Sources: No, Really, It’s Stranger Than That
No, Really, It’s Stranger Than That: 500 More True Stories Worth Repeating at Dinner, by J. R. Veley.
Every fact in the book was checked against at least one source. They are listed here by fact number. Web pages move and vanish; where a link has died, the title of the fact is usually enough to find the source again.
1. Words With a Past Facts 1–50
No. 001 OK began as a newspaper joke
No. 002 Kangaroo never meant “I don’t understand”
No. 003 The first dunce was a genius
No. 004 Posh is not an acronym
No. 005 Robot means forced labor
No. 006 No law ever set a rule of thumb
No. 007 Ciao means “I am your slave”
No. 008 Dord, the word that never was
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/dord-a-ghost-word
- https://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/the-ghost-word-dord-a-cautionary-tale
- https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/local-news/2011/02/28/daily-twip-the-non-word-dord-is-discovered-in-webster-8217s-new-international-dictionary-today-in-1939
- https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/03/in-a-word-dord-the-word-that-wasnt/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dord
No. 009 The Assassins were not stoned
No. 010 A deadline could get you shot
No. 011 The Vikings are thought to have given us they
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/they
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/them
- https://www.su.se/english/news/articles/2023-04-03-a-book-you-can-be-single-mindedly-obsessed-with
- https://research-portal.uu.nl/en/publications/a-native-origin-for-present-day-english-they-their-them/
- https://websites.umich.edu/~thomason/papers/pronborr.pdf
No. 012 Tip was never an acronym
- https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/tip
- https://barrypopik.com/blog/to_insure_promptness_tip_false_etymology
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/tip
- https://www.wordorigins.org/harmless-drudge/common-errors-in-etymology
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/21334/pg21334.txt
- https://csmonitor.com/The-Culture/In-a-Word/2022/0905/Colorful-stories-of-acronyms-are-often-false
- https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2006/08/cop.html
- https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/north,-east,-west,-south,-not
No. 013 Juggernaut is a god
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/juggernaut
- https://merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/juggernaut-2022-01-23
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juggernaut
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jagannatha
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Juggernaut
- https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2011/08/29/word-with-a-past-juggernaut/
No. 014 Nobody was a scientist before 1834
- https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/06/scientist.html
- https://www.laurajsnyder.com/2011/01/inventing-the-scientist/
- https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/sciencecomma/2015/04/09/whewell-and-the-coining-of-scientist-in-the-quarterly-review/
- https://www.lindahall.org/william-whewell/
- https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1279
No. 015 Nobody threw clogs in the machines
No. 016 Quarantine means forty days
- https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/2/12-0312_article
- https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/aktuelles/schwerpunkte/epidemien/01_Thema_Vorkehrungen_Regeln.html
- https://www.wgcu.org/2021-07-06/how-a-medieval-city-dealing-with-the-black-death-invented-quarantine
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/quarantine
No. 017 Gung ho was a factory slogan
No. 018 The brass monkey held no cannonballs
No. 019 An apron was once a napron
No. 020 Captain Boycott was boycotted
No. 021 Gringo is not “green grow”
No. 022 Serendipity came from a fairy tale
No. 023 The first tycoon was the shogun
No. 024 One email invented a dozen origins
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/life-in-the-1500s/
- https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/1999-June/000555.html
- https://www.shaksper.net/archive/1999/162-june/8459-re-no-its-not-true-sp-62137222
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/saved-by-the-bell.html
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dead-ringer.html
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/raining-cats-and-dogs.html
No. 025 Algebra once meant bone-setting
No. 026 Chauvin probably never existed
No. 027 Nobody knows what the nine yards were
No. 028 Ye Olde was always “the”
No. 029 Mumbo Jumbo settled marital quarrels
No. 030 The Cabal’s initials were a coincidence
No. 031 A nine-year-old named the googol
No. 032 Every guy is Guy Fawkes
No. 033 The dollar is named after a valley
No. 034 The red herring was a red herring
No. 035 Shampoo was a massage
No. 036 Mayday is French
No. 037 Nice used to be an insult
No. 038 Gas is a made-up word
No. 039 The boondocks are in the Philippines
No. 040 Someone really stole the thunder
No. 041 Ghost got its h in Flanders
No. 042 Cossacks did not name the bistro
No. 043 The scapegoat was a translator’s guess
No. 044 Quiz was not chalked on Dublin walls
- https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/heres-a-pop-quiz-where-the-heck-did-quiz-come-from/
- https://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/the_origin_of_the_word_quiz
- https://comeheretome.com/2012/07/18/the-word-quiz-a-dublin-invention/
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/quiz
- https://wehd.com/74/Quiz_sb1.html
- https://wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/quiz
No. 045 Jazz began as a baseball word
No. 046 Captain Cook brought back taboo
No. 047 Oxford hid a fake word
No. 048 Quisling became a word in days
No. 049 The blue moon is a mistake
2. Wars Over Almost Nothing Facts 51–100
No. 051 The Pig War
No. 052 The War of the Bucket
- https://historynet.com/what-we-learned-from-the-battle-of-zappolino-1325/
- https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/bologna/cronaca/secchia-rapita-700-anni-fa-bde63d78
- https://www.thecollector.com/medieval-legend-war-bucket/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bucket
- http://www.visitmodena.it/en/discover-modena/art-and-culture/historic-buildings-and-castles/palazzo-comunale
No. 053 The Great Emu War
No. 054 The Kettle War
- https://www.zeeuwseankers.nl/verhaal/de-kluchtige-keteloorlog
- https://historiek.net/keteloorlog-marmietenoorlog-1784/75612/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_War
- https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keteloorlog
- https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/In-t-Jaar-1784--efde8fd5e3fec7d05fdfb9b86825e6dd
No. 055 The 38-minute war
No. 056 A war over mulberry leaves
No. 057 The Royal Marines invade Spain by mistake
No. 058 The Pastry War
No. 059 The battle an army fought against itself
No. 060 The Lobster War
- https://www.em.com.br/colunistas/luiz-carlos-azedo/2024/11/6996883-arrogancia-do-carrefour-lembra-a-guerra-da-lagosta.html
- https://portaldeperiodicos.marinha.mil.br/index.php/revistamaritima/article/view/6470
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster_War
- https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vida-e-cidadania/a-lagosta-e-nossa-24v9shy09i5lw3gg583pln8em/
No. 061 Forty years of war over one camel
- https://cris.haifa.ac.il/en/publications/an-ancient-arabian-war-harb-subsub-al-bas%C5%ABs-as-reflected-in-class/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basus_War
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Basus
- https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1192601/opinion/al-zeer-salim-the-tragic-hero-of-arabias-ancient-al-basoos-war
No. 062 The Battle of Los Angeles had no enemy
No. 063 The War of Jenkins’ Ear was named a century later
- https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-Jenkins-Ear
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2111/pg2111.txt
- https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/items/show/2591
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jenkins_(master_mariner)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins%27_Ear
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Jenkins,_Robert
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/anniversary-loss-jenkinss-ear
No. 064 A governor asked to sit on the Golden Stool
- https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/golden-stool-17th-c/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Golden_Stool
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Stool
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Mitchell_Hodgson
- https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/jul-17-golden-stool
- https://worldhistoryedu.com/yaa-asantewaa-the-asante-warrior-queen-who-fought-against-british-colonial-rule/
No. 065 The 335 Years’ War that was never declared
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-worlds-longest-war-only-ended-in-1985
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hundred_and_Thirty_Five_Years%27_War
- https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-335-Year-War-the-Longest-War-in-History
- https://military-history.org/feature/war-zone-four-hundred-years-of-military-history.htm
No. 066 The soldier who fought on until 1974
- https://news.usni.org/2014/01/17/japanese-soldier-surrendered-29-years-world-war-ii-dies-91
- https://www.economist.com/obituary/2014/01/25/last-man-fighting
- https://www.kcur.org/2014-01-17/japanese-soldier-who-fought-on-for-29-years-after-wwii-dies
- https://historynet.com/hiroo-onoda-the-japanese-officer-who-refused-to-surrender-decades-after-wwiis-end/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda
No. 067 The standoff on the Ugra, where nobody fought
No. 068 The riot over a slice of watermelon
No. 069 Switzerland invades Liechtenstein by mistake
No. 070 The war over the white elephants
No. 071 The last invasion of Britain lasted two days
No. 072 The war named after a pickup truck
No. 073 The Potato War had no great battles
No. 074 Two jets, 208 rockets and one runaway drone
- https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-11-me-then11-story.html
- https://www.military.com/history/battle-of-palmdale-time-air-force-accidentally-bombed-southern-california.html
- https://dlr.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/f6f-5k_accident.html
- https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/15628
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palmdale
No. 075 The flagpole that was cut down four times
No. 076 The war that began with a stolen cow
- https://connaitrelawallonie.wallonie.be/histoire/timeline/c-1275-debut-de-la-guerre-de-la-vache
- https://eupedia.com/belgium/guerre_de_la_vache.shtml
- https://www.rtbf.be/article/poilvache-l-histoire-insolite-d-une-forteresse-influencee-par-des-vaches-medievales-11206321
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Cow
No. 077 The Russian fleet attacks the Hull fishing boats
- http://museumcollections.hullcc.gov.uk/collections/storydetail.php?irn=1071&master=1072
- https://navyhistory.au/aurora-the-ship-that-started-a-revolution/
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Tsushima
- https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/317/
- https://fishingnews.co.uk/?p=77724
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident
No. 078 The Football War was not about football
No. 079 Liechtenstein’s army: eighty out, eighty-one back
No. 080 Spain’s war over islands of bird droppings
- https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/41687
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chincha-islands-war
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chincha_Islands_War
- https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/chincha-islands.htm
- https://www.environmentandsociety.org/tools/keywords/guano-war-perus-chincha-islands
No. 081 Iceland won three Cod Wars without a navy
No. 082 The cavalry that captured a fleet
No. 083 The Battle of the Bees
No. 084 Berwick was never at war with Russia
No. 085 The Red River Bridge War
No. 086 The War of the Oranges
- https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Oranges
- https://ensina.rtp.pt/artigo/inicio-da-guerra-das-laranjas-entre-portugal-e-espanha-texto-colocado/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Oranges
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerra_de_las_Naranjas
- https://www.olivenca.org/en/pages/olivenca
- https://www.franciscogoya.com/prince-of-the-peace.jsp
No. 087 Operation Paul Bunyan
- https://koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/globalcommunity/20260818/morning-calm-tales-the-tree-at-panmunjeom-50-years-later
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49394758
- https://adst.org/2014/12/the-bizarre-north-korean-axe-murders/
- https://www.readex.com/blog/if-tree-falls-demilitarized-zone-operation-paul-bunyan-pits-poplar-against-pyongyang
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panmunjom_axe_murder_incident
No. 088 The War of the Stray Dog
No. 089 The Irish invasion of Canada
No. 090 Mimi and Toutou cross Africa
No. 091 Sweden’s war on Britain, fought on paper
