Normally I reserve the lists on facts and myths to myself, but this one, recently sent in, was so interesting that I have decided to make an exception in this case. Be sure to share your own favorite factlets with us in the comments.
1. Hello wasn’t always the first thing people said when they answered the phone. After the first proper phone service was started in the US in 1878, people said “Ahoy”.
2. Bagpipes were invented in Iran and then brought to Scotland by the Romans.
3. In medieval Japan, it was fashionable for women to sport black teeth.
4. Apollo 11 had 20 seconds of fuel left when it landed.
5. The Chinese used “the fingerprint technique” as a means of identification as far back as AD700.
6. Charles Dickens earned as much for his lectures as he did for his twenty novels.
7. When the Mayflower was no longer of use, they took it apart and recycled it as a barn (pictured above).
8. In English gambling dens in the 18th century, there was a person who was hired solely to swallow the dice in the event of a police raid.
9. The gold ring that many sailors wore were often used to pay for a decent burial after their deaths.
10. A model named Grace Robin was the first person to demonstrate contact lenses in 1930.
11. In ancient Rome, a person with a crooked nose was considered to have great leadership potential.
12. In 1915 William Wrigley Jr. Sent chewing gum to everyone in the phone book.
13. In 18th Century Britain, you could take out insurance against going to hell.
14. The youngest parents in recorded history were eight and nine and lived in china in 1910.
15. In 17th Century England, a woman had, on average 13 children.
16. Out of the 266 men who have been appointed Pope, 33 have died in violent circumstances.
17. Olive oil was once used for washing the body in some Mediterranean countries. It is still, however, a lot more seldom practiced today.
18. India was one of the richest countries in the world until the British invasions in the 17th Century.
19. In ancient Egypt, noblewomen were given a few days to ripen after death in order to remove “temptation” from embalmers.
20. George Washington’s false teeth were actually carved from cows teeth and hippopotamus ivory and were fixed together with metal springs.
@oouchan (47): That one got me too. Seems that payouts would be rare, as who could prove where the insured’s souls actually ended up.
Sounds like a profitable twist to “buying your way into heaven”.
19 is horrible lol
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO etc.
okay everybody….has Phil’s comment #65 screwed up your computer too?
I have this long lonely strip of “O’s” just going off the edge of my screen. Straight through the margin, into oblivion.
There’s only one thing wrong with this list: the George Washington’s teeth factlet. That one is so overused it’s ridiculous. Anyone who knows more than surface gloss information about Washington knows the wood teeth thing is BS. Even the most moronic primary schools are no longer teaching the myth, at least in my corner of the USA. So if this fact could stop being recycled, I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.
Other than that, very nice list. 19/20 good factlets isn’t bad, still gets an A on a grading scale.
I love love LOVE these types of lists!
El the erf – you have posted 6 comments in a short spase of time, Do you remember what Mom told you – read the comments and reply all in one comment – wake up , this gives the guys at HQ a lot of less stress.
Great list. I don’t normally comment, but I feel I have to here.
As a previous commentator said above, India was not the richest country in the world before the British came simply because it was split into over 20 minor states. As time went on it became even more divided as the Murghul Empire broke up.
It is true that a vast amount of wealth was taken from India, and also true that a great many terrible things were done in the name of occupation. However, the lot of the average Indian actually improved slightly between the 17th and 19th centuries. The people who suffered the most were the vast amount of nobles and local princes.
So in summary, the above isn’t exactly true because India was more divided and warlike. And remember, the British did not make large scale acquisitions until the end of the 18th century.
However, this is splitting hairs. Overall this is a good list.
@Toto(53)
I read the same thing, and wondered how something could be, “a lot more seldom practiced today.”
Nice list!
Few things about #18 (India)
India and China were the largest economies of the world starting 100 BC (or perhaps even before) until 17th century (China and India competed for the #1 position). From Chandragupta Maura (Mauryan empire) to Aurangzeb (Moghul empire).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_economy_of_India
I also noticed a comment which says India wasn’t a country until 1940s. That is totally false. Like any country or state, even the territory of India kept changing from time to time. Chandragupta Maura was the first emperor to unite India, then his son Bindusara and then his son Ashoka The Great united India under one currency and one rule. Pakistan, Baluchistan, and parts of Afghanistan were also under Mauryan empire.
