Mercy

The man who designed the Pringles can, Fred Bauer, is buried in one—or at least some of his ashes are.

Visitors are not allowed to scatter loved ones’ ashes at Disney World or Disneyland. This is apparently a problem, particularly around the Haunted Mansion attraction.

Only two people have ever swam the entire length of the 2,350-mile Mississippi River: Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel in 2002 and American former Navy SEAL Chris Ring in 2015. Strel swam for 68 days in a row; Ring took one day off a week, taking 181 days.

This isn’t exactly a “fun” fact, but there are over 200 dead bodies of climbers on Mt. Everest because it’s so difficult to bring them down.

At over 29,000 feet tall, Mt. Everest is the highest point on Earth, but it doesn’t compare to the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, which is over 36,000 feet deep—nearly seven miles—in the Pacific Ocean.

Australia contains a number of pink lakes, but the most stunning is the Pepto Bismol-colored Lake Hillier. The color may be the result of certain algae.

Sweden has 267,570 islands, the most of any country in the world.

Each year, 16 million thunderstorms happen around the world, and at any given moment, there are about 2,000 thunderstorms in progress.

Japan records the most earthquakes of any country in the world; but the most earthquakes actually occur in Indonesia.

The hottest temperature ever recorded occurred in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, at 134 degrees Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913.

The coldest temperature ever recorded occurred in Antarctica, -144 Fahrenheit, as reported by researchers in a scientific journal in 2018

The longest place name in the word, at 85 letters, is “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu,” New Zealand. Locals just call it Taumata Hill.

You can still stay at the world’s oldest hotel, Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, which was founded in 705 AD.

More people visit France than any other country (Spain is second; the US third).

Michelin stars are highly coveted by elite and upscale restaurants the world over—but they’re actually given out by the Michelin tire company, the same one whose mascot is the marshmallow-like Michelin Man. If you want to get fancy, pronounce it in the original French, “mich-LEH.”

Although no longer connected to the beer company, Guinness World Records was founded by the managing director of Guinness Brewery in the 1950s.

We shake hands to show we’re unarmed

Freelancers originally referred to self-employed, sword-wielding mercenaries: literally “free lancers.”

At Medieval Times dinner attractions, you eat with your hands because people didn’t use utensils in the middle ages

People started wearing pajamas, originally spelled “pyjamas,” instead of nightgowns so they’d be prepared to run outside in public during World War I air raids in England.