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Swedish_war_of_1810%E2%80%931812
- https://www.nordstjernan.com/news/sweden/4650/
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/27151/pg27151.txt
- http://blog.svd.se/historia/2012/11/07/hanos-brittiska-historia/
- https://lex.dk/Kl%C3%A5gerup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Saumarez,_1st_Baron_de_Saumarez
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kl%C3%A5gerup_riots
No. 092 The invasion of an empty island
No. 093 The one-man invasion of Sark
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/lost-world-the-last-days-of-feudal-sark-421545.html
- http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-9390711.html
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2026/1/would-you-survive-inside-the-worlds-smallest-prison
- https://www.visitguernsey.com/articles/2019/10-things-you-didn-t-know-about-herm-sark-and-alderney/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sark
No. 094 The siege that outlasted the war
No. 095 The flagpole war in Korea
- http://www.salon.com/1999/02/03/feature_115/
- http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/19/koreas.dmz/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35278451
- https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-strange-case-of-kijong-dong-and.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daeseong-dong
- https://theramblingwombat.com/2017/03/19/mine-is-bigger-than-yours-the-flagpole-war/
No. 096 Longbow, sword and bagpipes
- https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Fighting-Jack_Churchill/
- http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009022
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill
- https://www.commandoveterans.org/node/8
- https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/jack-churchill-carry-a-sword.html
- https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/the-other-churchill-of-the-second-world-war/
No. 097 The Turbot War
- https://icj-cij.org/node/103880
- https://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-turbot-war/
- https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/brian-vincent-tobin
- https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fish-war-ends
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-wins-final-battle-against-spain-over-turbot-1.162831
- https://carleton.ca/ces/eulearning/geography/turbot-war/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbot_War
No. 098 Rock music at the Vatican embassy
- https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nsa/DOCUMENT/950206.htm
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/judgment-day-heavy-metal-s-role-manuel-noriega-s-surrender-n766411
- https://www.kqed.org/arts/13337177/how-the-u-s-military-used-guns-n-roses-to-make-a-dictator-give-up
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40090809
- https://unredacted.com/2009/10/30/hang-em-high-music-as-a-futility-technique-in-panama/
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-20/the-u-s-invades-panama
No. 099 The town at war with Denmark
- https://www.eldebate.com/historia/20251127/guerra-larga-historia-espana-enfrento-pueblo-granada-contra-dinamarca-durante-172-anos_359328.html
- https://www.fascinatingspain.com/articulo/spanish-culture/huescar-town-was-two-centuries-war-denmark/20241010064651070447.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%C3%A9scar
No. 100 The capture of Guam
- https://www.spanamwar.com/Guam.htm
- https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronphil.html
- https://www.guampedia.com/guam-leaders-from-1899-1904/
- https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2026/03/26/when-the-us-went-to-war-with-guam-and-no-one-told-them/
- https://www.americanheritage.com/1898-one-hundred-years-ago-0
3. The People History Forgot Facts 101–150
No. 101 The boy who pollinated vanilla
No. 102 Rosalind Franklin and Photograph 51
- https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/rosalind-franklins-contribution-to-the-discovery-of-dna-structure-highlighted/
- https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/rosalind-franklins-role-revealed-on-the-70th-anniversary-of-the-dna-double-helix-breakthrough/
- https://chemistryworld.com/news/overlooked-documents-shed-new-light-on-double-helix-discovery/4017384.article
- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5
No. 103 Onesimus and the Boston inoculations
No. 104 The malaria drug with no author
- https://laskerfoundation.org/winners/artemisinin-therapy-for-malaria/
- https://newrepublic.com/article/123041/secret-maoist-chinese-operation-conquered-malaria-and-won-nobel
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/biographical/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tu-Youyou
No. 105 The streetcar case of 1854
No. 106 Blood through the lungs, 1242
No. 107 The paper bag patent fight
No. 108 Carrying Livingstone 1,000 miles
No. 109 Meitner explained fission; Hahn won
- https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/lise-meitner/
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/otto-frisch
- https://www.iva.se/contentassets/e8436f25872e4bca8be92207871a0456/ivas-minnesskrift-2020-lise-meitner.pdf
- https://physicsworld.com/a/overlooked-for-the-nobel-lise-meitner/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lise-Meitner
No. 110 The teenage Paul Revere who wasn’t
- https://spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/politics/2026/06/05/sybil-ludington-ride-revolutionary-war-debate-america-250
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sybil-Ludington
- https://www.history.com/articles/sybil-ludington-ride-revolutionary-war-facts
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/was-there-really-teenage-female-paul-revere-180962993/
No. 111 The plague doctor and the gauze mask
No. 112 The first woman around the world
No. 113 The man on the stool behind the surgeon
No. 114 Passive resistance before Gandhi
No. 115 She found what the stars are made of
No. 116 The pharmacist who lit the world
No. 117 The gardener and the heart transplant
No. 118 The fossil hunter of Lyme Regis
No. 119 The mosquito man of Havana
No. 120 Nine months before Rosa Parks
No. 121 Magellan did not sail round the world
No. 122 The Ball method, renamed
- https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/1837
- https://www.chemistryworld.com/culture/alice-balls-treatment-for-leprosy/4011313.article
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Ball
- https://www.kaleo.org/kaleo/dean-hall-a-uhm-campus-reminder-of-the-historical-erasure-of-black-women-in-academia/article_16db66db-a964-4258-a462-2e8b66ccb589.html
- https://manoa.hawaii.edu/campus-environments/dean-hall/
No. 123 The Quaker with the bleeding Bible
- https://aeon.co/essays/the-abolitionist-benjamin-lay-was-a-hero-ahead-of-his-time
- https://www.friendsjournal.org/fearless-benjamin-lay-quaker-dwarf-became-first-revolutionary-abolitionist/
- https://www.americanheritage.com/disquieting-quaker
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/quaker-comet-greatest-abolitionist-never-heard-180964401/
No. 124 Two ships, one menu
No. 125 Girl talk and the ocean floor
No. 126 The first woman doctor never lived
No. 127 Who stood at the Pole first
- https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Explorers/Matthew-Henson
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Alexander-Henson
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Edwin-Peary
- https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/24/matthew-henson-arctic-explorer-first-man-to-north-pole
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/the-legacy-of-arctic-explorer-matthew-henson
No. 128 The consul who disobeyed
- https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/mendes.html
- https://sousamendesfoundation.org/aristides-de-sousa-mendes-his-life-and-legacy/
- https://sousamendesfoundation.org/the-timeline/
- https://sousamendesfoundation.org/visa-recipients/
- https://sfi.usc.edu/news/2016/08/11984-memory-hero-aristides-de-sousa-mendes-legacy-preserved-testimony
No. 129 Greenhouse gas, 1856
No. 130 The inventor on the fifty
- https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/unaipon-david-8898
- https://www.banknotes.rba.gov.au/australias-banknotes/people-on-the-banknotes/david-unaipon/
- https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/pocket-guides/the-reinvention-of-banknotes/the-reforms-of-innovators-50.html
- https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/2845
- https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/first-nations-peoples-and-australian-banknotes/innovation/
- https://adelaideaz.com/articles/david-unaipon-invents-shearing-machine-but-gets-no-credit-in-1909--other--da-vinci--ideas-born-in-south-australia
No. 131 Did Einstein’s wife do the math
No. 132 The woman who sued for her freedom
No. 133 Surgery asleep, in 1804
No. 134 The cells that never died
- https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/016800/016887/html/16887bio.html
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2010-05-28/html/CREC-2010-05-28-pt1-PgE1008-3.htm
- https://grants.nih.gov/node/1223
- https://www.wypr.org/the-baltimore-banner/2023-08-01/henrietta-lacks-family-reaches-historic-settlement-wins-compensation-for-her-stolen-cells
No. 135 Captain Cook’s Tahitian navigator
- https://www.teara.govt.nz/en/european-discovery-of-new-zealand/page-6
- https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/06-08-2018/the-monday-excerpt-the-story-behind-the-famous-drawing-from-1769
- https://www.waitangi.org.nz/learn-blog/tupaiasship
- https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/10675
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupaia_(navigator)
No. 136 The machine that made shoes cheap
No. 137 The extra chromosome
No. 138 Did a woman found the oldest university
No. 139 The man who built the March
- https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/rustin-bayard
- https://prospect.org/culture/2024-02-09-bayard-rustin-out-of-the-shadows/
- https://www.pbs.org/outofthepast/past/p4/rustin.html
- https://equaljusticesociety.org/2013/08/15/bayard-rustin-awarded-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom/
- https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/?p=464884
- https://outhistory.org/items/show/2583
- https://www.rustincenter.org/brcsjqueerhistoryblog/2025/10/2/bayard-rustin-presidential-medal-of-freedom
No. 140 The other man who found evolution
- https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-was-alfred-russel-wallace.html
- https://www.linnean.org/the-society/news/2018/07/01/1st-july-2018-160th-anniversary-of-the-presentation-of-on-the-tendency-of-species-to-form-varieties
- https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/darwin/cabinet8.html
- https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/lilly/exhibitions/exhibits/show/musicfortheworms/case1voyagetotheorigin/case1item2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Tendency_of_Species_to_form_Varieties;_and_on_the_Perpetuation_of_Varieties_and_Species_by_Natural_Means_of_Selection
No. 141 The nurse the War Office refused
No. 142 The swimmer and the trolleybus
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/648213/champion-swimmer-who-saved-more-than-20-lives
- https://armenpress.am/en/article/860412
- https://www.rbth.com/history/333426-shavarsh-karapetyan-yereven-incident
- https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/10/09/56700-shavarsh
- https://www.kp.ru/sports/plavanie/shavarsh-karapetyan-pro-bolshinstvo-iz-teh-kogo-ya-spas-davno-ne-slyshal/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavarsh_Karapetyan
No. 143 The experiment that won someone else’s Nobel
No. 144 The enslaved man who crossed America
No. 145 The student who found streptomycin
- https://archives.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/112017
- https://www.njdigitalhighway.org/lesson/selman_waksman/schatz_lawsuit
- https://shaastramag.iitm.ac.in/time-machine/salve-soil
- https://www.albertschatzphd.com/?cat=about&subcat=newspapers&itemnum=037
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schatz_(scientist)
No. 146 The computer who measured Everest
- https://science.thewire.in/society/history/radhanath-sikdar-measure-height-mount-everest-first/
- https://royalsociety.org/blog/2023/09/mapping-india
- https://livehistoryindia.com/story/people/the-mystery-man-who-measured-mount-everest
- https://explorersweb.com/the-five-men-who-measured-mount-everest/
- https://bhavana.org.in/scaling-the-everest/
No. 147 The names in the jars
- https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/en/news/irena-sendler
- https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/en/node/17651
- https://irenasendler.org/facts-about-irena/
- https://dzieje.pl/node/115768
- https://dzieje.pl/ksiazki/sendlerowa-w-ukryciu-nowa-biografia-matki-dzieci-holokaustu
- https://www.kansashistory.gov/teachers/historyday/uniontown.htm
No. 148 The marshal and the masked man
No. 149 Eight vaccines and no fame
No. 150 The law named after the wrong man
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy
- https://news.uchicago.edu/story/statistician-library-stephen-stiglers-four-decades-crossing-disciplinary-lines
