In 1926, Poland sent the US a birthday card with over 5 million signatures.

Polish citizen Leopold Kotnowski visited the White House to present the card for America’s 150th birthday. It has 30,000 pages full of art, photos, poems and pressed flowers. Volumes 14-110 were digitized by the Library of Congress, and some are available online

Studies show those who are often stressed, get irritated easily, and worry about things tend to have longer life spans than people who are more laid back.

Vivian from Paper Mario 2004 is a transgender woman. It is openly stated in the Japanese version that she ‘appears to be a girl but is really a boy’ seeking acceptance from her sisters, who finally see her as female in the end.

The human sigh acts as a reset button.

People are helping premature babies by crocheting tiny octopuses. The tentacles are thought to mimic the feel of an umbilical cord, and babies who cuddle an octo are less likely to pull out their monitors and tubes.

When hospitals that participate in the Octo Project noted an increase in the overall health of their preemies, volunteers around the world began flooding them with donations.

Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right-handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each step’s size while attackers tripped over them.

Washington D.C.’s pink cherry blossom trees were a gift. In 1912, Japan sent more than 3,000 cherry blossom seeds to be planted near the Potomac River as a symbol of friendship between nations.

There’s a team of women in India who bring justice to the oppressed women of their country. ‘The Gulabi Gang’ wear pink saris, carry bamboo sticks as weapons, and are trained in counter- aggression techniques, like smearing abusive men with chilli powder. If the police fail to help an abused woman, the gang steps in and asks the husband to change his ways- but if he won’t, they ask his wife to join them in beating him.

There’s a theme park that puts kids to work. Instead of offering thrill rides, KidZania lets children experience being a responsible adult. At locations in over 20 different countries, kids ages 4-14 can walk the paved streets of a kid city, work in a variety of jobs, and use their earnings to buy trinkets in the gift shop or rent electric versions of luxury cars.

There’s a brain condition that gives you an uncontrollable urge to make puns.

If you’ve damaged the right frontal lobe of your brain, you can develop Witzelsucht, which is German for “joke addiction”. The condition causes a compulsive need to constantly make up or tell jokes- even in the middle of the night or during an important interview.

Personality traits like honesty and helpfulness can make you appear more physically attractive.

Witches were never burned at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials.

Out of all the women and men convicted, 19 were sentenced to death by hanging, one was pressed to death under heavy stones, and others died in jail while awaiting trial- but no witches were executed by burning in the English colonies of North America because the law did not permit it.

In 2012, JC Penney got rid of all sales,  discounts, and coupons to institute the “Fair and Square” pricing policy.

The  consumers hated it, the company’s stock  plummeted, the CEO was fired, and they had to revert back to inflating prices so people would be tricked into thinking the ‘sales’ were actually a good deal.

Dinosaurs may have been just minutes away from surviving extinction.

Some researchers believe it wasn’t the size or scale of the asteroid that wiped them out, but the location of where it hit Earth. If it had landed just a few minutes earlier or later, it would have hit the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Yucatan Peninsula, and the dinosaurs might have survived.

The asteroid unleashed mass devastation on the planet, including the largest Tsunami in earth’s history, scientists said.

There’s an octopus city off the coast of Australia. ‘Octlantis’ is home to about 15 octopuses who built their dens with beer bottles and leftover shells from their prey.

They’ve been observed living together, mating, forming gangs to keep intruders away, and even evicting each other from their dens, which suggests they may not be such solitary creatures after all.

Ambient-Mixer.com has a section dedicated to the background sounds of fictional worlds, so you can study to the sounds of the Gryffindor common room, read in Belle’s library, or browse the Internet while you’re being chased by a hoard of Dothraki.

In Goodfellas, the ‘Am I a clown? Do I amuse you?’ the scene, where Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) attacks Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) for calling him a ‘funny guy’, was Pesci’s idea.

He’d once worked at a restaurant where he got a nasty reply after telling a real-life mobster he was funny, so he suggested it to director Martin Scorsese, and they filmed it without a script to get genuine reactions from the cast.

The FBI views animal abuse as a very serious crime.

They track it right along with homicide, arson, and assault, because “there is overwhelming evidence that [animal abuse] is linked to crimes against people, including violent crimes and domestic violence.”

‘The Raven’ was almost ‘The Parrot’. When Edgar Allen Poe first conceived of the poem, he wanted a ‘melancholy’ feel and planned to use 'nevermore’ as a refrain.

Deciding that a talking, non- reasoning animal would be the best way to repeat the word, Poe first thought of a parrot - until he realized ravens are 'equally capable of speech, and infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone.’

Ravens can spot a cheater and will shun one another for being unfair.

The birds work together to get equal amounts of food - but if they notice another raven taking more than its fair share, they immediately lose trust and won’t cooperate with them in the future.