One of the greatest empires of India and greatest success stories (rags to riches)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire
Then the Gupta empire, barring parts of West and South-West India, it also united most of modern India (around 350 AD)
Then the Pala Empire under which India was united again leaving out parts of Gujarat and Karnataka states.
Then several dynasties came and went, successful in uniting only parts of India and/or parts of other countries under one rule and currency. Until the Moghuls.
The 4 great Moghuls ruled most of modern India and infact most of Southasia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
Then the Marathas(again the penetration was not as deep).
Then come the British. They united India for the final time before it was permanently divided shaping it to the current borders.
@Gatsby (69): I think the problem is in where the comma was placed. “It is still, however a lot more seldom, practiced today.” would have been a bit clearer, but I think a re-writing of the sentence would be most clear. Maybe “It is still practiced today, but very seldomly.” or something?
@El the erf (54):
Great comment.
@undaunted warrior (67): 6 comments isn’t that bad… he’s brought it down from his usual 17.(just like I told him to :p )
Nice list by the way….
@El the erf (54):
You mean, “a certain bald pervert who crippled and split his country in his efforts to drive the war-crippled rulers of the country out, resulting in millions of deaths”.
Heres one: The Oakland Raiders were almost named the Señors, an allusion to the Spanish settlers of northern California.
mentalfloss.com
#13 was hilarious!
@Davy (47): & @deeeziner (61):
Yeah. That one cracked me up. If I could pick a job, that would be my first choice!
@deeeziner (64): It looks as though that comment was removed. I checked my email before however, and it was just as messed up. Very weird.
Enjoyable list. Anyone complaining about the brevity of each factlet must be extra lazy. It’s not hard at all to copy and paste something into google and instantly have a number of resources from which to learn about a subject.
@74-I got a name for the Raiders.How about the Pathetics? I think when the being known as Al Davis finally dies he’ll probably be stuffed,placed in a wheelchair and still make appearances at games. That way the legacy of letdowns can continue. And one more thing about the Pathetics-How much longer do we have to wait until that organization admits their former #1 pick is pure garbage.Can you say Ryan Leaf? Sorry for the rant. LOL Interesting bits of knowledge throughout the list. By the way Miss_Info if you’re a female that’s hot. A women with knowledge of football is awesome. I’m not some pervert flirting or anything. Just offering a compliment.
@Dark (79):
See thuh buh-bul? Pop da buh-bul.
GRIZZLAH MINT BABY. ALL DAY LONG.
HOOO-EY!
I thought that this was a fine list, with enough information to do further research, if interested. People that say they were too short, are just plain lazy.
@Dark (79): Not female, and I couldn’t care less about football or your undying hatred towards Raiders…sowwy
GO SOCCER !!!!!!!
@Dk (71):
It turns out “seldomly” isn’t actually a word, I had that sentence written, but the spell checker said seldom, so I had to re-write it!
@Jorick (65):
That teeth factlet highlights the misconception of his teeth being made of wood. I actually said they were made of hippopotamus ivory and cows teeth and held together with metal springs. It is also thought that he had several sets of false teeth.
Il bate you ya innocent plagureising fool , and ill destroy you at halo 3 , online
D
OJ
i know him
not r a pedo??? :L
@L #27; My man…you absolutely cracked me up. You possess my sense of humor! That was seriously funny.
Japanese women’s teeth
It has only been in the most recent generations that the practice of cosmetic dentistry has been available for women in Japan. As late as the 1970s Japanese women, because of badly misaligned teeth, instinctively covered their mouth with their hand when they smiled or laughed
@NiMur90 (84): Doubtless he did. One set of false teeth will not serve a person for his whole life. As the gums recede the dentures must be relined and at some point completely replaced
Hi listverse I’m gonna make a list, but it’s better not to tell the contents yet
13 children? wtf?! no wonder this earth is overpopulated! Thank god it’s slowing down. I think i read the washington one in another list.
contender?
factlets or factletsnot?
you decide:
giraffes have the same number of neck vertebrae as humans.
giraffes also have the longest tails of all land mammals.
giraffes have the highest blood pressure of all mammals.