- https://onlinestatbook.com/2/normal_distribution/history_normal.html
- https://www.caut.ca/bulletin/the-matilda-effect/
- https://lccn.loc.gov/18021802
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_effect
4. Deep Time and Far Space Facts 151–200
No. 151 Voyager 1, one light-day out
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/voyager-1-what-is-a-light-day/
- https://www.cp24.com/news/world/2025/12/09/voyager-1-will-reach-one-light-day-from-earth-in-2026-heres-what-that-means/
- https://popsci.com/science/voyager-one-light-day-earth
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/
- https://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/
No. 152 Mammoths outlived the Great Pyramid
No. 153 The man who dated the Earth
No. 154 Footprints found in a dung fight
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/1/l_071_03.html
- https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/06/11/africas-lost-history/
- https://ntz.info/gen/n01232.html
- https://ntz.info/gen/n01240.html
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ancient-footprints-hint-at-mysterious-human-relative-with-a-strange-walk
- https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/obituaries/2840-andrew-hill
No. 155 A day longer than a year
No. 156 Oxford is older than the Aztecs
No. 157 Moon photos on stolen film
No. 158 T. rex is nearer to us
No. 159 The unluckiest astronomer
- https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/guillaume-joseph-le-gentil/
- https://skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/transits-of-venus-in-history-1769-today
- https://armaghplanet.com/the-unluckiest-astronomer-in-history.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Le_Gentil
No. 160 Stardust older than the Sun
No. 161 The Mars rover's famous last words
- https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-opportunity-rover-mission-on-mars-comes-to-end/
- https://laist.com/news/jpl-mars-rover-opportunity-battery-is-low-and-its-getting-dark
- https://futurism.com/the-byte/dead-mars-rover-didnt-say-battery-thing
- https://abc30.com/science/my-battery-is-low-and-its-getting-dark-opportunitys-last-message-to-scientists/5137733/
No. 162 Rome fell when Columbus was a toddler
No. 163 Nature's own nuclear reactor
No. 164 Poe solved the riddle of the dark sky
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-the-night-sky-dark-olbers
- https://eapoe.org/works/editions/eureka.htm
- https://eapoe.org/PAPERS/misc1921/quinnc17.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka:_A_Prose_Poem
- https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2021/09/07/the-unusual-prescience-of-edgar-allen-poe/
No. 165 Sharks are older than trees
No. 166 NASA's $400 littering fine
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/12/is-your-spaceship-falling-out-of-the-sky-be-careful-you-could-get-a-fine-for-littering
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/689457-largest-piece-of-orbital-debris-to-make-an-uncontrolled-re-entry
- https://perthobservatory.com.au/?p=2408
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/space/nasas-unpaid-400-littering-ticket-skylab-debris-australia
No. 167 Older than Stonehenge is to us
No. 168 Galileo saw Neptune first
No. 169 The sea that dried up
- https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2025/01/new-evidence-suggests-megaflood-refilled-the-mediterranean-sea-five-million-years-ago.page
- https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/catastrophic-flood-of-the-mediterranean-after-the-messinian-salin/
- https://educacion.usal.es/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/11/Ryan-2009.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis
No. 170 The supernova seen by day
No. 171 The galaxy tastes of raspberries
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/news-blog/complex-organic-molecules-detected-2009-04-22
- https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080506.htm
- https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/839897/mmm-milky-way-tastes-of-raspberries/
- https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/rest/pug_view/data/compound/8008/JSON?heading=GHS+Classification
No. 172 The rocks Scott would not drop
- https://www.iflscience.com/what-links-scotts-expedition-to-the-antarctic-a-bag-of-rocks-and-the-theory-of-plate-tectonics-84150
- https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/513255/1/Bowman%202015.pdf
- http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/scotts-last-expedition-natural-history-museum
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition
No. 173 Ten days staring at nothing
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/universe-uncovered/hubble-deep-fields/
- https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubbles-deepest-view-of-the-universe-unveils-bewildering-galaxies-across-billions-of-years
- https://nationalgeographic.com/science/article/when-hubble-stared-at-nothing-for-100-hours
No. 174 The first dinosaur’s rude name
No. 175 A president’s grandson in 2025
- https://www.news4jax.com/news/politics/2025/05/29/harrison-ruffin-tyler-preserver-of-virginia-history-and-grandson-of-10th-us-president-dies-at-96/
- https://www.kpbs.org/news/national/2025/05/29/harrison-ruffin-tyler-grandson-of-the-10th-u-s-president-dies-at-96
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Ruffin_Tyler
No. 176 The asteroid belt is empty
No. 177 A 37,000-year-old story
- https://auscope.org.au/posts/uncovering-history-in-southwest-victoria
- https://archaeology.org/news/2020/02/12/200213-australia-volcano-traditions
- https://popular-archaeology.com/article/oral-traditions-and-volcanic-eruptions-in-australia/
- https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/the-oldest-story-ever-told
- https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-aboriginal-name-mt-eccles-national-park
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budj_Bim
No. 178 Venus probe tests lens cap
- https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/ency_captions/v14_yg06848.html
- https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2025-may-11-the-surface-of-venus-from-venera-14/
- https://science.nasa.gov/venus/facts/
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/78367-longest-time-survived-on-venus-by-a-spacecraft
- https://pages.uoregon.edu/jschombe/ast121/lectures/surface_venus.html
No. 179 The dinosaurs died in spring
No. 180 Ancient Egypt’s own Egyptologist
No. 181 The planet that was not there
No. 182 She tasted the oldest water on Earth
- https://zmescience.com/science/news-science/oldest-water-in-the-world
- https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-oldest-water-lies-deep-below-canada-and-it-s-2-billion-years-old
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/456058-oldest-water-non-meteoritical
- https://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/21/world/americas/ancient-water-tasting
No. 183 Jefferson and the lying professors
No. 184 Scotland’s piece of the Appalachians
- https://iat-sia.org/about/
- https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/anti-atlas-mountains-of-morocco-7218/
- https://nature.scot/landforms-and-geology/scotlands-rocks-landforms-and-soils/rocks-and-minerals/how-scotlands-geological-foundations-came-together
- https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/508437/
No. 185 The last Soviet citizen
No. 186 When a year had 400 days
No. 187 Moon first, Swiss women second
No. 188 Black hole picture, sent by plane
No. 189 Coal and the missing fungi
- https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/lack-fungi-did-not-lead-copious-carboniferous-coal/
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/getting-to-the-root-of-how-earths-massive-coal-seams-formed
- https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/02/stanford-geologists-refute-coal-development-theory/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4780642
No. 190 The only grave on the Moon
No. 191 A solar storm dates the Vikings
No. 192 The universe is beige
No. 193 Everest’s summit is seabed
No. 194 Sweden is a solar system
No. 195 A planet called George
- https://www.astronomy.com/science/march-13-marks-240-years-since-william-herschel-discovered-uranus/
- https://planetary.org/articles/a-rose-by-any-other-name
- https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question42.html
- https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/BEA/herschel_william_bea.pdf
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Uranus_(planet)
No. 196 Stardust in your gutter
No. 197 Tutankhamun’s dagger from space
No. 198 Pluto was named at breakfast
No. 199 The Moon is leaving
No. 200 The photograph NASA did not want
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot
- https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia23645-pale-blue-dot-revisited
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/first-person-see-pale-blue-dot
- https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/14/pale_blue_dot/
- https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/02/14/happy-birthday-pale-blue-dot/
5. What’s on Your Plate Facts 201–250
No. 201 Norway put salmon on sushi
- https://www.npr.org/2015/09/18/441530790/how-the-desperate-norwegian-salmon-industry-created-a-sushi-staple
- https://thefishsite.com/articles/raw-talent-how-the-advent-of-salmon-sushi-in-japan-created-a-global-megatrend
- https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/japanese-cuisine-norwegian-salmon-norwegian-seafood-council/how-japan-got-a-yen-for-salmon/1951274
No. 202 Rome’s ransom in pepper
No. 203 The potato chip tantrum myth
No. 204 The bishop and the chocolate
No. 205 Ciabatta dates from 1982
- https://www.sbs.com.au/language/italian/en/podcast-episode/ep-246-la-sorprendente-storia-della-ciabatta/9r2j1sx4c
- https://www.foodrepublic.com/1689794/origin-of-ciabatta-bread/
- https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/apr/30/features11.g24
- https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/did-you-know-an-italian-rally-racer-invented-ciabatta-bread-in-1982/
- https://www.accademiadelpane.it/arnaldos-story.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta
No. 206 Mecca put coffee on trial
No. 207 General Tso never tasted it
- https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2016/12/05/2003660572
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/food-matters/chronicling-the-creation-of-general-tsos-chicken/
- https://www.legacy.com/news/peng-chang-kuei
- https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/magazine/04food.t.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/world/asia/general-tso-chicken-peng-chang-kuei.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso%27s_chicken
No. 208 Parmentier’s guarded potatoes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine-Augustin_Parmentier
- https://www.potatogrower.com/2018/06/historys-greatest-potato-promoter-relied
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-potatoes-parmentier
- https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/antoine-augustin-parmentier
- https://francetoday.com/food-drink/hot-potato-the-history-of-hachis-parmentier/
- https://www.agroinsight.com/blog/?p=4564
No. 209 The ten-ton hummus
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-serving-of-hummus
- https://www.arabnews.com/node/344539
- https://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0511/Lebanon-defeats-Israel-at-hummus
- https://dev.momentmag.com/lebanon-vs-israel-a-delicious-culinary-war
- https://foreignpolicy.com/?p=187213
No. 210 Live birds in a pie
- https://sandrawagnerwright.com/baking-4-20-blackbirds-into-a-pie/
- http://www.thousandeggs.com/gretepye.html
- https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A00309.0001.001?view=toc
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/22790/pg22790.txt
- https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/before-the-thanksgiving-turkey-came-the-banquet-peacock/
- https://www.tastingtable.com/1615559/history-of-pot-pie/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence
No. 211 Hawaiian pizza is Canadian
No. 212 Japan’s long meat ban was never quite a ban
- https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/research/centres/foodhistory/not_befitting_our_divine_country_eating_meat_in_japanese_discourses_of_self_and_other_from_the_seventeenth_century_to_the_present.pdf
- https://www.nippon.com/en/features/c03911/human-animal-ties-japanese-takes-in-both-life-and-death.html
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41826-023-00072-6
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japan-meat-ban
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_meat_consumption_in_Japan
No. 213 The croissant is Austrian
No. 214 Korea’s army base stew
- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/travel-food/20241114/uijeongbu-carries-on-culinary-legacy-as-birthplace-to-koreas-comfort-food-budae-jjigae
- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/02/113_113729.html
- https://www.military.com/history/popular-korean-dish-came-aftermath-of-korean-war.html
- https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200609-how-a-south-korean-comfort-food-went-global
- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/20130526/canned-brilliance
