15 Fun Facts About Useless Trivia

The shortest recorded war in history, fought in 1896 between Britain and Zanzibar, lasted roughly how long?

Accounts put the fighting at between 38 and 45 minutes.

Which animal is known for leaving cube-shaped droppings?

The cubes are used to mark territory. Being stackable and hard to roll away is thought to be the point of the shape.

How many hearts does an octopus have?

One systemic heart circulates blood around the body, and two branchial hearts push it through the gills.

What is the name for the dot that sits above a lowercase i or j?

In English it appears only on those two letters, though dots do sit over other letters in other languages.

Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 to produce what?

Craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi set up the company to make hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing card. Video games were nearly a century away.

Despite its name, how many years did the Hundred Years' War actually run?

The conflict between England and France is conventionally dated 1337 to 1453.

In heraldry, the unicorn is the emblem of which country?

It was believed to be the natural enemy of the lion that the English royals had adopted, and two unicorns supported the royal arms of the King of Scots.

Which planet of the Solar System has an average density lower than water?

Its average density is about 0.69 g/cm3, roughly 30 percent below that of water.

Bubble wrap was created in 1957 when two inventors set out to make what?

Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two shower curtains together and got a sheet of trapped air bubbles. The decorating market did not want it.

The first item ever sold on eBay was a broken example of what?

It went for $14.83. Founder Pierre Omidyar contacted the winner to check he understood it was broken; the buyer replied that he collected broken ones.

Google began in 1996 as a Stanford research project under what name?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed the search algorithm under that name while they were PhD students at Stanford.

Sir Nils Olav III, a knighted mascot and colonel-in-chief of a Norwegian military unit, lives at Edinburgh Zoo. What sort of creature is he?

He also holds the rank of major general and the title Baron of Bouvet Island.

A clay tablet sent to the ancient city of Ur around 1750 BC preserves a customer's complaint about a delivery of what?

A merchant named Ea-nasir was accused of selling sub-standard metal to a customer named Nanni. The tablet is about the size of a postcard.

The world's shortest scheduled commercial flight, about 1.7 miles, connects Westray and Papa Westray in which archipelago?

Both islands lie off the north coast of Scotland, and the hop is flown by Loganair.

The longest place name in any English-speaking country, at 85 letters, belongs to a hill in which country?

The Maori name Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu belongs to a 305-metre hill in southern Hawke's Bay.