Believe It or Not?
1 During World War, a baboon named Jackie became a private in the South African army.
Believe it or not?
True
2 Shridhar Chillal from India last cut his fingernails in 1952. By 1998, the nails on his left hand had grown to an amazing length of 6.15m (20 feet and 2.25 inches)
Believe it or not?
True
3 In 1989, Bill Wallace of Australia fathered a healthy seven pound baby boy at the age of 107.
Believe it or not?
False, in 1989 he celebrated his 107th birthday as the world’s oldest prisoner.
He was sent to prison in 1926 after killing a man in a Melbourne restaurant.
4 The camel is the only animal in the world with oval blood cells?
Believe it or not?
True
5 There are nine recipes on how to cook an armadillo listed in the French cookery book, Larousse Gastronomique.
Believe it or not?
False, there are nine recipes however on how to cook a camel.
6 The shortest war in history contested in 1896 between Great Britain and Zanzibar lasted a mere 45 hours.
Believe it or not?
False, the war lasted only 45 minutes before Zanzibar succumbed
7 In 1997, David Wolf aboard the space station Mir became the first person to vote in an election from space. He voted via email in the Mayoral election for Houston.
Believe it or not?
True
8 In 1994, Albert Yeung Saushing bought a car registration plate in China, bearing the number 9 for $13 million. In Cantonese the word nine is pronounced the same as dog and as 1994 was the Year of the Dog it was considered to be extremely good luck.
Believe it or not?
True
9 There is more Monopoly money printed in the world yearly than real money.
Believe it or not?
True
10 In 1945 a chicken called Mike in Colorado survived for 18 months after having its head chopped off, before eventually choking to death. It was fed in this period using an eye dropper and now has his own web site dedicated to him at www.miketheheadlessschicken.org
Believe it or not?
True
Believe It or Not?
1 Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
Believe it or not?
True
2 In the city of Milwaukee it is illegal to take one’s pet tiger for a walk unless it is on a leash.
Believe it or not?
False, this law does however apply to pet elephants
3 In 2000, Paul Hunn of the UK registered a burp in excess of 118 decibels, louder than a chainsaw or an ambulance siren.
Believe it or not?
True
4 India has a Bill of Rights for elephants.
Believe it or not?
False, India has a Bill of Rights for cows
5 Giraffes have five times more vertebrae in their necks than humans.
Believe it or not?
False, both giraffes and humans have seven neck vertebrae
6 Duelling is legal in Paraguay providing both participants are registered blood donors.
Believe it or not?
True
7 City ordinance number 352 in Pacific Grove, California states that it is a misdemeanour to kill or threaten a butterfly.
Believe it or not?
True
8 In March 2001, Antanas Kontrimas of Lithuania lifted a total weight of 59kg off the ground using only his tongue.
Believe it or not?
False, he used his moustache to lift this weight
9 In World War II, the first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in Berlin Zoo
Believe it or not?
True
10 In 1963, a baseball player called Gaylord Perry announced “they’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run”. On July 20, 1969 he hit his first and only home run a few hours after Neil Armstrong had set foot on the moon.
Believe it or not?
True
Believe It or Not?
A Presidential Parade
1 In his youth, Jimmy Carter worked as a lifeguard at an Illinois beach and saving 77 lives
Believe it or not?
False, but this is true for Ronald Reagan
2 President Andrew Jackson’s pet parrot was banned from his funeral in 1845 because it would not stop swearing.
Believe it or not?
True
3 Cherie Blair is a distant relative of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
Believe it or not?
True
4 President John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator that resided in the White House.
Believe it or not?
True
5 Theodore Roosevelt is the only US President to have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Believe it or not?
False, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter won the prize along with Roosevelt
6 William Taft who weighed in at 136kg (300lbs) installed a new bath tub in the White House after he got stuck in the old one.
Believe it or not?
True
7 Richard M Nixon suffered from hay fever.
Believe it or not?
True
8 Dwight Eisenhower is the only American President to take the oath of office aboard an airplane.
Believe it or not?
False, Lyndon B Johnson is the only President to have been sworn in on an
airplane following the assassination of John F Kennedy
9 Surveys carried out in 1948, 1962 and 1982 voted Abraham Lincoln as the greatest US President ever.
Believe it or not?
True
10 John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the USA often took a nude early morning swim in the Potomac River in Washington DC.
Believe it or not?
True
Believe It or Not?
A Presidential Parade
1 Ronald Reagan cheated on an eyesight examination in the 1930s in order to join the ranks of the cavalry reserves
Believe it or not?
True
2 At his inauguration George Washington only had one tooth.
Believe it or not?
True
3 Aaron Burr, the Vice President of Thomas Jefferson got away with murder. In 1804, he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel following a political dispute. Despite being charged with murder he was never convicted because the state did not treat duelling deaths as murder.