No. 215 The herb Rome ate up
No. 216 Fondue was a cartel’s idea
- https://www.wfae.org/2015-04-23/how-a-swiss-cheese-cartel-made-fondue-popular
- https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/043007/
- https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2019/11/story-of-fondue-in-switzerland/
- http://www.lebendigetraditionen.ch/traditionen/00112/index.html?lang=en
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondue
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cheese_Union
No. 217 Tacos al pastor are Lebanese
No. 218 The Bradford humbugs
No. 219 Kaldi and his dancing goats
No. 220 Caesar salad is from Tijuana
- https://www.fox5ny.com/news/caesar-salad-origins-100th-birthday
- https://www.kunc.org/npr-news/2024-07-04/this-july-4-marks-100-years-since-caesar-salad-was-invented-in-tijuana
- https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190521-the-surprising-truth-about-caesar-salad
- https://theconversation.com/no-croutons-no-anchovies-no-bacon-the-100-year-old-mexican-origins-of-the-caesar-salad-233099
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_salad
No. 221 The golden fork that shocked Venice
No. 222 The Chinese gooseberry becomes the kiwifruit
No. 223 The tomato on the courthouse steps
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/tomato-history-salem-new-jersey
- https://www.press.uillinois.edu/wordpress/following-a-hunch-about-tomatoes-by-andrew-f-smith/
- https://www.ripleys.com/stories/americas-alleged-trial-against-tomatoes-not-witches-in-salem
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gibbon_Johnson
No. 224 Asia had no chili peppers before 1500
- https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/chili-small-fruit-sets-global-palettes-fire
- https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/12.3/wang.html
- https://diasporaco.com/blogs/journal/did-you-feel-the-burn
- https://kjis.org/journal/view.html?doi=10.14731/kjis.2006.12.46.5.207
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi
No. 225 Iceland’s seventy-four years without beer
No. 226 The oldest cookbook is made of clay
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n19/bee-wilson/drop-a-tiger-into-a-court-bouillon
- https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/publications/mesopotamia/2018-06-29.html
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240813-decoding-a-4000-year-old-dinner-recipe
- https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-23-fo-8362-story.html
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mesopotamian-recipes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_culinary_tablets
No. 227 Japanese curry came by warship
No. 228 The spinach decimal point that never was
No. 229 The great tea theft
- https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/robert-fortune/
- https://archive.org/details/ajourneytoteaco00unkngoog
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-british-tea-heist-9866709/
- https://explorersweb.com/how-a-scottish-botanist-stole-the-secrets-of-tea-from-china/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fortune
No. 230 Danish pastry is Viennese
No. 231 The Boston molasses flood
No. 232 Vindaloo is Portuguese
- https://livehistoryindia.com/story/living-culture/vindaloo
- https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=vindaloo
- https://www.dawn.com/news/1146797
- https://www.tasteoflisboa.com/blog/the-origins-of-vindaloo-how-the-popular-indian-dish-actually-came-from-portugal/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindaloo
No. 233 The frozen river fries
No. 234 Pad Thai by decree
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/food/pad-thai-food-history
- https://gastronomica.org/2009/02/10/finding-pad-thai/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/who-invented-pad-thai
- https://www.tastingtable.com/1067125/the-dictator-who-gave-pad-thai-its-name
- https://thetakeout.com/1705432/pad-thai-world-war-ii-explained
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand_in_World_War_II
No. 235 Lobster was poor man’s food
No. 236 Stalin’s ice cream man
- https://russianlife.com/magazine/nov-dec-2011/for-the-love-of-ice-cream
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/02/20/mayo-drenched-and-heroic/
- https://lifeandthyme.com/food/stalins-ghosted-grain-and-the-surprising-american-roots-of-fast-food-in-russia
- https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/08/14/mcdonalds-might-have-been-mcmikoyans-if-not-for-a-world-war/
- https://www.rbth.com/russian-kitchen/329925-american-food-ussr-history
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_cutlet
No. 237 The beaver that was a fish
- https://thejesuitpost.org/2026/02/beavers-muskrats-and-the-real-invitation-of-lent/
- https://www.salon.com/2023/02/25/the-strange-history-of-how-the-catholic-church-declared-beaver-to-be-a-fish-at-least-during-lent/
- https://thefisheriesblog.com/2017/03/01/beavers-are-fish-during-lent/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/thoughtful-animal/once-upon-a-time-the-catholic-church-decided-that-beavers-were-fish/
- https://tastingtable.com/990704/why-capybara-was-once-considered-a-fish
No. 238 Nobody ordered toothfish
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/g-bruce-knecht/hooked-2/
- https://vinepair.com/cocktail-chatter/chilean-sea-bass-rebrand/
- https://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-chilean-sea-bass/
- https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Dissostichus-eleginoides.html
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/17/chilean-sea-bass-toothfish-thunder-sea-shepherd/
- https://www.worldfishing.net/toothfish-regulation-controversy/860662.article
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_toothfish
No. 239 The king’s coffee experiment
- https://www.popsci.com/?p=17537
- https://mcgill.ca/x/5ue
- https://www.popsci.com/story/science/weirdest-thing-coffee-ban-radium-girls-eyeliner-history/
- https://www.thelocal.se/20180702/why-coffee-was-banned-in-sweden-five-times
- https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/contentassets/5606ffb7e3c8457b80fe5bbda4b2d9b2/lararhandledning---kaffeforbud-pa-1700-talet.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_III_of_Sweden%27s_coffee_experiment
No. 240 Marco Polo and the noodles
- https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/10/09/marco-polo-and-the-myth-of-pasta
- https://eatmyglobe.com/pasta
- https://www.gamberorossointernational.com/news/from-marco-polos-spaghetti-to-risotto-alla-milanese-myths-and-fake-news-about-food-that-have-been-circulating-for-centuries
- https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/node/10234
No. 241 Guinea pig at the Last Supper
- https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/new-world-objects-of-knowledge/section/f1b6c02a-0cca-4753-a4fd-0270d840e774
- https://www.tierrasvivas.com/en/last-supper-painting-cusco-cathedral
- https://www.finedininglovers.com/explore/articles/food-and-last-supper-divine-daily
- https://wanderingeducators.com/node/3732
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_Zapata
No. 242 The ploughman’s lunch was a sales campaign
No. 243 Morocco’s mint tea is a recent habit
No. 244 The banana we lost
No. 245 Carver did not invent peanut butter
No. 246 Nobody knows who invented tikka masala
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/23/metro/ali-ahmed-aslam-credited-with-inventing-chicken-tikka-masala-dies-77
- https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/12/22/the-inventor-of-the-chicken-tikka-masala-has-died
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tikka_masala
- https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/restaurant-boss-admits-inventing-caledonian-claim-to-famous-dish
No. 247 Russian salad’s lost recipe
No. 248 Captain Cook’s sauerkraut trick
No. 249 The sandwich smuggled into orbit
No. 250 What the Bounty was for
6. Maps, Borders and Other Mistakes Facts 251–300
No. 251 The paper town that came true
No. 252 The lighthouse on the wrong side
No. 253 Winston’s Hiccup
No. 254 India inside Bangladesh inside India
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/was-turducken-border-disputes-180956161/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahala_Khagrabari
- https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/bare-lives-bare-citizens-1448143
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_enclaves
- https://mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/24529_LBA_MEA_Booklet_final.pdf
No. 255 California, the island
No. 256 Null Island
No. 257 The equator monument misses
- https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/04/24/the-middle-of-the-world-monument-in-ecuador-is-in-the-wrong-place-what-is-the-real-story/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/11-inaccurate-geographic-markers
- https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/02/the-equator-in-ecuador.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Mitad_del_Mundo
No. 258 Georgia’s missing mile
- https://amerisurv.com/2008/01/12/surveyors-report-georgias-water-shortage-and-a-surveyors-miscalculations/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23076509
- https://www.courthousenews.com/georgia-revives-old-fight-to-move-tennessee-border/
- https://newschannel9.com/news/local/border-feud-georgia-lawmakers-revive-bid-to-reclaim-lost-territory-in-tennessee
- https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/SR560/2025
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee%E2%80%93Georgia_water_dispute
No. 259 The man who paced Tibet
No. 260 The land nobody wants
No. 261 Old maps did not say “Here be dragons”
- https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/29/hunt-lenox-globe-3d
- https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/hunt-lenox-globe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt%E2%80%93Lenox_Globe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragons
- https://www.maproomblog.com/2016/01/the-hunt-lenox-globe/
- https://www.maproomblog.com/2013/08/the-world-on-an-egg-circa-1504/
No. 262 The farmer who made Belgium bigger
- https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/05/05/belgium-gains-territory-after-farmer-moves-french-border
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/05/world/farmer-moved-200-year-old-stone-french-belgian-border/
- https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/a-farmer-moved-a-200-year-old-stone-and-the-french-belgian-border-1.1620274165344
No. 263 Columbus used the wrong mile
No. 264 The hotel built across a border
- https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/border-hotel-offers-a-taste-of-two-cultures/3968792
- https://arbezie.com/fr/histoire/
- https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/9522965
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Arbez
- https://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/03/hotel-arbez-franco-suisse-located-half.html
No. 265 Zzyzx, the last word in English
- https://www.nps.gov/moja/learn/historyculture/zzyzx.htm
- https://wordways.com/zzyzx.htm
- https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2022/12/31/23527480/zzyzx-road-california-route-66-bobby-troup-nat-king-cole-robert-fulton-curtis-howe-springer-vegas
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Howe_Springer
No. 266 Germany’s corridor to a waterfall
- https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/ghdi:document-782
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Caprivi-Strip
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Victoria-Falls-waterfall-Zambia-Zimbabwe
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Zambezi-River
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprivi_Strip
No. 267 The marmot hidden in the mountain
No. 268 The Mexican town that was legally in Texas
No. 269 Kilimanjaro was not a birthday present
No. 270 The Greenwich line is in the wrong place
No. 271 The front door rule of Baarle
No. 272 Two rocks and an ocean
- https://pacforum.org/?p=5066
- https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0108/Who-cares-about-volcanic-specks-in-Pacific-China-Vietnam-Japan
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinotorishima
- https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/asia-minute/2026-07-21/asia-minute-china-and-japan-argue-over-coral-atoll-in-the-western-pacific
- https://aa.com.tr/en/world/japan-protests-china-russia-live-fire-naval-drills-inside-contested-eez/4004341
No. 273 The man who named America, then changed his mind
No. 274 Invasion by Google Maps
- https://www.icj-cij.org/case/150
- https://maps.googleblog.com/2010/11/regarding-boundary-between-costa-rica.html
- https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-11-08-google-maps-causes-international-incident-again/
- https://globalvoices.org/2010/11/17/the-nicaragua-costa-rica-conflict-revisited-part-i/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica%E2%80%93Nicaragua_San_Juan_River_border_dispute
No. 275 Korea, divided in half an hour
No. 276 Spain’s town inside France
- https://www.enciclopedia.cat/gran-enciclopedia-catalana/tractat-dels-pirineus
- https://www.revueconflits.com/?p=60031
- https://www.elpuntavui.cat/territori/article/10-administracions/1719501-vint-anys-de-la-guerra-dels-estops.html
