60 Fun Facts About Trick

In which country did the Panama hat originate?

The hats were shipped through the Isthmus of Panama on their way to buyers abroad, so the port of sale, not the weavers' homeland, gave them their name.

How many years did the Hundred Years' War actually last?

The fighting between England and France ran from 1337 to 1453 and is usually divided into three phases separated by truces.

The Canary Islands are most likely named after which animal?

The Latin Canariae Insulae means 'Islands of the Dogs', and Pliny the Elder wrote of huge dogs on the island of Canaria. The birds were later named after the islands.

An aircraft's flight recorder is required to be painted which color?

Flight data and cockpit voice recorders are painted a fluorescent shade so search crews can spot them in wreckage.

Catgut, used for violin strings and sutures, usually comes from the intestines of which animal?

No cat has ever been documented as a source; the name may come from 'kit', an old word for a small fiddle.

The kiwifruit is native to which country?

It was known as the Chinese gooseberry until a New Zealand exporter rebranded it in 1959, partly to get it past US quarantine officials.

The Great Dane breed of dog was developed in which country?

The breed descends from medieval boar-hunting hounds and was once known in its homeland as the Englische Dogge.

Guinea pigs were originally domesticated on which continent?

They were first raised as livestock in the Andes, where they are still eaten and used in folk medicine, and they are rodents rather than pigs.

What kind of animal is a koala?

Like kangaroos, koalas give birth to tiny joeys that finish developing in a pouch, which is why the popular 'koala bear' label is wrong.

Botanically speaking, what is a peanut?

Peanuts grow in underground pods, an unusual habit that led Linnaeus to name the species hypogaea, 'under the earth'.

Botanically, a banana is classified as which type of fruit?

The banana plant is a giant herb, not a tree, and its fruit has been described as a 'leathery berry'.

In which month of the modern calendar did Russia's October Revolution take place?

Russia still used the Julian calendar in 1917, so a date that was 25 October there was 7 November everywhere else.

The cor anglais, or English horn, is which kind of instrument?

It belongs to the oboe family and comes from neither England nor the horn family; its name may derive from a German word for 'angelic'.

Strictly speaking, what is Big Ben?

The tower itself was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012; the nickname belongs to the 13.5-ton Great Bell inside it.

Why did the 1918 influenza pandemic become known as the Spanish flu?

Wartime censors in the fighting nations buried the bad news, so neutral Spain's honest headlines made it look like the epicenter.

Measured from its base on the sea floor, which mountain is often called Earth's tallest?

The Hawaiian volcano rises about 30,000 feet from the ocean floor, more than Everest's height above sea level.

One pound of goose feathers versus one pound of gold bullion: which weighs more?

Precious metals are weighed in troy pounds of 12 troy ounces, which are lighter than the 16-ounce avoirdupois pounds used for feathers and everything else.

What is the capital city of Australia?

The purpose-built capital sits in its own territory between the two big rivals, Sydney and Melbourne.

By longitude, which US state is the easternmost?

The Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian, so Alaska is the northernmost, westernmost and, technically, easternmost state.

What did the Victorian plumber Thomas Crapper NOT do?

Crapper held nine patents, including the floating ballcock and the U-bend, but the flush toilet predates him by centuries.

What actually provokes a bull to charge the matador's red cloth?

Bulls are dichromatic and cannot pick out red; the color of the muleta is kept for tradition and to hide bloodstains.

Roughly how long is a goldfish's memory span?

Goldfish can be trained to feed from a hand and to tell apart shapes, colors and sounds; the three-second story is a myth.

According to NASA, can the Great Wall be seen from low Earth orbit with the naked eye?

NASA says the wall is no more conspicuous than many other human-made objects, despite a legend that dates back to the 1700s.

What did Viking Age texts say about horned helmets?

The horns are a 19th-century invention popularised by the costumes in Richard Wagner's operas.

What is the capital of Turkey?

Istanbul is the biggest city, but the capital has been Ankara since the republic was founded in 1923.

Which city is Switzerland's de facto capital, officially known as its 'federal city'?

Switzerland has no capital in law; Bern was made the federal city in 1848 and houses the government.

In which country was the Hawaiian pizza invented?

Sam Panopoulos created it in Chatham, Ontario, in 1962 and named it after the brand of canned pineapple he used.

Fortune cookies are served in Chinese restaurants worldwide, but where were they likely first made?

They probably began as cookies made by Japanese immigrants in California, and there is no single accepted Chinese name for them.

The croissant was inspired by the kipferl, a crescent pastry from which country?

French bakers replaced the kipferl's brioche dough with laminated yeast dough in the early 20th century to create the modern croissant.

