Here's a little-known fact:
today is National Trivia Day! Let's celebrate with some of our favorite facts, pulled from our
Amazing Fact Generator and the
@mental_floss Twitter account.
1. Oscar the Grouch used to be orange. Jim Henson decided to make him green before the second season of
Sesame Street. How did Oscar explain the color change? He said he went on vacation to the very damp Swamp Mushy Muddy and turned green overnight.
2. On Good Friday in 1930, the BBC reported, "There is no news." Instead, they played piano music.
3. The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into
three pieces with
three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. When the other flavors became harder to come by during World War II, Mars decided to go all chocolate.
4. Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.
5. In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel was spending $2,500 a month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash.
6. When he appeared on
Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, Bill Clinton correctly answered
three questions about
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
7. Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" was penned by beloved children's author Shel Silverstein.
8. Ben & Jerry learned how to make ice cream by taking a $5 correspondence course offered by Penn State. (They decided to split one course.)
9. M&M's actually stands for "Mars & Murrie's," the last names of the candy's founders.
10. Carly Simon's dad is the Simon of Simon and Schuster. He co-founded the company.
11. When the mummy of Ramses II was sent to France in the mid-1970s, it was issued a passport. Ramses' occupation? "King (deceased)."
12. In 1939, Hitler's nephew wrote an article called "Why I Hate My Uncle." He came to the U.S., served in the Navy, and settled on Long Island.
13. In the 1970s, Mattel sold a doll called "Growing Up Skipper." Her breasts grew when her arm was turned.