Mercy

In the 1940s, a retired schoolteacher came up with Candyland to entertain children who were hospitalized from polio. Because its color system required no reading, young kids could easily play.

Play-Doh started out as a wallpaper cleaner before the head of the struggling company realized the non-toxic material made a good modeling clay for children and rebranded it.

Lincoln Logs were created by John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in the 1920s. They were named after Abraham Lincoln, who grew up in a log cabin.

The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt. After he refused to shoot a captured black bear on a hunt, a stuffed animal maker decided to create a bear and name it after the president.

It takes 570 gallons to paint the exterior of the White House.

The White House in Washington, DC, has 132 rooms, including 35 bathrooms.

Buckingham Palace in London, England, has 775 rooms, including 78 bathrooms.

Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, wasn’t the first to introduce Christmas trees to Britain from his native Germany—Queen Charlotte did that in the late 1700s. But, Victoria and Albert are credited with popularizing the custom in the mid-1800s.

Our modern interpretation of Santa Claus with a red outfit and white beard is due in large part to holiday Coca-Cola ads that began in 1931

But you could ice skate on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, which is covered in ice. An Axel jump would take you 22 feet in the air!

Humans could never “land” on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they are made of gas and have no solid surface.

Days on Venus are longer than years. Due to its slow axis rotation, it takes 243 Earth days to spin once; but it only takes 225 Earth days to go around the sun.

The first footprints on the moon will remain there for a million years.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s really, really hard to see the Great Wall of China from space, particularly with the naked eye.

The Empire State Building in New York was the tallest building in the world from 1931 until 1971, and was the first building of over 100 floors

The tallest building in the US is One World Trade Center in New York, which comes in at number six on the worldwide list. It stands at exactly 1,776 feet as a nod to the date of the Declaration of Independence.

The tallest building in the world is the Burg Khalifa in Dubai, standing at over 2,700 feet.

The biggest pizza ever created was 13,580 square feet, made in Rome, Italy, in 2012. The pizza was gluten-free and named “Ottavia” after a roman emperor.

Coca-Cola actually sells soup in a can. Bistrone is a nourishing meal on the go, available in two flavors in Japan.

Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were developed by a janitor at Frito-Lay, Richard Montanez, who got the idea after putting chili powder on some rejected Cheetos and then pitched it to the CEO. He’s now a successful executive and motivational speaker, and a movie is in the works about his life.