their goddess of brewing. The poem contains specific steps for turning barley bread into an alcoholic drink. Modern brewers h...

An octopus has nine brains that control its body and eight arms.

A central brain handles big decisions and memory. Each arm has its own mini-brain that lets it move, touch, and taste things on its own. This allows the arms to hunt or explore wit...

The 1953 Academy Awards was the first time the ceremony appeared on television, reaching 40 million viewers.

Before this, the Oscars were private dinner parties. NBC paid $100,000 to broadcast the 25th ceremony so fans could see movie stars live for the first time.

The Academy Award is called an 'Oscar' because a librarian thought the statue looked like her uncle.

Margaret Herrick worked for the Academy and saw the gold trophy in 1931. She said the figure reminded her of her Uncle Oscar. People in Hollywood liked the name and started using i...

Tatum O'Neal is the youngest person to win a competitive Oscar, earning the award when she was only 10 years old.

She won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the 1973 movie Paper Moon. She competed against adult actors instead of receiving a special award just for children.

Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest chess Grandmaster ever at just 12 years old.

He broke a world record that had lasted for 19 years. To earn this title, he had to beat some of the best players in the world and reach a high skill score.

A knight can visit every square on a chessboard exactly once without ever landing on the same spot twice.

This puzzle is called the Knight's Tour. There are trillions of different paths a knight can take to complete this challenge on a standard 64-square board.

The word 'checkmate' comes from the Persian phrase 'Shah Mat,' which means 'the King is helpless.'

In chess, the King is never captured or killed. The game ends immediately when the King has no way to escape an attack. This makes him helpless rather than dead.

A computer named Deep Blue defeated the world chess champion in a match in 1997.

Garry Kasparov lost the six-game match against the IBM supercomputer. This was the first time a machine beat a reigning world champion under tournament conditions.

The Bee Hummingbird weighs less than a single penny.

This bird weighs between 1.6 and 1.9 grams, while a U.S. penny weighs 2.5 grams. It is the smallest bird in the world and lives only in Cuba.

The Sahara Desert covers about 90% of Libya, making it one of the driest countries on Earth.

About 90% of Libya lies within the Sahara Desert, characterized by vast stretches of sand and rock. This extreme aridity limits habitation mostly to coastal areas near the Mediterr...

Standing under a Manchineel tree during rain can cause your skin to blister.

The tree's sap is highly toxic and mixes with falling raindrops. This liquid causes severe chemical burns when it touches people.

The world's first novel was written in Japan over 1,000 years ago.

A Japanese noblewoman named Murasaki Shikibu wrote 'The Tale of Genji' around the year 1008. It was the first book to focus on the long-term life and feelings of a single character...

Cashew nuts grow on the outside of a fruit called a cashew apple.

Most nuts grow inside a fruit. The cashew is a seed that hangs in a hard shell from the bottom of a fleshy, pear-shaped fruit. This shell contains a toxic oil, so cashews are alway...

African elephants have a specific alarm call that means humans are nearby.

This unique sound tells the rest of the herd to run away immediately. It is different from the sounds they use for other dangers like bees or lions.

Lesotho is the only country on Earth where every part of the land is at least 1,400 meters (4,593 feet) above sea level.

This nation is located entirely inside South Africa and sits high up in the mountains. Its lowest point is higher than the lowest point of any other country in the world.

The first iPhone combined a phone, a music player, and an internet device into one touchscreen tool.

Before this, most phones used physical buttons or plastic pens to work. The iPhone let people use their fingers to zoom and swipe directly on the glass.

Saturn would float if you placed it in a giant bathtub filled with water.

Saturn is made mostly of light gases like hydrogen and helium. It is less dense than water, which means it weighs less than the same amount of water would.

An adult's blood vessels are long enough to wrap around the Earth four times.

The body contains a massive network of tubes called arteries, veins, and capillaries. Most of this length comes from capillaries, which are tiny vessels that reach every cell.

A blue whale's call is louder than a jet engine.

These sounds reach 188 decibels. Because sound travels better in water than in air, other whales can hear these calls from 1,000 miles away.

Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest and lost.

In 1915, the famous actor entered a competition to see who could best mimic his movie character. The judges did not recognize him and awarded him third place. They thought other pe...

A newborn kangaroo is only the size of a jellybean.

Kangaroos are marsupials with very short pregnancies. The tiny baby is born before it is fully formed and must crawl into its mother's pouch to finish growing.

Veryovkina Cave is the deepest cave on Earth, reaching 2,212 meters (7,257 feet) underground.

This cave is deeper than seven Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other. It takes professional explorers over a week to travel to the bottom and back to the surface.

In 1923, German money became so worthless that one U.S. dollar was worth 4.2 trillion German marks.

Germany printed too much paper money to pay off debts after World War I. This caused the value of the currency to drop so fast that prices doubled every few days.

Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

People with this fear worry they will choke or be unable to swallow. The sticky texture of the peanut butter triggers a physical panic response.