Weird History Facts

Before you clap out the syllables in helicopter, remember the word is broken.The word is broken..

Helicopter actually fuses Greek wordshelico(“spiral”) andpterorpteron(“wing”). People do not pronounce it helico-pter; however, this fact is fun.

People wonder about the name for what most people call nothing. In total darkness, our eyes detect a color because their cells send signals to our brains, not from light.

This visual background noise is calledEigengrau, which comes from a German word meaningintrinsic gray. It also gets called "brain gray" or "dark light," resulting from photons and physics.

Female kangaroos have two wombs.Kangaroos have two wombs and three vaginas.they carry fetuses of different gestational ages; a doe also has three vaginas. Kangaroo reproduction is very strange.

These marsupials have one of the shortest gestation periods for mammals—only 30 to 38 days. Much development occurs outside the womb in the mother's pouch. A mother kangaroo makes custom milk for different joeys' nutritional needs.A mob of kangaroos acts seriously when making babies.

When you question if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you learn a banana "tree" is not a tree. All trees have a hard outer stem called a trunk. The banana plant does not. Botanically, this makes the banana the world'sBanana 'trees' are actually herbs., with each stalk producing fruit only once.

Bunches also defy gravity. The fruit on the bunch (a "hand") grows up, not toward the ground, like most plants and fruit.This happens because ofBanana 'trees' show negative geotropism.. A hormone in the fruit forces it to grow up toward the sun. Chlorophyll's tiny pigments need this to make glucose for the plant's sweet fruit.

Mountain Dew is a soda enjoyed by all-night gamers and extreme athletes. Its unnatural greenish-yellow color and high sugar and caffeine content make it the nation’sMountain Dew is the third-most popular.Mountain Dew is a "liquid refreshment brand."

Funny enough, Mountain Dew was not first marketed to thirsty teenagers to "Do the Dew." The first formula was sold asIt serves as a chaser.matching the 1966 commercial slogan of "It'll Tickle Your Innards!"

Barney and Ally Hartman, two Tennessee brothers, made the lemon-lime liquid to mix with their spirits. They named it Mountain Dew, referencing the Appalachian nickname for moonshine.

TheHindenburgdisaster onMay 6, 1937Newsreel video captured the zeppelin crashing to the earth, engulfed in hydrogen-fueled flames. Notorious footage, eyewitness accounts, and live broadcasts made the New Jersey event.Lakehurst Naval Air StationThe most famous airship disaster, but there have been costlier crashes.Costlier crashes..

The tragedy caused national mourning. The nation mourned 36 victims: crew, passengers, and a ground worker. Sixty-two of the 97 people onboard survived; most jumped from windows before hitting the ground.

The deadliest airship incident occurred on April 4, 1933, involving theUSS AkronThe USS Akron, overtaken by a storm, crashed and sank off the coast of New Jersey, taking 73 lives.

It seems odd that George Washington never knew dinosaur fossils existed, because they were thought to be from ancient animals until the early 1800s.George Washington never knew of their existence..

The first US Presidentpassed in 1799.He passed at age 67.

Today, the world is global and connected, but it was not always so. The 1936 Summer Olympics made Liechtenstein and Haiti realize their national flags were strikingly similar.Strikingly similarWith blue and red horizontal halves.

The next year, Liechtenstein added a gold crown to show its nation's banner.

Some parasite types may shock people.Several types of parasitescan turn their hosts into zombie-like critters. Zombie ant fungus, for example,Ophiocordyceps unilateralisstarts as a tiny spore, attaching to and invading its host.

It grows inside the ant until it forces the bug to climb plants or trees to a certain height, then use its mandibles to grip a leaf. After the ant dies, the fungus uses the corpse as a spore spout to infect more ants.The fungus turns a corpse into a spore spout to infect more ants.

Pfizer chemists created Viagra aiming for a compound to fight high blood pressure. The drug offered little help against cardiovascular disease.

Pfizer noted patients experienced an unexpected, yet marketable, side effect.Pfizer quickly realized Viagra could treat impotence.Viagra quickly showed it could treat impotence. The little blue pill's popularity has since soared.

The US always interested Panama. A citizen sought interest in 1856 for a slice of watermelon. American investors funded a railroad across Panama's isthmus after California gold appeared in 1848. Hundreds of thousands of migrants rushed to California, many crossing the sea around Cape Horn, Chile's southern tip in South America.

Crossing Panama was shorter and safer. The railway offered a smart investment for Americans, but some Panamanians felt slighted because the Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty of 1846 gave Americans much influence in the area.

In April 1856, an American citizen refused to pay a local street vendor for a slice of watermelon. A quarrel erupted, and a shot eventually fired. Hundreds of locals then started a riot, attacking and rooting out Americans.The Watermelon RiotThis event resulted in over a dozen deaths and a long period of anti-American feeling.