“Custom Of Handfasting”: 80 Interesting Facts That Show How Strange The World Really Is (New Pics)

TIL that Shazam (Billy Batson), published by Fawcett comics was the #1 selling comic-book, and was lapping Superman in sells, until DC put a stop to it - taking them to court and claiming he was a Superman ripoff.

TIL In 2012, an Irish mother delivered her first twin prematurely, and her contractions stopped. This allowed the second twin to stay safely inside the womb for another 87 days. This rare occurrence is known as a delayed-interval delivery. It broke the previous world record of 84 days.

TIL that Mark Twain was a guitar player. He apparently never mentioned this in his public writing or speeches. He played on the same guitar all his life, one made in 1835, the year of his birth, and took it everywhere on his travels. He learned from his sister, who also taught him piano.

TIL that Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were rivals. They’ve actually met on several occasions and even worked on the same wall, side by side.

TIL a man was diagnosed with endocarditis and suffered heart damage, leading to a 7-hour open-heart surgery due to an infection caused after he unsuccessfully tried to remove a stuck piece of popcorn from his mouth with a pen lid, a toothpick, a piece of wire, and a metal nail.

TIL that Leif Erikson was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.

TIL that Jordan Nagai, who played Russell in Up, wasn't originally intending to audition for the role. He only came to support his older brother, who was auditioning.

TIL On average, a kidney transplant from a living donor lasts about 15 to 20 years, and a kidney from a deceased donor lasts 8 to 12 years.

TIL an NFL player intentionally crashed his car to avoid getting cut for being late to a team meeting.

TIL that comic books from the 1960s and 1970s could have ads for squirrel monkeys and that kids could order them. In one instance, a boy ordered a squirrel monkey after seeing an ad in a Spider-Man comic. After it arrived, the monkey gnawed on the boy's arm, which resulted in him getting 28 stitches.

TIL David Vetter "Bubble Boy" spent his entire life in a bubble, he suffered from severe combined immunodeficiency, and eventually passed away at the age of 12.

TIL that in 1943, a U.S. Navy destroyer accidentally fired a live torpedo at the battleship carrying President Roosevelt. The USS Iowa managed to evade the torpedo, and the destroyer's crew initially tried to warn the battleship using signal lamps before breaking radio silence to alert them.

TIL that mushrooms and crabs use the exact same base material (chitin) for structure. Mushrooms stay soft and edible because their chitin is mixed with flexible proteins, while crustaceans use minerals to calcify their chitin into a hard, brittle exoskeleton.

TIL the Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry went to a school production of Julius Caesar in London in 1917 and wrote in her diary: "The small boy who played Brutus is already a great actor." That 10-year-old boy was Laurence Olivier.

TIL Vincent van Gogh declared his love and proposed marriage to his cousin Cornelia "Kee" Vos-Stricker, to which she replied "No, nay, never." Months later, Gogh traveled to Amsterdam to meet her, but she refused seeing him. Her parents described his persistence as "disgusting".

TIL that from 2013 to 2015 a maths forum user called "Cleo" posted correct answers to integrals that had stumped everyone, often within hours, never showed any working, and said a medical condition stopped her explaining. In 2025 Cleo was revealed to be Vladimir Reshetnikov, a software developer.

TIL about a Japanese general who thought that his war crimes sentence was too light, so built his own prison in his garden.

TIL the population of the NYC metropolitan area makes up 7.9% of the total US population. The city alone is 2.5% of the country's population.

TIL there’s a pirate radio station in Montclair, NJ, that has played Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” on a 24-hour loop since 2010.

TIL chewing gum is not biodegradable because it is made from synthetic polymers and plastics.