In which country was the Caesar salad invented?

Caesar Cardini improvised it at his restaurant in Tijuana on 4 July 1924 when the kitchen ran short of ingredients during Prohibition-era crowds.

The killer whale is the largest member of which family of animals?

Orcas are toothed whales, and the oceanic dolphin family they belong to has 35 species.

Bombay duck, a delicacy of Mumbai, is what kind of food?

It is a lizardfish, traditionally dried in the sun and coated in asafoetida.

What is the main ingredient of Welsh rabbit?

The 'rabbit' name is an 18th-century joke; the dish is a hot cheese sauce, often with ale and mustard, poured over toast.

Sweetbreads on a restaurant menu are which part of an animal?

They are neither sweet nor bread, and usually come from a calf or lamb.

What is the core of a so-called lead pencil made of?

Pencils have never contained metallic lead; the writing core is powdered graphite bound with clay.

The Jerusalem artichoke is actually a species of which plant?

It is a North American native, and 'Jerusalem' is probably a corruption of girasole, the Italian word for sunflower.

The positional number system behind the digits we call Arabic numerals originated in which region?

Arab mathematicians transmitted the system to Europe, which is why the digits carry their name.

Which is the largest desert on Earth?

A desert is defined by low precipitation, not heat, and the frozen continent gets only about 150 mm of water a year.

Cleopatra, the last active pharaoh of Egypt, was descended from which people?

Her dynasty was founded by Ptolemy I, a general and companion of Alexander the Great, nearly three centuries before her reign.

How did the young Albert Einstein perform in mathematics at school?

The story that he flunked maths is a myth; he mastered material years ahead of his age.

What do ostriches do when they sense danger?

The head-in-the-sand image probably comes from ostriches tending eggs kept in holes in the ground.

What is the truth about lemmings and cliffs?

The mass-suicide legend was cemented by staged footage in a 1958 Disney nature film.

What color is a polar bear's skin?

The fur only looks white; the guard hairs are transparent and scatter light down to dark skin that soaks up warmth.

According to the Stetson company, how much liquid does a 'ten-gallon' hat actually hold?

The name probably comes from the Spanish galón, a braided hatband, or tan galán, 'so fine', not from capacity.

How long is a century egg typically cured?

Duck, chicken or quail eggs are packed in ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls until the alkaline mix transforms them.

What kind of insect is a firefly?

Fireflies belong to the family Lampyridae, with more than 2,400 described species, and their glow is a mating signal.

According to Buddhist tradition, in which present-day country was the Buddha born?

Lumbini, his birthplace, is marked by a pillar erected by the Emperor Ashoka.

On what date did the 20th century officially begin?

Because there was no year zero, each century runs from a year ending in 01 to a year ending in 00.

The turkey served at Thanksgiving is native to which part of the world?

The name was first used for guineafowl imported to Europe via Turkey and was later transferred to the unrelated New World bird.

How many stars are on the flag of the European Union?

The number never changes with membership; the designers chose twelve as a symbol of perfection and entirety.

How many times does Sherlock Holmes say 'Elementary, my dear Watson' in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories?

The line was popularised by the actor William Gillette and later films; Holmes calls things 'elementary' but never in that phrase.

Which famous line is never actually spoken in the film Casablanca?

Ilsa says 'Play it, Sam' and Rick says 'Play it!', but the popular version comes from decades of misquotation and a Woody Allen title.

In Mary Shelley's novel, who is Frankenstein?

Victor Frankenstein assembles his creature from stolen body parts; the creature itself is never given a name.

Which country has the most pyramids?

About 255 pyramids were built by the Kushite rulers of Nubia, more than twice Egypt's total.

Mount Kilimanjaro stands in which country?

Its summit was renamed Uhuru Peak, 'Freedom Peak' in Swahili, after Tanzania was formed in 1964.

How tall was Napoleon Bonaparte?

His 'short' reputation owes much to the wartime British press, which mocked him as a small, short-tempered man and nicknamed him 'Little Boney'.

What is the official language of Brazil?

It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the New World and has the largest Lusophone population in the world.

The Samuel German who gave German chocolate cake its name was what?

The cake itself comes from Dallas, Texas; the earliest published recipe appeared in a Dallas newspaper in 1956.

In Denmark itself, what is a 'Danish pastry' called?

The name means 'Viennese bread', a nod to the Austrian bakers who came to Denmark during an 1850 bakery strike.

The 'tongue map' showing where each taste is sensed is wrong. Which Harvard psychologist's 1942 book spawned it?

His replotted graphs of a 1901 German paper were misread by later authors; in fact every taste can be sensed across the whole tongue.