- https://viajes.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/pueblo-cataluna-que-protagonizo-guerra-mas-ridicula-entre-espana-y-francia_24897
- https://cdn.fodors.com/world/europe/spain/the-pyrenees/llivia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ll%C3%ADvia
No. 277 The maps that lied on purpose
No. 278 Minnesota’s chimney
No. 279 Madagascar by mistake
- https://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-c-104/V-2/page/0183.html.en
- https://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-c-104/V-2/page/0184.html.en
- https://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-c-104/V-2/page/0185.html.en
- https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12410/pg12410.txt
- https://wildmadagascar.org/overview/FAQs/who_discovered_Madagascar.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
No. 280 France’s longest border is with Brazil
No. 281 Two miles and nineteen chains
No. 282 An embassy is not foreign soil
- https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf
- https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/is-an-embassy-territory/
- https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2012/08/diplomatic-premises-immunity-in-the-case-of-julian-assange
- https://cjc.org.za/2019/02/01/nowhere-to-run-somewhere-to-hide-the-status-of-embassies-as-places-of-refuge/
No. 283 The meter is slightly short
No. 284 Visa-free in the Arctic
No. 285 Caught by the width of a road
- https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/governance/public-information/search-information-responses/aa-copyright-breach-settlement-foi231143
- https://marketinglaw.osborneclarke.com/media-and-ip/aa-loses-way-in-map-dispute/
- https://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/47/bridle.php
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street
No. 286 The Gambia and the gunboat
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Gambia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-French_Convention_of_1889
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-true-history-of-the-gambias-bizarre-origin-story
- https://gambia.actionaid.org/sites/gambia/files/publications/Historical%20Dictionary%20of%20the%20Gambia.pdf
- https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/senegal-gambia-reach-agreement-on-border-demarcation-after-bulock-military-dispute
No. 287 Four Corners is where it is
No. 288 You are saying Everest wrong
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Everest
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Everest
- https://www.history.com/articles/who-is-mount-everest-named-after
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3193576.stm
- https://scroll.in/article/969937/the-story-of-how-mount-everest-was-measured-and-got-its-name
- https://gripped.com/profiles/george-everest-didnt-want-mount-everest-named-after-him
No. 289 A border moved for a body
- https://www.foxnews.com/world/no-bloodshed-no-dispute-belgium-netherlands-to-exchange-land-_-because-it-makes-sense
- https://csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2016/1129/Why-did-Belgium-and-the-Netherlands-just-swap-land
- https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2017/12/30/grondruil-nederland-en-belgie/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium–Netherlands_border
No. 290 Mexico’s lost island
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermeja
- https://mexiconewsdaily.com/opinion/vanished-isle-in-gulf-of-mexico/
- https://www.unotv.com/internacional/isla-bermeja-el-misterio-del-territorio-que-significaria-cuantiosos-yacimientos-de-petroleo-para-mexico/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna31532094
- https://www.nmas.com.mx/seguridad/existe-la-isla-bermeja-marina-habla-sobre-investigacion-para-dar-con-ella
No. 291 Idaho probably means nothing at all
No. 292 The Green Line was drawn with a green pencil
- https://www.forcesnews.com/feature/how-green-line-earned-its-name
- https://unficyp.unmissions.org/en/node/73117
- https://cna.org.cy/en/article/9742645/unsc-adopts-resolution-renewing-unficyp-s-mandate-with-13-votes-in-favour-and-2-abstentions
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Buffer_Zone_in_Cyprus
No. 293 The biggest land that nobody claims
No. 294 The A–Z was probably not made on foot
No. 295 The nearest American state to Africa is Maine
No. 296 The rent checks Cuba will not cash
- https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba003.asp
- https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba001.asp
- https://www.governmentattic.org/13docs/StateDeprGitmoLeasePmts_2006-2013.pdf
- https://gitmomemory.org/p10/?r=4513
- https://www.npr.org/2009/06/03/104894738/give-guantanamo-back-to-cuba
- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/for-us-taxpayers-guantanamo-bay-was-real-estate-deal-of-the-century.amp
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-wants-to-hold-up-to-30000-detained-migrants-at-guantanamo-bay-heres-what-to-know
- https://gitmomemory.org/p4/?r=5027
No. 297 The king who lost land to his astronomers
No. 298 A 58-letter name made for the railway
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
- https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-little-town-with-a-long-name
- https://books.google.com/books?id=oqUsgV9VZjQC&pg=PP56
- https://books.google.com/books?id=RL5gAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA8
- https://www.historyhit.com/locations/llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch/
No. 299 The country that maps keep forgetting
- https://www.euronews.com/2018/05/04/new-zealand-pm-kicks-off-cheeky-campaign-to-get-country-on-the-map
- https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/ikea-apologizes-leaving-new-zealand-world-map-n969941
- https://www.thelocal.se/20190209/ooops-ikea-apologises-after-leaving-new-zealand-off-map
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omission_of_New_Zealand_from_maps
7. Bad Predictions and Worse Ideas Facts 301–350
No. 301 Rutherford’s moonshine and the red light
No. 302 The patent chief never said it
No. 303 Britain’s groundnut scheme
- https://www.environmentandsociety.org/sites/default/files/key_docs/ge11_esselborn.pdf
- https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britain-abandons-groundnuts-scheme
- https://www.erdkunde.uni-bonn.de/article/view/1472
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_groundnut_scheme
- https://merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/online-exhibitions/colonial-failure/
No. 304 The manure crisis that wasn’t
No. 305 China’s war on sparrows
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign
- https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/how-the-persecution-of-sparrows-killed-2m-people
- https://voxdev.org/topic/agriculture/four-pests-campaign-and-chinas-great-famine
- https://theworldofchinese.com/2017/09/chinas-serial-sparrow-sorrows
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tso-hsin_Cheng
No. 306 Bill Gates and the 640K that was enough
No. 307 The flood of February 1524
- https://williameamon.com/?p=869
- https://textmanuscripts.com/blog/entry/2_16_the_deluge_of_doom
- https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/bad-omens-when-astrologers-got-it-wrong
- https://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/the-flood-of-1524-the-first-mass-media-event-in-european-history/
- https://www.british-history.ac.uk/node/37772
No. 308 X-rays in the shoe shop
- https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/shoe-fitting-fluoroscope/
- https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/articles/shoe-fitting-fluoroscope-scientific-advancement-or-sales-tactic
- https://www.infosperber.ch/gesundheit/public-health/fachaerzte-und-behoerden-liessen-kinder-fahrlaessig-roentgen/
- https://www.blick.ch/meinung/kolumnen/claude-cueni-ueber-fortschritt-an-den-fuessen-science-fiction-im-schuhgeschaeft-id17603647.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope
No. 309 Dewey Defeats Truman
- https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/11/02/vintage-chicago-tribune-5-things-that-led-to-dewey-defeats-truman-the-newspapers-most-famous-headline/
- https://www.history.com/articles/dewey-defeats-truman-election-headline-gaffe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Defeats_Truman
- https://www.americanheritage.com/newspaper-headline
- https://www.life.com/history/dewey-defeats-truman-the-story-behind-a-classic-political-photo/
- https://npg.si.edu/blog/november-4-1948-what%E2%80%99s-now
- https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/behind-the-biggest-upset-in-presidential-history-truman-beats-dewey
No. 310 The surgeon misquoted
No. 311 The plan to drain the Mediterranean
- https://www.deutsches-museum.de/assets/Forschung/Archiv/Download/Findbuecher_PDF/NL_092_Soergel.pdf
- https://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/atlantropa.php
- https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz122640.html
- https://www.srf.ch/kultur/gesellschaft-religion/utopie-atlantropa-wie-ein-gigantischer-staudamm-die-welt-retten-sollte
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_S%C3%B6rgel
No. 312 The Western Union memo that never was
No. 313 Hanoi’s bounty on rat tails
- https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/15.2/vann_interview.html
- https://saigoneer.com/hanoi-heritage/23265-author-michael-vann-on-hanoi-s-infamous-colonial-rat-hunt
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat-massacre-1902
- https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/08/20/the-great-hanoi-rat-hunt
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre
- https://www.theweek.in/columns/bibek-debroy/2019/11/01/cobra-skin-and-rat-tails.html
No. 314 The four-minute mile was never thought impossible
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_run_world_record_progression
- https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kBdfFgLfDhPMDHfAa/the-4-minute-mile-effect
- https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/roger-bannister-first-to-run-sub-4-minute-mile-dies-at-88/
- https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/laszlo-tabori-obituary
- https://olympics.com/en/athletes/laszlo-tabori
- https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph-sport/20180305/281745564890571
No. 315 Rain follows the plow
No. 316 A million years to the flying machine
No. 317 The textbook that kept moving the Soviet triumph
No. 318 Croesus and the oracle’s great empire
No. 319 The Great Panjandrum
No. 320 A world market for five computers
No. 321 Queensland’s cane toads and the beetles they ignored
- https://pestsmart.org.au/toolkit-resource/how-did-the-cane-toad-arrive-in-australia
- https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/history-culture/2023/03/defining-moments-in-australian-history-introduction-of-cane-toads/
- https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/a-famous-failure-why-were-cane-toads-an-ineffective-biocontrol-in/
No. 322 The Surgeon General who never closed the book
No. 323 The Great Disappointment of October 1844
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Miller
- https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/american-adventism-the-great-disappointment
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment
- https://gci.org/articles/the-great-disappointment
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Seventh-day_Adventist_Church
No. 324 One chemist, leaded gasoline and the first CFC
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
- https://chem.libretexts.org/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Case_Studies/Case_Studies/Tetraethyllead/04%3A_Tetraethyllead%3A_Toxicity
- https://www.history.com/articles/cfcs-leaded-gasoline-inventions-thomas-midgley
- https://www.theconversation.com/a-century-of-tragedy-how-the-car-and-gas-industry-knew-about-the-health-risks-of-leaded-fuel-but-sold-it-for-100-years-anyway-173395
No. 325 Van Buren’s letter against the railroads is a fake
No. 326 Le Corbusier’s plan to rebuild central Paris
- https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/work-architecture/projects-plan-voisin-paris-france-1925/
- https://www.designboom.com/architecture/le-corbusier-plan-voisin-paris-ivan-chtcheglov-ville-radieuse-formulary-new-urbanism/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Voisin
- https://www.pariszigzag.fr/?p=174206
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marais
No. 327 What Khrushchev meant by “We will bury you”
- https://time.com/archive/6804927/foreign-news-we-will-bury-you/
- https://www.nytimes.com/1956/11/19/archives/khrushchev-tirade-again-irks-envoys-khrushcaev-gibe-irks-envoys.html
- https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/viktor-sukhodrev-english-voice-of-soviet-leaders-dies-at-81-114051700699_1.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you
- https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=61527
- https://www.thisdayinquotes.com/?p=152
No. 328 Mark Twain and the typesetter with 18,000 parts
- https://marktwainproject.org/writings/autobiography3/autobiography/prelims/machine-episode/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paige_Compositor
