Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
While social interaction has proven to be a major factor in improving cognitive health, other components of trivia, such as learning new facts and recalling older information, can also be significant, says Professor Scott Brown from the University of Newcastle.
"Practicing pub trivia helps maintain our cognitive reserve, which is especially important as we age because it can provide a buffer against cognitive decline and other forms of dementia. It's the 'use it or lose it' notion, where if we keep doing these activities to work our cognitive muscles, it keeps them from atrophying early," he explains.
Professor Brown adds that the rewards of getting questions right, or even better, winning, can boost your mental health, and the dopamine rush can be both rewarding and motivating to learn more.
So let's dive straight in! Reddit user Own_Championship7862 made a post on the platform, asking everyone, "What's an unusual fact that most people don't know?" Since the replies have been pouring in, we decided to compile some of the most surprising ones and help you expand your knowledge.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Wearing white wedding dresses only came into fashion after Queen Victoria started the trend. White isn’t meant to have any other meaning or represent purity as many people think. Before this trend most brides just wore their best dress of any colour as it was expensive to buy a dress just for the occasion.
RELATED:
#2
Pink used to be a masculine color.
During the height of the British Empire, the soldiers in the far reaches of the world donned their red coats in battle and patrol. The newer recruits would look especially sharp with a bold red color. The rugged war-heroes though? Their coats were faded and worn into more of a pink color. If you saw a guy wearing a pink coat, odds are they have stories to tell with a thousand yard stare. This became a desirable thing to show off your experience and grit.
Hence pink was associated with combat prowess and ruggedness, and became a masculine color during that time.
Jill Rhodry 1 year ago
Blue was a 'feminine' colour because the Virgin Mary is depicted in blue (which is actually the colour of purity, not white)
Mycroft1967 1 year ago
From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were unbreeched (without pants) and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and eight.
Billy Harrelson 1 year ago
There was a cultural reason for this. Baby boys were considered "desirable" to certain demons and would be disguised as girls until they reached the age were the demons didn't want them anymore. This is why many of our presidents are pictured wearing dresses in their youth.
Load More Replies...
Jumping Jellyfishes 1 year ago
Some people recoil at rainbow colors now. How can anyone hate a rainbow?!
Stephanie Austin 1 year ago
And the reason the NMA wore red? It was the cheapest dye available at the time.
María Hermida 1 year ago
I read somewhere that red "hid" blood stains, so that the soldiers would not panic in battle surrounded by dying mates. I don't know if it's true, but it makes sense.
Load More Replies...
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
Eh, I sometimes wear pink. The wife thinks I look good in pink and I think so too! Give me your stares and judgement, because I don't care :)
luvsick (they/them) 1 year ago
i think it became more feminine during WWII when they were capturing gay men and putting them in camps and like they were wearing something with pink idk if anyone has more info or knows if this is true or not please tell me
Mysteria 1 year ago
I believe that’s true! Hitler is literally the reason why pink is now a girly colour.
Load More Replies...
Michelle C 1 year ago
I always wondered why pink was a more masculine color in western society until about 50 years ago. Now I know!
Laura Williams 1 year ago
I believe it was the toy indicated that changed that but color is doesn't have a gender
Nikki Angulo 1 year ago
And blue was for women, because it was the colour of the sky and it was a peaceful colour! Red was the colour of blood!
Oskar vanZandt 1 year ago
I just don't like pink... or any pastels. I prefer rich, deep colours like purple, magenta and saffron.
Boredest Disabled Panda 1 year ago
Pink is technically just a shade of red anyway. Somewhere along the way people started treating it as it's own color and so we started thinking of it as a different color when it really isn't.
Riley Quinn 1 year ago
To assign colors to genders is sheer ignorance. This makes me think of all the idiot parents throwing gender reveal parties, because of course, gender beats health, right? Will they throw another gender reveal party when the child decides they're the wrong gender?
David 1 year ago (edited)
Old British uniforms were such a joke. Some queen or general: "I've got a great idea! Let's dress them all in reverse camo so they stand out as targets from the maximum distance!" General 2: "That's a GREAT idea! Oooh! I know - let's also make them stand in lines shoulder to shoulder so any bullet in the general area will hit at least one of them!".
John Harrison 1 year ago
1. Camouflage wasn't an issue. The soldiers fought in line formations. They weren't hiding their positions. 2. The bright colors were so their commanders could see them easily from a distance.
Load More Replies...
Jill Rhodry 1 year ago
Greed. It's always greed. Boys and girls used to wear the same gowns for easy access for changing nappies and they wore all white so the clothing could be bleached, this meant that the same clothes wear used for all children in the family. Then in 1918 the Ladies’ Home Journal published an article claiming that “the generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls.” - the true origins of this is unknown but it's most likely a marketing ploy because it meant manufacturers could double the amount of clothing sold - in 1940s the gendering of the colours were flipped.