Believe it or not?
True
4 President Ulysses Grant was once fined $20 for exceeding the Washington speed limit on his bicycle.
Believe it or not?
False, he was fined $20 for exceeding the speed limit on his horse
5 Abraham Lincoln had two pet parrots called Nanny and Nanko
Believe it or not?
False, he had two pet goats by this name
6 Woodrow Wilson was the first US President to gain a degree, earning a PhD in History from John Hopkins University
Believe it or not?
True
7 Theodore Roosevelt had a photographic memory
Believe it or not?
True
8 In 1954, John F Kennedy received the last rites after developing an infection following spinal surgery.
Believe it or not?
True
9 Richard Nixon kept a music box in the Oval Office that played the tune of My Ding-a-ling.
Believe it or not?
False, the music box played Hail to the Chief
10 The phrase, “his name is mud”, derived from Dr Samuel Mudd, who treated the injured leg of John Wilkes Booth after Booth had shot Abraham Lincoln.
Believe it or not? True
You Better Believe It!
Ten things you may not have
known about cockroaches
Cockroaches can be used to cure physical
ailments and illnesses. A squashed cockroach can soothe bee stings and
cockroaches fried in oil and garlic is an ancient cure for indigestion.
A cockroach can change course as many as 25
times in one second
A cockroach can live for up to nine days
minus its head before it starves to death
Cockroaches are fond of the taste of glue on
the back of stamps but detest the taste of cucumbers
A cockroach breaks wind on average every 15
minutes
The collective noun for a group of
cockroaches is an intrusion
Cockroaches have been present on Earth for
more than 400million years
A cockroach can hold its breath for up to 40
minutes
A cockroach’s resistance to radiation is over
100 times greater than that of a human
The cockroach is one of nature’s great recyclers, feeding on living and dead plant and animal material that has a positive impact on the environment. Less than 2% of the world’s cockroach population is considered to be pests to humans
You Better Believe It!
Ten things you may not have
known about ants
Ants can survive for up to two days
underwater
The total weight of the world’s ant
population is greater than the combined weight of the world’s human population.
Scientists estimate that there are one quadrillion (1000000000000000) living on
the planet at any given time.
If intoxicated an ant always falls onto its
right side.
An ant never goes to sleep
In proportion to the size of its body, the
ant has the largest brain in the animal kingdom
Starlings use ants to clean deep into their
feathers in order to get rid of small mites that they are unable to remove with
their beaks
An ant’s sense of smell is as well developed
as a dogs and they use scent trails to locate food
The oldest ant in the world was discovered
preserved in amber. It is estimated that it walked the earth 100 million years
ago in the mid Cretaceous period
Anteaters prefer to eat termites as opposed
to ant
An ant is capable of lifting objects 50 times
its own weight and is able to pull objects 300 times their own weight.
True Trivia
1 Is the wanus another name for a chin dimple, the pinky finger or the earlobe?
Answer Pinky finger
2 Whose novel Moby Dick sold only fifty copies in the author’s lifetime?
Answer Herman Melville
3 Which Disney animated film features a total of 6,469,952 black spots in its duration?
Answer 101 Dalmatians
4 Which popular family pet is known as a twit, when pregnant?
Answer Goldfish
5 In outer space do astronauts increase or decrease in height?
Answer Increase, the lack of gravity causes
their spines to elongate and stretch their body. They can become 5 and 7cm
taller in outer space
6 Which Syrian city is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, with civilisation dating back to 2000BC?
Answer Damascus
7 Which is the only fish that can blink with both eyes?
Answer Shark
8 Which cartoon duck was banned in Finland due to his lack of trousers?
Answer Donald Duck
9 Which animal’s tongue is approximately twice the length of its body?
Answer Chameleon
10 Which breed of dog is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in a US court of law?
Answer Bloodhound
True
Trivia
1 Which animal beginning with A is the only animal other than humans that can contract leprosy?
Answer Armadillo
2 Was the electric chair invented by a dentist, a hairdresser or a teacher?
Answer Dentist
3 The adult of which mammal has approximately 30,000 quills on its body that are replaced annually?
Answer Porcupine
4 In which Quentin Tarantino movie are all the clocks stuck on 4.20?
Answer Pulp Fiction
5 Which animal’s heart only beats nine times per minute?
Answer Blue whale
6 Which children’s author penned the book Green Eggs and Ham after his editor challenged him to write a book using fewer than 50 different words?
Answer Dr Seuss
7 Which is the only word in the English language that ends with the letters MT?
Answer Dreamt
8 Where in the world is the sun not visible for 186 days of the year?
Answer North Pole
9 Which was the first man made object to move faster than the speed of sound?
Answer Whip
10 In 1952, which character that later appeared in the Toy Story films, was the first toy to be advertised on TV in the USA?
Answer Mr Potato Head