Bats are the only mammals that can fly
The hematophagy urge of the desmodus rotundus results in the injection of anticoagulants in its prey so that it bleeds more.
No scientific studies have let loose a swarm of blood consuming bats on a herd of giraffes.
Giraafes necks may or may not be of interest to the desmodus rotundus (vampire)bat.
Bats are not shape shifting vampires.
If they cant get their blood quota they kiss another of their kind for nourishment.
I have the biggest dick in the world.
comedian Bill Cosby lost his virginity at age 14.
rapper eccentric Flavor Flav lost his at age six.
jeffrey dahmer’s favorite movie was the Exorcist III
Hitler’s favorite movie was King Kong
I was riding the bus today and i was sitting next to this guy that kept farting. the bus was packed and i felt kinda ill. then i wet my pants a little and the cell phone girl in front of me turned her head and belched then laughed. the morning was okay.
Ricky showed me this book that had an article relating to molecular transfusions from ones spinal membrane into their heart. i forget why.
Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso
Salvador Dali, at the end of his life, attempted to dehydrate himself, believing that when he dead he would simply be in an inanimate state and could thus be rehydrated, like sea monkey pets.
aaaannd not. fail
my times up , have to go. I’ve grown bored of this anyhow.
nice read though, i enjoyed it.
for some reason i thought i was going to see something about rats today. like rat collectors or rat fighting, perhaps rat recipes. why did i think that? i don’t know. no hidden message at all, just that it crossed my mind.
here’s a picture of a nutria on what looks like somebody’s paddle:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Myocastor_coypus3.jpg
awwww, and here’s another of the cute thing swimming past some ducklings that are paddling for their lives:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Myocastor_coypus4.jpg
I was walking down the sidewalk around 9 o-clock this evening and i saw a flat dead rat laying there and had to walk around it to were i was in the street and i got hit by a car. it was hit and run they said.
Apollo 11 using all but 20 seconds of its fuel seems significant at first, but remember that with space travel you only need to use your engines when leaving a celestial body. After that you just coast out of gear.
Did nobody else find number 15 hard to believe? An AVERAGE of thirteen children? Come on. According to ‘Women’s history: Britain, 1700-1850′ by Hannah Barker, ‘women on average bore 6-7 live children’. Google it – there is a handy preview of the book. The quote is from p70.
Wait… that’s the 18th century. Dammit. Just a minute…
Here we go. According to suite101.com’s 17th century England course: ‘Infant mortality was high, due to disease, malnutrition and poor midwifery. The average family was around four and a half persons.’ I also found this quote (from http://library.ups.edu/instruct/ricig/vtomq.htm#fs) regarding family size in mid 17th century England: ‘The average number of children born into a family was between three and four, of whom two or three survived to adulthood. But this statistic covers a wide variation in family size. Upper-class families had more children, sometimes as many as sixteen.’ The source cited was the Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain, p. 91.
@Woyzeck- what does that mean man? Jeez dude I don’t speak whatever the hell that was that you posted. Was it some sort of insult? Anyway, my honest apologies to Miss_Info. I meant no harm and offer you my most humble apologies. And from what I know of soccer,the fans are the largest group of any popular sport. So I give you two thumbs up in your choice of favorite. Thank all the fake gods past, present and future that you didn’t give a shout out to NASCAR. Again my apologies
@ 2: The Bagpipes used in Scotland originated in Ireland it could be that the Irish got it from the Romans but it seems silly that they would go to Erie then Scotland considering geography. Also the romans never made considerable in-roads into scotland certainly never conquering the whole thing. So why would a hostile area which was neither under cultural or military control accept foreign culture so easily when the: goths, iberians, gauls and britons didnt pick it up. this one needs more research.
@3: at one point it was not fashionable but mandatory for all people of the japanese court to have blackened teeth. this was men and women. James Clavell touches on this in ‘shogun’ its also pretty comonly thought that were it not court decree no one would have done it.
this list isnt so much incorrect as lacking in context. you need to put out some well written lists instead of these little one offs.
two questions
12. phone book of which city?
19. whats ripening? eh, lol….
and also for ur info
india was called “sone ki chidiya” meaning golden bird
@El the erf (54):
So the British Empire left behind bad political systems in Asia in your opinion. Was the political systems better before the British arrived? And can the Empire be really blamed for how politicians and the government are now?