- https://www.universityarchives.com/auction-lot/samuel-clemens-s-bankruptcy-proceedings-announced_D534839ABD
- https://twainsgeography.com/node/20337
- https://www.carsonnow.org/?p=4623
- https://marktwainhouse.org/about/mark-twain/biography/
No. 329 N-rays, the radiation that was never there
No. 330 The 1970s ice age consensus that never was
No. 331 The nuclear landmine warmed by chickens
No. 332 Keynes and the fifteen-hour week
No. 333 Mother Shipton’s end of the world in 1881
No. 334 Fordlândia, Henry Ford’s town in the Amazon
No. 335 Kelvin never said physics was finished
No. 336 Ten Cent Beer Night in Cleveland
- https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-4-1974-10-cent-beer-riot-cleveland-stadium-leads-forfeit
- https://case.edu/ech/articles/t/10-cent-beer-night
- https://www.mlb.com/news/anthony-castrovince-forty-years-ago-10-cent-beer-makes-memories-c78045480
- https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1974/B07180CLE1974.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night
No. 337 The philosopher who said we would never know the stars
No. 338 Electricity too cheap to meter
No. 339 The professor who never was
No. 340 Oregon’s exploding whale
- https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/florence_whale_explosion/
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/florence-oregon-exploding-whale-1970
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale
- https://www.wweek.com/culture/2020/11/10/oregon-historical-society-has-released-newly-restored-footage-of-that-time-that-state-officials-blew-up-a-dead-whale/
No. 341 The Astronomer Royal and “utter bilge”
No. 342 The 1900 forecast that abolished C, X and Q
No. 343 The inventor of the shopping mall disowned it
No. 344 The biologist, the economist and the five metals
No. 345 Comet pills for Halley’s Comet, 1910
No. 346 The 1954 home computer that was made in 2004
No. 347 T. S. Eliot turns down Animal Farm
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/26/ts-eliot-rejection-george-orwell-animal-farm-british-library-online
- https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-freedom-of-the-press/
- https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/09/25/orwells-list/
- https://www.cityam.com/on-this-day-animal-farm-is-published/
- https://www.openculture.com/2013/11/t-s-eliot-rejects-george-orwells-animal-farm.html
- https://lithub.com/a-legendary-publishing-houses-most-infamous-rejection-letters/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm
No. 348 A harbor for Alaska, by hydrogen bomb
- http://thefrenchnuclearway.anegeo.org/ideologie/docsideologie/docs/Plowshare_Chariot_project.pdf
- https://uaf.edu/centennial/uaf100/ideas/project-chariot.php
- http://litsitealaska.org/index.cfm?section=digital-archives&page=Government&cat=Making-of-Alaska&viewpost=2&ContentId=3235
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot
- https://groundtruthalaska.org/articles/ProjectChariot/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/actual-1950s-proposal-nuke-alaska
No. 349 The Maya never predicted the end in 2012
- https://news.utexas.edu/2012/06/29/maya-scholar-deciphers-meaning-of-newly-discovered-monument-that-refers-to-2012/
- https://mayadecipherment.com/2008/12/20/what-will-not-happen-in-2012
- http://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/16DA9DB5EC01DB2350B562884968848A/S174392131101266Xa.pdf/a-critical-history-of-2012-mythology.pdf
- https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2012/12/20/nasa-scientist-flooded-with-doomsday-questions/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon
No. 350 The New York Times regrets the error, 49 years on
8. The Show Must Go On Facts 351–400
No. 351 The director Kim Jong-il kidnapped
- https://www.koreaherald.com/article/3128049
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abduction_of_Shin_Sang-ok_and_Choi_Eun-hee
- https://retrospectjournal.com/?p=9979
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43792417
- https://www.berlinale.de/en/2016/programme/201610932.html
- https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2040900/secret-tapes-reveal-kim-jong-ils-anxieties-about-south-korea-and
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kim-jong-il-kidnaps-himself-a-filmmaker-in-the-lovers-and-the-despot/
No. 352 The god from the machine was a crane
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechane
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina
- https://sarahemilybond.com/2018/12/16/deus-ex-machina-depicting-cranes-and-pulleys-in-the-ancient-world/
- https://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/peace.html
- https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.2.2.html
- https://web.sas.upenn.edu/discentes/2024/09/15/the-mechane-in-prometheus-bound-recognizing-the-role-of-technology-on-stage
- https://camws.org/meeting/2009/program/abstracts/07A4.Major.pdf
No. 353 The night the BBC had no news
- https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39633603
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bbc-news-april-18-1930/
- https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/newswatch/history/noflash/html/1930s.stm
- https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_rt_national_programme_daventry/1930-04-18
- https://www.cjr.org/?p=71211
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bbc-no-news-today
No. 354 The opera that started Belgium
No. 355 Buster Keaton’s real train wreck
- https://silentfilm.org/the-general/
- https://www.tcm.com/articles/404763/fun-facts-about-the-general
- https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/the_general_film/
- https://redmondspokesman.com/2025/02/27/offbeat-oregon-one-of-the-most-famous-scenes-in-movie-history-was-shot-in-oregon/
- https://redmondspokesman.com/2025/02/27/offbeat-oregon-the-summer-buster-keaton-made-cottage-grove-a-mini-hollywood/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_(1926_film)
No. 356 Kabuki was invented by a woman
- https://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/jaanus/node/3705
- https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-glances/jg00141/
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/izumo-no-okuni
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/statue-of-izumo-no-okuni-kyoto-japan
- https://www.nippon.com/en/guide-to-japan/gu023001/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo_no_Okuni
No. 357 Nobody fled the Lumière train
No. 358 The FBI versus “Louie Louie”
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-17/the-fbi-laboratory-weighs-in-on-the-dirty-lyrics-of-louie-louie
- https://openculture.com/2020/12/how-the-garage-rock-anthem-louie-louie-became-the-subject-of-a-lengthy-fbi-investigation-1964.html
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/louie-louie-fuck/
- https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1209181745/louie-louie-the-story-behind-the-song-everyone-knows-but-no-one-understands
- https://www.bangordailynews.com/2015/04/29/news/louie-louie-singer-jack-ely-dead-at-71/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie
No. 359 The schoolboy kidnapped to be an actor
- https://daily.jstor.org/kidnapping-for-the-queens-choir
- https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/kidnapped-order-child-actors-shakespeares-day/
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22397
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-survey/article/extortion-in-the-name-of-art-in-elizabethan-england-the-impressment-of-thomas-clifton-for-the-queens-chapel-boys/C201218E190164AD4E0343F8055A8547
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Star_Chamber_Case
No. 360 Kurosawa shot real arrows at his star
- https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3017-shooting-the-arrows-in-throne-of-blood
- https://filmforum.org/film/throne-of-blood-japanese-horror
- https://bampfa.org/node/104205
- https://lwlies.com/articles/why-i-love-toshiro-mifunes-performance-in-throne-of-blood/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_Blood
No. 361 The Moulin Rouge’s star farter
No. 362 A Eurovision flop started a coup
No. 363 The first Tin Man
No. 364 France sent a conjuror to Algeria
- https://jimsteinmeyer.com/?p=957
- https://jimsteinmeyer.com/2022/04/14/what-we-hide-problems-in-algeria-part-two/
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/modern-magic-and-the-war-on-miracles-in-french-colonial-culture/1A328B6DB2FCFC71D9756C675228ED0A
No. 365 India’s first heroine was a man
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Harishchandra
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Salunke
- https://scroll.in/reel/836441/here-is-what-went-into-the-making-of-the-first-indian-feature-film
- https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/raja-harishchandra-1913/
- https://upperstall.com/features/an-industry-is-born/
- https://www.siasat.com/dadasaheb-phalke-had-to-overcome-host-of-obstacles-to-make-indias-first-silent-film-2707931/
No. 366 The theater disguised as a temple
No. 367 Germany’s favorite British sketch
No. 368 The riot over two Macbeths
No. 369 The Indian rope trick was invented in Chicago
No. 370 Herzog hauled a real ship
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzcarraldo
- https://www.tcm.com/articles/94321/burden-of-dreams-burden-of-dreams-on-dvd
- https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/40-years-of-fitzcarraldo-werner-herzogs-masterpiece/
- https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-fitzcarraldo-1982
- https://collider.com/werner-herzog-fitzcarraldo-true-story/
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/106012800
- https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/16597
No. 371 King Lear’s 150-year happy ending
- http://folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/william-charles-macready-king-lear-restoration/
- https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/tates-lear/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z3h8tcw
- https://shakespeare-navigators.ewu.edu/bradley/tr243.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_King_Lear
No. 372 Television’s first star was a dummy
No. 373 The singer who emptied Cairo’s streets
No. 374 Nobody was fined for “damn”
No. 375 The play that keeps a plague vow
- https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/play/history
- https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/blog/detail/halted-in-full-swing-20200421
- https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/blog/detail/times-are-getting-hairy-the-hair-and-beard-decree-on-ash-wednesday-20210208
- https://www.munich.travel/en/offers/booking/oberammergau-passion-play
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberammergau_Passion_Play
No. 376 Nollywood began with surplus tapes
- https://afropop.org/articles/an-interview-with-john-haynes
- https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/imperfect-cinemas/tnamp/
- https://africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-started-nollywood
- https://www.vice.com/sv/article/the-nollywood-numbers-game-0000591-v22n3
- https://theconversation.com/hooray-for-nollywood-nigeria-isnt-the-worlds-second-biggest-film-industry-after-all-25527
No. 377 The Cherry Sisters’ bad review made law
No. 378 A masterpiece in an asylum closet
- https://silentera.com/PSFL/data/P/PassionEtLaMortDeJeann1928.html
- https://www.tcm.com/articles/silent/81387/the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-1928
- https://www.carlthdreyer.dk/en/carlthdreyer/films/features/different-versions-jeanne-darc
- https://sites.nd.edu/thepassionofjoanofarc/about/about-the-movie/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_Joan_of_Arc
No. 379 The opera star who grew a mustache
- https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8ba528e2-cb48-4f22-8a69-82308845134c/content
- https://chinadailyhk.com/article/363173
- https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-ArtExhibitions/20231220/4681fac211614438821e1e77b7ac2adb.html
- https://thechinaproject.com/2021/02/02/mei-lanfang-chinas-greatest-stage-performer/
No. 380 The actor who died on request
No. 381 Swan Lake means trouble
- https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1029437787/in-1991-soviet-citizens-saw-swans-on-the-tv-and-knew-it-meant-turmoil
- https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991/august-coup/august-coup-audio/official-announcements-of-the-gkchp-august-19-1991/
- https://yalebooks.yale.edu/?p=54719
- https://hazlitt.net/node/5157716
- https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/03/russia-blocks-tv-rain-its-last-independent-tv-channel-and-tv-rain-airs-its-last-broadcast/
- https://www.history.co.uk/articles/swan-lakes-link-to-political-turmoil-in-the-soviet-union
No. 382 One scream, 400 films
No. 383 The only castrato on record
No. 384 South Africa had no TV until 1976
- https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-albert-hertzog-confirms-television-would-not-be-introduced-south-africa
- https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/07/apollo-11-apartheid-and-tv/377681/
- https://www.iol.co.za/entertainment/whats-on/dr-nos-demise-gave-tv-life-929544
- https://sahistory.org.za/node/12252
- https://www.citizen.co.za/lowvelder/?p=239861
- https://africultures.com/structures/?no=5084