Load More Replies...
Lakota Wolf (she/her) 1 year ago
https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/08/pink-wasnt-always-girly/278535/and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink , but you do you, honey.
Load More Replies...
#3
The tongue of a blue whale weighs the same as a fully grown African Elephant
#4
I have recently learned that Lobsters don't display senescence which is the deterioration of the body as it ages. Their bodies are continuously growing and their exoskeletons get heavier and heavier, hence when they molt into a new exoskeleton it takes more and more energy to take off the old one. Eventually they die because one day they just go, "Yeeeeeaaaah sooo like this exoskeleton is too heavy so imma just go meet Lobster God and head out from the mortal world."
Now a thought... If a group of people helped a lobster shed it's exo- skeleton... And if said lobster kept growing... Technically, a giant lobster could be brought into existence should the lobster not die from old age.
#5
Each time I read a question like this I am reminded of this,
If you made 10,000 dollars everyday since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in August 2, 1776, you still wouldn’t wouldn’t have 1 billion dollars.
And it is just mind boggling!!
#6
The Korean people have an enzyme that makes us have dry ear wax and a propensity to lack body odor.
For the first 20 years of my life I had no idea why my earwax was flaky when everyone else's was more like a jam or paste and why I didn't have to wear deodorant.
I'm not saying that Koreans are immune from body odor but it is much less prevalent and requires much more disregard for hygiene.
#7
Bald eagles are not actually bald. Balde is old english for white
#8
When basketball was first invented, at every game, they would have a man who would go up a ladder to retrieve the ball after every basket. It took them around 20 years to figure out maybe it would be a good idea to cut the bottom of the basket out to make retrieving the ball a lot easier. 20 years!!!
Mycroft1967 1 year ago
How long did it take us to figure out you could put the spout for ketchup at the bottom so you didn't have to shake it?
#9
Playing Tetris up to 6 hours after a trauma can help against PTSD
#10
I love when this question comes up because I get to talk about the thunder clappers.
When the Lewis and Clark expedition were exploring the west of North America, their diet of dried meat left them constipated. They were all taking these pills called thunder clappers to make themselves s**t. The active ingredient in thunder clappers is mercury, and historians can track the expedition because they left increased deposits of mercury in the soil.
#11
The male giraffe will continuously headbutt the female in the bladder until she urinates. The male then tastes the pee and that helps it determine whether the female is ovulating. If she is, it’s business time.
#12
For every single human being on Earth, there are 2.5 MILLION ants.
Yes, this means that there are about 20 QUADRILLION ants on this planet.
If the ants decide to take over, are you strong enough to handle the 2.5 million that you'll be responsible for killing? If you've got kids, you might have to kill more because a 2 year old isn't going to accomplish a god damn thing if millions of ants are marching towards them
#13
The fruit was called orange waaaaay before the colour was
#14
There are more tigers kept as pets in the USA than there are in the wild
#15
We are always seeing our own nose but the brain ignores it
#16
A day on Venus (one complete rotation around its axis) is longer than a year (a complete revolution around the sun) on Venus.
#17
LEGO manufactures more tyres than any other company on the planet.
#18
Iron is the most stable atom in the universe. When fusion in the sun's core 'burns', it fuses *up* the period table until it reaches iron. From that point, fusion really isn't generating any more energy and the core collapses.
From the other side of things, all elements heavier than iron eventually fission down to iron (though i grant you, it may take a *very* long time, even at cosmological timescales).
Atoms are perceived to be everlasting and timeless. That's technically not *really* the case over the very long term except for iron. This is why, if I ever get married I'm going to request an iron wedding band. If I want a timeless representation of my love I can think of nothing better, than something that will last, (even if only elementally) to the heat death of the universe.
#19
It’s possible to lactate without being pregnant
#20
A man named Wilmer McLean owned a farm in Manassas, Virginia USA where the very first battle of the US Civil War was fought. After the battle he's like "I'm outta here" and bought a farm way out in the country at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia...where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant in McLeans living room four years later
#21
When someone gets a kidney transplant they generally just cram the new one in and don't take out the old ones. So the person ends up with three kidneys.
More eels swim out of the Bermuda Triangle than swim into it
#22
McDonald's engineered bubblegum flavoured broccoli in an attempt to get kids to eat more vegetables.
They still didn't want to eat it.