Your concept of civilization is very strange. Civilization in a personal state of mind? Uh?
Oh and your knowledge of British India, its creation and its purpose is very weak.
@Shadow Lord (70):
“I also noticed a comment which says India wasn’t a country until 1940s. That is totally false. Like any country or state, even the territory of India kept changing from time to time.”
But aren’t all those that you listed empires in India, and not India as a country?
These are some very interested facts! Thanks for the site.
@Yawyack (102):
I am assuming that you mean a “democratic country” when you say country. If yes, then you are right. But if we go by the definition of Country, it goes as something like “A political division of a geographical region united by common governance, policies, law and currency.” then India was a country way before her independence.
Since Hinduism was the major religion (along with Jainism and Buddhism) followed by the vast majority of Ancient India, one empire was not much different from the other. Though, this got changed once the Muslim invaders started taking control. Thanks to Akbar The Great, India really enjoyed democracy-like governance even under a foreign ruler. India lost its independence once it was colonized. Until 1947, India remained a colony before finally becoming a nation (a country). History rocks!!!
@Yawyack (102):
Well, though we cannot blame the empire entirely for our current politics in India, the main reason for the economic condition of India post-independence is for the fact that India was away from the industrial revolution.
Corruption has again to do with the mind set of people. Sad that these days politics is just another job where you get paid very less but you earn hell a lot. Democracy under corruption is worse than dictatorship.
@me (101): “12. phone book of which city?”
I wondered the same thing…enough to go Googling…In 1915 he sent sticks of gum to everyone in “all the phone books he could get his hands on”.
He did it again in 1919, sending 4 sticks per address, even though the phone registries contained about 7 million names at that time.
…sending 4 sticks (of gum) per address….
Re: Apollo 11
I think it should be clarified that it was the lunar module, the Eagle, that only had 20 seconds of fuel left. Neil Armstrong had to find another spot to land because the initial site chosen was strewn with boulders and thus unsuitable.
I really liked the word factlet, so some googling yielded :
A trivial, ephemeral fact; yet just as accurate. Not to be confused with factoid, which denotes less than accurate.
@El the erf (3): i like ur concept of factlet ~ piglet. gud1
About #19: “temptation” about dead women is just SICK and disgusting
AND,
About the “India being the richest country in the world and british invading” debate, I as a Indian really dont care.
The fact remains tht the Britishers saw, came and conquered India, even if it was a rich country or not a country at all. They divided us successfully and left us with nothing but borders and a much hightened hatred between diff religions(u know which btw..).
But having said tht, i really like wht India is right now and wht it is going to be.
Something serious i tht about while working
Good list.
Cheers!
@ yawyack (102)
@ shadow lord (104)
the concept of india as a counrty and a nation is as old as the india itself
though india has had many empires and different races, religions, there’s a common theme that binds its people together
without sounding anymore syrupy, let me just say that india rocks
@smokingfrog (110):
The British did a good thing by separating India and Pakistan. Keeping my emotions aside, had Pakistan still been a part of India, we would have had to face much sicker enemies like Afghanistan and terrorism would have
been on a higher scale.
The fight between these two religions you are mentioning has been going on way before the British stepped in India. The British just added fuel to the already burning fire. Starting from Bakhtiyar Khalji to Aurangzeb, history is evident that there has been lot of blood shed in the name of religion.
@me (111):
Right on!!! Divided we fight with each other, united we fight for each other. No matter what, we are all one!
@Fanatics: If any fanatic is reading this and trying to make a fuss about it, my request is to keep their mouth shut because none of us is blaming any country or religion for anything. We are all just discussing history!
@me (111): what’s that common theme ,may I enquire of you?
@Shadow Lord (112): yeaah bet you people are united..with all the casteism,regionalism,communalism plaguing India..stop being pseudo-patriots and look at the problem within
@ troy boy (113)
that i don’t know, brother
@me (115): You don’t know? Wow..I mean really..what binds you people together..the history of India is strife with civil conflicts..
hey do any of u know where there is a picture?
how are u
i am a fat ugly ***** and me and my dad have 8 kids because we shag
@amazin (117): Picture of what?picture of these facts? really…