- https://samilhistory.com/tag/the-sabc/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_South_Africa
No. 385 Molière did not die on stage
- https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/wd/133609
- https://www.paris.fr/pages/sur-traces-de-moliere-comedien-et-dramaturge-de-genie-21032
- https://www.toutmoliere.net/spip.php?article270
- https://www.france-memoire.fr/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Armande-Bejart.pdf
- https://www.artcena.fr/en/node/41216
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-moliere/medicine-and-entertainment-in-le-malade-imaginaire/C54BF18EC99293D0B18D383DE0B7592F
No. 386 Japan’s narrators outshone the stars
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benshi
- https://japansociety.org/news/a-brief-history-of-benshi-silent-film-narrators
- https://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol5/iss2/shimoda.html
- https://unseen-japan.com/benshi-japan-silent-cinema/
- https://akirakurosawa.info/biography-part-1/
- https://blog.alltheanime.com/kurosawas-rashomon/
No. 387 Van Halen and the brown M&M’s
No. 388 The first animated feature was Argentine
No. 389 Shakespeare’s company stole a theatre
No. 390 The song that did not kill
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloomy_Sunday
- https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/hungarian_suicide_song_gloomy_sunday_rezso_seress/
- https://billieholiday.com/signaturesong/gloomy-sunday/
- https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/gloomy-sunday-did-the-hungarian-suicide-song-really-create-a-suic/
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/entertainment/music/songs-killer-strange-tale-gloomy-sunday
- https://archive.org/details/78_gloomy-sunday_paul-robeson-seress_gbia0157976a
No. 391 The wrestler who was buried in his mask
- https://www.milenio.com/opinion/carlos-diaz-barriga/milenio-retro/santo-enmascarado-plata-mascara-lucha-libre
- https://www.milenio.com/cultura/el-abc-de-el-santo
- https://observador.pt/2016/09/23/doodle-da-google-quem-era-el-santo-o-lutador-mascarado/
- https://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/noticia/2015/1984-muere-el-luchador-rodolfo-guzman-huerta-el-santo.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Santo
No. 392 The storming of the Winter Palace is a film
No. 393 Clowns register their faces on eggs
- https://www.euronews.com/2024/08/01/how-do-clowns-stop-people-stealing-their-look-they-paint-it-on-an-egg
- https://www.creativereview.co.uk/clown-egg-register/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-smart-clowns-immortalize-their-makeup-designs-on-ceramic-eggs
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-egg-register
- https://folklorethursday.com/folklife/clown-egg-register/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clowns_Gallery-Museum
No. 394 The first feature film was Australian
- https://www.acmi.net.au/works/100581--the-story-of-the-kelly-gang/
- https://www.acmi.net.au/works/116782--the-story-of-the-kelly-gang-fragments-with-commentary/
- https://www.nfsa.gov.au/stories/articles/story-kelly-gang
- https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/world-first-film
- https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/story-kelly-gang/notes/
- https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/movies/2022/08/07/historic-ned-kelly-screening
No. 395 The Monkees never outsold the Beatles
No. 396 The greatest Czech did not exist
- https://english.radio.cz/node/8096319
- https://archiv.radio.cz/en/static/inventors/cimrman
- https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/domaci/pozustalost-genia-jary-cimrmana-se-zrodila-v-predvecer-stedreho-dne-260482
- https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/kultura/cimrmanovy-narozeniny-ve-velkem-stylu-276677
- https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/kultura/pred-padesati-lety-odhalil-cimrman-poprve-verejnosti-svuj-akt-91134
- https://www.praha3.cz/aktualne-z-trojky/o-praze-3/kniha-cti/case:detailPdf/itemId:740096/cgId:15623
- https://www.hnn.us/article/39020
- https://3seaseurope.com/?p=34893
- https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/kultura-nejvetsim-cechem-se-stal-karel-iv-40101476
- https://www.reflex.cz/clanek/historie/138233/utajovana-historie-jary-cimrmana-co-jste-mozna-o-nejvetsim-ceskem-geniovi-nevedeli.html
- https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.api?sstr=7796
- https://expats.cz/czech-news/article/google-doodle-celebrates-jara-cimrman-50th-birthday
No. 397 Chaplin’s body was held to ransom
No. 398 Norway watched a train for seven hours
No. 399 The soprano who sold out Carnegie Hall
No. 400 His first English words on stage were his last
- https://hornseyhistorical.org.uk/inquest-chung-ling-soo/
- https://themagiccircle.co.uk/about/52-objects/20-chung-ling-soos-costume/
- https://hornseyhistorical.org.uk/the-man-behind-the-magician/
- https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/arts/the-life-and-death-of-master-magician-chung-ling-soo
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ling_Soo
9. Games People Play Facts 401–450
No. 401 The Go game played through the Hiroshima bomb
No. 402 Abner Doubleday never invented baseball
No. 403 Barbados scores on itself to win
- https://www.the42.ie/strange-football-match-1536878-Jun2014/
- https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/07/24/the-day-scoring-own-goals-was-the-only-way-to-win-an-international-football-match/
- https://www.planetfootball.com/nostalgia/when-barbados-grenada-both-tried-to-score-deliberate-own-goals
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_4%E2%80%932_Grenada
No. 404 Nero, Olympic champion
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html
- https://defector.com/nero-was-the-worst-best-olympian-ever
- https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias10C.html
- https://www.history.co.uk/articles/emperor-nero-olympics
No. 405 The Tour rider and the blacksmith’s boy
No. 406 Why the shot clock is 24 seconds
No. 407 William Webb Ellis and the invention of rugby
No. 408 Scissors wins the Cézanne
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64401/time-sothebys-and-christies-played-rock-paper-scissors-cezanne
- https://londonist.com/london/history/how-a-game-of-rock-paper-scissors-secured-20m-art-christies
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/389488882
- https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4488048
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_paper_scissors
No. 409 The Timeless Test that ran out of time
No. 410 Thumbs down for the gladiator
No. 411 Castro’s rebels kidnapped the world racing champion
No. 412 The chess queen was once a weakling
No. 413 The marathon won on strychnine and brandy
- https://www.olympedia.org/results/56131
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon
- https://www.chemistryviews.org/?p=34968
- https://vinepair.com/articles/strychnine-alcohol-performance-enhancing-drug-history
No. 414 Sumo’s top referees carry a dagger
No. 415 A game of bridge that ended in a shooting
- https://pendergastkc.org/collection/missouri-valley-special-collections-kansas-city-public-library/10017035/myrtle-bennett
- https://kwbridge.com/Features/f-bennett.htm
- https://acbl.org/acbl-history-fact-5-the-bennett-murder-makes-bridge-a-popular-headline/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_Murder_case
No. 416 India’s barefoot World Cup that never was
No. 417 The tennis match that lasted three days
No. 418 The Olympic champion crowned after his death
No. 419 Argentina’s national sport is named for a duck
No. 420 The Ashes began as a joke obituary
No. 421 The table tennis point that lasted two hours
No. 422 The huddle was invented by a deaf quarterback
No. 423 In Siena a horse can win without its jockey
- https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2023/08/16/riderless-oca-contrada-wins-siena-palio_8f2313ce-4eb0-4695-b3eb-490bf238110c.html
- https://www.ilpalio.org/scossi.htm
- https://www.lanazione.it/siena/cronaca/il-fantino-brigante-operato-dopo-il-trionfo-delloca-la-vittoria-me-lhanno-raccontata-db7b2297
- https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2026/08/18/palio-siena-2026-vincitore
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena
No. 424 The Olympics once gave gold medals for poetry
- https://www.olympedia.org/results/920001
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31269/1912-1948-art-competitions-were-part-olympics
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_competitions_at_the_Summer_Olympics
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-the-olympics-gave-out-medals-for-art-6878965/
- https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/44792
- https://www.olympedia.org/sports/ART
- https://guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/103843-oldest-olympic-medallist
No. 425 Nobody knows what cards Wild Bill held
No. 426 The chess title match stopped after 48 games
No. 427 Why golf has eighteen holes (not whisky)
No. 428 The Stanley Cup final nobody won
No. 429 The 3,600-year-old rubber ball game
No. 430 Tug of war was once an Olympic sport
No. 431 The French Scrabble champion who spoke no French
- https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/21/new-french-scrabble-champion-nigel-richards-doesnt-speak-french
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-23/scrabble-championship-new-zealand-nigel-richards-wins-no-french/6640496
- https://www.thelocal.fr/20150721/non-french-speaker-wins-french-scrabble-title
- https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/279390/sacre-bleu-nz-champ-can't-speak-french
- https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/11/18/kiwi-wins-spanish-language-scrabble-comp-without-speaking-language
- https://gulfnews.com/world/offbeat/new-zealands-nigel-richards-wins-spanish-world-scrabble-title-without-knowing-the-language-1.1734188718709
No. 432 The Boat Race judge was not asleep
No. 433 The free kick that was not a blunder
- https://www.history.co.uk/article/the-dark-story-of-zaires-9-nil-defeat-in-the-1974-world-cup
- https://www.wsc.co.uk/?p=3547
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8711835.stm
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32682993
- https://www.rsssf.org/tables/74full.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mwepu_Ilunga
No. 434 The charioteer with 35 million sesterces
No. 435 The baseball game that ran thirty-three innings
No. 436 The Olympic torch relay began in Berlin
No. 437 Snooker was named after a raw army cadet
No. 438 The Masters lost on a scorecard
No. 439 The first marathon is not in Herodotus
No. 440 Ping-pong diplomacy began on the wrong bus
- https://gerarddegroot.substack.com/p/ping-pong-diplomacy
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2013/02/11/ping-pong-diplomacy-figure-zhuang-zedong-dies/3Q1766fp10owu4vDYLqAgP/story.html
- https://ittf.com/2020/04/10/day-ping-pong-diplomacy-born
- https://www.history.com/articles/ping-pong-diplomacy
No. 441 Queensberry did not write the Queensberry rules
- https://www.britannica.com/sports/Marquess-of-Queensberry-rules
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Graham-Chambers
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Chambers,_John_Graham
- https://www.theboatrace.org/results/the-mens-boat-race
- https://sportinglandmarks.co.uk/john-graham-chambers/
- https://sportinglandmarks.co.uk/john-graham-chambers-the-lifeboat-conundrum/
- https://sportinglandmarks.co.uk/?p=1024
No. 442 The underarm ball that won a cricket match
No. 443 Chess boxing began in a comic book
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing
- https://chessboxingnation.com/the-history-of-chessboxing/
- https://www.clickorlando.com/features/2022/12/13/checkmate-or-knockout-3-things-to-know-about-chessboxing/
- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/using-pawns-brawn-to-nab-chess-boxing-crown/article656362/
No. 444 The six-day walking craze of the 1870s
No. 445 The pole vaulters who cut their medals in half
No. 446 The courtroom darts throw nobody can find
No. 447 The skating race held fifteen times since 1909
No. 448 Tennis balls turned yellow for television
- https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/tennis/why-tennis-balls-are-yellow/3655352/
- https://www.tennis365.com/tennis-features/how-tennis-changed-from-white-to-yellow-tennis-balls-thanks-to-david-attenborough
- http://petapixel.com/2024/06/26/how-david-attenborough-and-color-cameras-turned-tennis-balls-yellow/
No. 449 The Moon golf shot went about forty yards
No. 450 The marathon that took 54 years to finish
10. Animals With Jobs Facts 451–500
No. 451 Jack the signalman baboon
No. 452 The first cat in space
No. 453 Barry never carried brandy
- https://www.nmbe.ch/sites/default/files/2021-12/Barry_Broschuere_14_E.pdf
- https://www.nmbe.ch/en/exhibitions/barry
- https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/a-nose-for-a-success-story/1513928
- https://www.nga.gov/stories/articles/who-sir-edwin-landseer-10-things-know
- https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.220510.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_(dog)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Landseer
No. 454 The stationmaster was a cat