#23
The Eiffel Tower can be 15 centimeters taller during the summer due to thermal expansion
#24
Bluetooth is named after Danish King “Harald Bluetooth “
#26
The raw image we see with our eyes is actually upside down. Our brains subconsciously flip it back to the correct way.
#27
Marriage between pirates were common and where the term Matey comes from. the French word for Matey is “Matelot” or “Matelotage” which was an agreement between two pirates to share their income and even inherit the other’s property in case of death
#28
Medical students commonly learn how to administer pelvic exams by practicing on unconscious patients, often without first obtaining explicit consent from patients to do so. While 21 states currently have laws that require teaching hospitals to obtain consent from patients to participate in this educational experience.
#29
A quarter of the population of Iceland is part Native American because when Lief Ericsson landed in Newfoundland, he brought one Native American woman back with him.
Jorgen Bjerke 1 year ago
His name was Leif, not Lief, and it is pronounced almost like the English word "life". The name is still common in Norway.
#30
The Atari 2600's release date and the last execution by guillotine happened less than 24 hours apart
#31
Pirates are why the US isn't on the metric system
Jill Rhodry 1 year ago
And there's been no other chances to change since that happened in 1793.
#32
Octopuses have a brain in each of their tentacles as well as a main one in their body.
#33
T-Rex is closer to us than Stegosaurus. Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal
#35
Male rhesus macaques will pay to see pictures of female monkey butts. Payment is in the form of trading their juice rewards
#36
The average fully grown horse puts out around 14 horsepower
#37
Bone marrow transplant, it’s possible blood type may change to the donors blood type
Katie Lutesinger 1 year ago
I know a woman who had leukemia and who got a bone marrow transplant from a male donor. She said after that, mosquitos never touched her again. Very odd.
#39
Frogs swallow with their eyeballs. They use their eyes to help them push the food down.
#40
A species of frog, the African clawed frog, was the most reliable pregnancy test for a few decades before at-home tests were widely affordable and accessible
#41
A bone “break” is the same as a “fracture.” Fracture is just the medical term. It does not have any correlation with the severity
#42
Cereal was invented to make people less horny
Sky Render 1 year ago
Specifically one of the founding brothers of the Kellogg cereal company was anti-sex to the extreme and believed that bland food would reduce sex drive. The other brother rightly noted that most people don't want bland food and started sweetening their offerings.
#43
Cleopatra is closer to the invention of the iPhone than the building of the Giza pyramids
Edgar Rops 1 year ago
By a thousand years, or so. Pyramids are roughly 5000 years old, Cleopatra lived in 1 century BC, so it is 2000 between her and us, and 3000 between her and the pyramids.
#44
Warm lemons rolled between the table and your palm give the most juice.
BeepBoop is Lonely (she/they) 1 year ago
I always juice a lemon both ways, when you use squeezer thingy, out it skin side up then also skin side down. This started with me not knowing the right way to fo it anf you'd be surprised how much more juice comes out 🤷♀️
#45
There are more possible chess positions than atoms in the universe
What do you think ?
DB 1 year ago
At least nobody did the "It's a law that pickles have to bounce in Connecticut" one, which is a total myth, by the way.
Cloakred_Is_Bored 1 year ago
As a resident of Connecticut I can confirm that my pickles do not bounce
Load More Replies...
GB 1 year ago
Fun fact: The digits in all multiples of 9 add up to 9. For example: 9x7=63 6+3=9 / 9x128=1152 1+1+5+2=9
BlueBlazer999 1 year ago
99? 9+9 does not equal 9. This trick only works up to 9x10.
Load More Replies...
Jaybird3939 1 year ago
My favorite is neither icky or weird: Moose antlers can grow up to an inch a day. See? No ick.
DB 1 year ago
At least nobody did the "It's a law that pickles have to bounce in Connecticut" one, which is a total myth, by the way.
Cloakred_Is_Bored 1 year ago
As a resident of Connecticut I can confirm that my pickles do not bounce
Load More Replies... GB 1 year ago
Fun fact: The digits in all multiples of 9 add up to 9. For example: 9x7=63 6+3=9 / 9x128=1152 1+1+5+2=9
BlueBlazer999 1 year ago
99? 9+9 does not equal 9. This trick only works up to 9x10.
Load More Replies... Jaybird3939 1 year ago
My favorite is neither icky or weird: Moose antlers can grow up to an inch a day. See? No ick.
You May Like 50 Interesting Facts And Curiosities To Take Your Mind Off The Stress Of The Holiday Season This Instagram Account Shares Weird Facts And Here Are The 50 Of The Creepiest Ones 116 Weird Facts That You Just Have To Know
Viktorija Ošikaitė
Dominyka
Linas Simonaitis
Related on Bored Panda
