50 Interesting General Knowledge Facts That You Should Know

1. Joe and Ben Weider were scrawny kids who became bodybuilders and founded bodybuilding equipment, competition, and magazine empire.

2. In 1950s England Teddy Boys dressed in styles inspired by nobles of Edwardian England.

3. Russia’s Alexander the Great passed a proclamation in 1861 freeing the serfs.

4. Crown Cork & Seal makes 1/3 of the cans used for food in North America.

5. Living in what is now Mexico more than 3,000 years ago, the Olmecs were the first known Mesoamerican civilization.

6. Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President ever to publish a novel.

7. Bewitched was the first live-action television show to put a husband and wife in the same bed together.

8. A call is a stock market option that lets you purchase a certain stock for a set price until a certain date.

9. With more than 10 million visitors annually, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.

10. Erich Remarque was working as a sportswriter in Germany when he wrote All Quiet on the Western Front.

11. When ABC lost the contract to air The Grammy Awards in 1973, they had Dick Clark created the American Music Awards for them.

12. In a synagogue the cantor leads the congregation in singing and chanting prayers.

13. The game of canasta is played with two decks of cards and four jokers.

14. Penicillin came into wide use in World War II, replacing sulfonamide drugs which were first synthesized in 1932.

15. In Scotland, firths are the wide bays into which most of Scotland’s rivers flow.

16. Stringers are freelance reporters not directly employed by a newspaper but working part-time and were once paid by the column inch.

17. In a 1937 Stephen Vincent Benet short story, Daniel Webster defends Jabez Stone before the Devil’s jury of villains.

18. The 16th-century Corsairs of northern Africa were known collectively as the Barbary pirates.

19. An early proposed name for Utah was Deseret meaning “land of honeybees.”

20. Head Start is a government program for preschoolers which began as a summer project in LBJ’s War on Poverty.

21. Forced into exile in 1955, Emperor Bao Dai was the last ruling monarch of Vietnam.

22. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibited sex discrimination in athletics.

23. West Quoddy Head in Maine is the easternmost point in the United States.

24. During the 5th century, the Teutonic tribe known as the Vandals conquered part of North Africa and ruled there for a century.

25. Singer El DeBarge left his family group DeBarge in 1986 and scored his only major solo hit that year when “Who’s Johnny” reached the top of the charts.

26. The sepoys were native Indians who served in the British army and mutinied in 1857.

27. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple who created large outdoor environmental art installations such as “The Gates” in Central Park, NY, and the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin.

28. The metal Gallium will melt in your hand.

29. Human blood will appear green at 30 ft. under water since red light doesn’t penetrate that deeply.

30. With an area of 215 square miles, Lake Winnebago is the largest lake in Wisconsin.

31. The first two New York Times headlines to be set in 96-point type were five years apart; “MEN WALK ON THE MOON” in 1969 and “NIXON RESIGNS” in 1974.

32. The state of California ranks #1 in both population and agricultural production.

33. Hank Aaron reached the top of Major League Baseball’s RBI rankings in 1975 and has remained in that position ever since.

34. In 1865, Wellington succeeded Auckland as the capital of New Zealand.

35. George Pullman built the modern sleeping coach with a folding upper berth & a lower berth made from seat cushions.

36. In 1972 Bobby Fischer became the first American chess player to win the world championship.

37. The state of Delaware has only three counties the least of any U.S. state.

38. Lord Humongous is the main antagonist in the 1981 post-apocalyptic Australian film The Road Warrior.

39. Located in Scotland and with an elevation of more than 4,400 ft., Ben Nevis is the highest point in the British Isles.

40. “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” is the most popular song from the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha.

41. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit discovered that the boiling point of a liquid varies based on atmospheric pressure.

42. South American soccer great Pelé was known as Perola Negra, “The Black Pearl.”

43. There are 145 Latin Catholic dioceses in the United States.

44. The United States removed itself from the gold standard on April 19, 1933.

45. The Larry O’Brien Trophy features a regulation-size sterling silver basketball.

46. 5th-century invaders the Angles gave England its name.

47. Tora! Tora! Tora! was a 1970 film that showed the bombing of Pearl Harbor from the perspectives of both the Japanese and American sides.

48. John Adams was President of the United States when Napoleon became First Consul and began to rule as dictator of France.

49. From 1838 to 1841 Charles Darwin was Secretary of the Geological Society of London.

50. The term midshipman was used in the 17th century to denote an experienced seaman, but in more modern usage refers to a junior officer or officer cadet.

• The 50 Interesting General Knowledge Facts
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