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_(cat)
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24826900
- https://fortune.com/2015/07/14/tama-rural-japan-trains
- https://www.wunc.org/2015-06-29/thousands-attend-funeral-for-japans-feline-stationmaster
- https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/tama-multitudinario-funeral-del-gatito-mas-tierno-de-japon-nid1806012
- https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/news-and-opinion/new-cat-stationmaster-announced/
- https://soranews24.com/2026/01/10/say-hello-to-japans-new-stationmaster-cat%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/amp/
No. 455 Cher Ami and the Lost Battalion
- https://www.army.mil/article/249782/century_old_mystery_solved_cher_ami
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-history/2021/07/19/cher-ami/
- https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2023/04/05/unsung-heroes-of-world-war-i-the-carrier-pigeons-2/
- https://venditta.blog/2022/08/02/how-press-cooed-over-lost-battalions-hero-pigeon/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cher_Ami
No. 456 The rhinoceros São Paulo elected
- https://time.com/archive/6806890/brazil-the-rhino-vote/
- https://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/cacareco_the_rhinoceros
- https://www.gazetasp.com.br/cotidiano/conheca-cacareco-o-animal-eleito-para-a-camara-de-sp-em-1959/1107245
- https://rhinoresourcecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2018-Historia-M-undia-Cacareco.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacareco
No. 457 The dog that turned the roast
No. 458 The rat with a gold medal
- https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/animal-awards-programme/pdsa-gold-medal/magawa
- https://apopo.org/herorats/herorat-magawa/
- https://www.foxnews.com/world/landmine-sniffing-rat-magawa-retires-after-years-of-brave-work-in-cambodia
- https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/magawa-hero-rat-who-found-over-100-land-mines-dies-in-retirement
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magawa
No. 459 Winnie was an army bear
- https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnie-the-pooh
- https://therealwinnie.torontomu.ca/collection/exhibits/show/classic/the-bear--the-war--and-the-chi
- https://www.canadashistory.ca/getmedia/ec200c9d-6650-4fd3-a700-79e2da62b4e3/Kay63FromWinnipegToWinnieThePooh.pdf.aspx
- https://therealwinnie.torontomu.ca/collection/1914diary
- https://zsl-archive.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/winnie-the-bear
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_(bear)
No. 460 The Hermitage keeps cats
- https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-nine-lives-of-russias-hermitage-museum-cats-91288
- https://themoscowtimes.com/2020/12/03/frenchman-leaves-inheritance-to-st-petersburgs-hermitage-cats-a72222
- https://rusnewsnz.com/st-petersburg-the-cats-of-the-hermitage/
- https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/65-cats-are-treated-like-favored-employees-at-the-world-renown-hermitage-museum-in-russia/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_cats
No. 461 Fermilab hired a ferret
No. 462 The giraffe who walked to Paris
- https://francetoday.com/learn/frances-first-royal-giraffe/
- https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/histoire-podcast-zarafa-periple-girafe-paris-82341/
- https://museum.larochelle.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque_musee_museeum/Documents_pdf/enseignant_animateur/cycle_2_et_3/2-livret-jeu_Zarafa_C2-3.pdf
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarafa_(giraffe)
No. 463 Able Seaman Just Nuisance
No. 464 Owney, the mail’s mascot
- https://facts.usps.com/owney-the-postal-dog/
- https://dashboard.si.edu/es/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-s-national-postal-museum-celebrates-owney-postal-dog
- https://torch.si.edu/2011/07/world-traveling-postal-pooch-put-his-stamp-on-the-railway-mail-service
- https://postalmuseum.si.edu/owney
- https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_091.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owney_(dog)
No. 465 The Emperor’s cormorant fishers
No. 466 Unsinkable Sam probably wasn’t
No. 467 Tortoises reached the Moon first
- https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-on-the-way-to-the-moon-0/
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/385311-first-animals-to-circle-the-moon
- https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/jodrell-bank-observatory-release-50-year-old-audio-archive-of-soviet-zond-6-lunar-mission/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_5
No. 468 The poodle accused of witchcraft
- https://www.timeshighereducation.com/node/80604
- https://historiamag.com/good-boye-or-devil-dog-prince-ruperts-poodle/
- https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/effect-prince-rupert-rhines-dog-3910710
- https://www.chatsworth.org/news-media/news-blogs-press-releases/white-dog-called-boy/
- https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/?p=24313
- https://beyondthebook.slv.vic.gov.au/stories/prince-and-poodle
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_(dog)
No. 469 The penguin is a major general
- https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/news/sir-nils-olav-promoted-edinburgh-zoo
- https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/news/major-general-sir-nils-olav-baron-bouvet-islands
- https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/3348/military-penguin-becomes-a-'sir'
- https://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/10/worlds-highest-ranking-penguin-sir-nils-olav-promoted-to-major-general-759192
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav
No. 470 Balto got Togo’s statue
- https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/togo-siberian-husky-sled-dog-hero-of-1925/
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-heroic-dog-raced-across-the-frozen-alaskan-wilderness-to-deliver-life-saving-medicine-but-his-contributions-were-long-overlooked-180985905/
- https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/balto
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo_(dog)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balto
No. 471 The canary had an oxygen bottle
No. 472 The elephant veteran of Burma
No. 473 Belgium’s mail cats were a joke
No. 474 Staff Sergeant Reckless
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Reckless
- https://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/520409/americas-war-horse-ssgt-reckless-honored-remembered-at-triple-crown-race/
- https://usmcmuseum.com/uploads/6/0/3/6/60364049/sgt._reckless.pdf
- https://www.1stmardiv.marines.mil/Units/5TH-MARINE-REGT/History/SSgt-Reckless/
- https://gordon.armymwr.com/info/culturemil/sgt-reckless
No. 475 The dolphin protected by law
No. 476 Mayor Stubbs was never elected
No. 477 The pigeon photographers
No. 478 The dog who was a prisoner of war
No. 479 The cathedral cat’s wages
- https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/latest-news/you-cant-spell-cathedral-without-cat/
- https://hyperallergic.com/the-english-cathedral-with-the-400-year-old-cat-door
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/wheres-the-oldest-cat-door-on-earth-180982901/
- https://www.katkin.com/articles/is-this-the-world-s-oldest-cat-door
No. 480 Slugs on gas watch
No. 481 Comanche was not the only survivor
No. 482 The frog was the pregnancy test
No. 483 The pig who changed sides
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30088283
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205022108
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30086681
- http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/74/AnimalsWar/images/AAW_CAPTIONS.pdf
- https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn89066313/1915-06-11/ed-1/?sp=2
- https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1916-03-12/ed-1/?sp=55
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirpitz_(pig)
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/animals/3-little-pigs-and-their-military-service
No. 484 Delhi’s monkey police
- https://mg.co.za/news/south-africa/2010-09-28-delhi-deploys-super-monkey-security-guards/
- https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0321/Delhi-braces-for-return-of-some-serious-monkey-business
- https://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/08/big-monkey-menace.html
- https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/world%2Fasia%2Findia%2Findia-masked-monkey-men-hired-to-combat-macaque-menace-1.1366105
No. 485 Bob the Railway Dog
- https://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/stop-me-not-but-let-me-jog-for-i-am-bob-drivers-dog
- http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2011/10/bob-the-railway-dog-icon-of-australian-history/
- https://trainmuseum.org/dogs-at-the-depot-australia/
- https://www.railtram.com.au/bob-the-railway-dog
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_the_Railway_Dog
No. 486 Khrushchev’s puppy was X-rayed
- https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v06/d17
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24837199
- https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jbkopp-sf050-014
- https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkwhp-1963-06-18-f
- https://jfk.blogs.archives.gov/2020/03/20/historical-pets-working-from-home/comment-page-4
- https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/10/07/presidential-pets-can-breed-controversy-dog-was-once-suspected-of-being-spy
- https://books.google.com/books?id=lOcnpwLXucEC&q=Pushinka+x-rayed+magnetometer
- https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/archives-on-the-air/2024-07-18/canine-diplomacy-405-carol-weld-papers
- https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/?p=862
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushinka
No. 487 Cats on the Post Office payroll
No. 488 The Navy’s mine-hunting dolphins
- https://usinfo.org/wf-archive/2003/030418/epf501.htm
- https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/2003-03-28/marine-mammals-on-active-duty
- https://nnbw.com/news/2003/mar/26/dolphins-to-clear-mines-from-port-at-umm-qasr
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/international-jan-june03-aid_03-28
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFA_Sir_Galahad_(1986)
No. 489 Stubby was probably never a sergeant
- https://www.militarytimes.com/2017/06/07/stubby-s-story-all-about-the-iconic-world-war-i-war-dog-and-star-of-an-upcoming-animated-film/
- https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_439710
- https://books.google.com/books?id=QQnaCwAAQBAJ&q=sergeant+rank
- https://books.google.com/books?id=QQnaCwAAQBAJ&q=chevrons
- https://books.google.com/books?id=QQnaCwAAQBAJ&q=1956+Smithsonian
- https://www.ctexplored.org/stubbys-story-letting-slip-the-dogs-of-war/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Stubby
No. 490 The orca who worked with whalers
No. 491 A monument to the laboratory mouse
- https://rees.sas.upenn.edu/about/spotlight/laboratory-mouse-monument
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/russian-statue-honoring-laboratory-mice-gains-renewed-popularity-180964570/
- https://www.vokrugsveta.ru/article/310830/
- https://mymodernmet.com/monument-laboratory-mouse-russia/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_laboratory_mouse
No. 492 The terrier who laid the cable
No. 493 The geese that guarded the whisky
No. 494 The only cat with a Dickin Medal
- https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/animal-awards-programme/pdsa-dickin-medal/simon
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(cat)
- https://vnonline.co.uk/vn/news/12629/Royal-Navy-pays-tribute-to-hero-cat
- https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/classroom-materials/tales-animals-war/meet-remembrance-club/simones-story
No. 495 The goat that was demoted
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna13528687
- https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jun/25/army_goat_demoted_parade_incident/
- https://www.forcesnews.com/services/army/british-armys-menagerie-mascots
- https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/army-mascots
- https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101144
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Windsor_(goat)
No. 496 A reindeer in a submarine
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8386000/8386947.stm
- https://www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk/?p=7890
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Trident_(N52)
- https://justhistoryposts.com/2022/05/11/a-brief-moment-of-history-the-wwii-submarine-reindeer/
- https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/pollyanna-the-reindeer-wwii.html
No. 497 Police eagles against drones
- https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2017/12/dutch-police-pension-off-drone-eagles-and-sniffer-rats/
- https://www.bnnvara.nl/vroegevogels/artikelen/roofvogel-nieuw-wapen-tegen-drones
- https://nltimes.nl/node/30777
- https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/05/09/check-arenden-drones/
- https://www.engadget.com/2017-12-11-dutch-police-retire-drone-catching-eagles.html