Fact of the Day: Peanuts are not true nuts. They are legumes, which puts them in the same plant family as beans and peas.

Fact of the Day: Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in the United States, reaching 1,949 feet at its deepest point.

Fact of the Day: Uranus appears to spin on its side. Its extreme tilt helps produce seasons so long that each pole gets about 42 years of sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.

Fact of the Day: On Mercury, one sunrise takes about 180 Earth days. The planet spins slowly and orbits the Sun quickly, creating a very unusual day-night cycle.

Fact of the Day: "Selam," a fossil child from Ethiopia, is about 3.3 million years old, making her about 100,000 years older than Lucy.

Fact of the Day: Alaska has more coastline than all the rest of the U.S. combined.

Fact of the Day: Saturn is the only planet in our solar system with an average density lower than water. If there were a bathtub big enough, it would float.

Fact of the Day: Sloths can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes by slowing their heart rate, which makes them surprisingly strong swimmers.

Fact of the Day: The world's first webcam was invented to monitor a coffee pot. Cambridge researchers built it in 1991 so they wouldn't walk across campus to an empty machine.

Fact of the Day: Koalas are the only non-primates with fingerprints, and they're almost identical to human ones. Even under a microscope, scientists can barely tell them apart. They evolved independently, just because koalas also need to grip and grasp.

Fact of the Day: Before alarm clocks, Victorian workers hired "knocker-uppers", people whose entire job was to walk around before dawn, tapping on bedroom windows with long bamboo poles or pea shooters until their clients woke up.

Fact of the Day: In 1925, con artist Victor Lustig posed as a French government official and sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. The buyer was too embarrassed to report it, so Lustig tried to sell it again a few weeks later.

Fact of the Day: Nigel Richards won the French Scrabble World Championship without speaking French. He memorized the entire French dictionary in nine weeks. He later won the Spanish championship too, also without speaking Spanish.

Fact of the Day: The shortest commercial flight in the world runs between two Scottish islands, Westray and Papa Westray. The distance is 1.7 miles, and the flight takes about 57 seconds in a favorable wind. It operates on an eight-seater plane, and you can actually book a ticket.

Fact of the Day: When Woodrow Wilson took office during World War I, he replaced the White House lawn mowers with a flock of sheep to save on labor costs. The sheep kept the grass trimmed, and their wool was auctioned off to raise money for the Red Cross.

Fact of the Day: In 897 AD, Pope Stephen VI had his dead predecessor dug up, dressed in papal robes, propped in a chair, and put on trial. The corpse was found guilty. This event, known as the Cadaver Synod, is considered one of the most bizarre moments in Catholic Church history.

Fact of the Day: In 1945, a farmer in Colorado chopped off his chicken's head, but the chicken kept living. For two years. "Mike the Headless Chicken" toured the country as a sideshow attraction while scientists tried to figure out how he was still alive. The axe had missed most of his brain.

Fact of the Day: The inventor of the Pringles can, Fredric Baur, was so proud of his creation that he requested to be buried in one. His kids stopped at Walgreens on the way to the funeral home to buy a can. They went with original flavor.

Fact of the Day: Cats can't taste sweetness. They lack the taste receptor for it entirely, which means all those cat treat commercials are basically lying to you.

Fact of the Day: There are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the observable universe.

Fact of the Day: More than 3 years ago, the famous Roman emperor Julius Caesar passed away.

Fact of the Day: Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire. Teaching began at Oxford around 1096 AD. The Aztecs didn't found Tenochtitlan until 1325. Oxford had been in existence for over 200 years before the Aztec civilization even began.

Fact of the Day: The brain can't feel pain. It has no pain receptors at all. Surgeons can operate on a patient's brain while the patient is fully awake and feels nothing. Headaches actually originate in the surrounding tissues and nerves.

Fact of the Day: Ben Franklin designed the first US coin in 1787. It featured a sundial, the Latin word for "time flies," and the motto "Mind Your Business." Only 400,000 were ever minted before it was retired in 1789.

Fact of the Day: Radio Shack sued Auto Shack for copyright infringement. Auto Shack renamed itself AutoZone. Years later, Radio Shack launched "PowerZone," and AutoZone sued them back.

Fact of the Day: Happy National Chocolate Mint Day! The combo works because mint tricks your brain's cold receptors into firing, making chocolate feel extra refreshing. Your nose deserves the credit, too, as most of that "taste" is actually smell.

Fact of the Day: Your fingers have no muscles! They're moved by tendons connected to muscles in your palm and forearm, like a puppet on strings.

Fact of the Day: The heart of a blue whale is so large that a small child could crawl through its main arteries. Weighing about 400 pounds, it beats just 2 to 8 times per minute when the whale dives, yet still circulates blood through a body up to 100 feet long.

Fact of the Day: A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. The planet takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis, but only about 225 Earth days to complete one orbit around the Sun, meaning it finishes a year before it finishes a single day.

Fact of the Day: The chainsaw was developed in Scotland in the late 18th century to help speed up symphysiotomy, a procedure that widened pubic cartilage and removed diseased bone during childbirth. It was not widely used for cutting wood until the early 20th century.

Fact of the Day: Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions. It describes intense anxiety when hearing opposing viewpoints and can lead to avoiding debate or criticism. It’s a rare, unofficial phobia rather than a formal diagnosis.

The shortest war ever recorded, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, lasted just 38 minutes on August 27, 1896, after Britain demanded the Sultan step down. When he refused, British ships bombarded the palace, quickly ending the conflict and cementing imperial control over Zanzibar.

Fact of the Day: A single grain of sand holds roughly ten million tiny quartz crystals. Those crystals took millions of years to form as silica‑rich water cooled and hardened inside rock layers.

Fact of the Day: Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren’t, because botanically a berry forms from a single flower with one ovary, which bananas do and strawberries don’t, since their seeds are actually individual fruits on the outside.

FotD: Honey never spoils; pots found in ancient Egyptian tombs are still edible after millennia because its acidity, low moisture and natural hydrogen peroxide keep microbes at bay.

Fact of the Day: Elephants are among the few animals that can’t jump. Their strong leg structure and heavy weight prevent them from simultaneously getting all four feet off the ground.

Fact of the Day: Tomatoes were once considered poisonous in Europe due to their resemblance to deadly nightshade plants. It wasn’t until the 18th century that they gained popularity as a staple in European diets.

Fact of the Day: Sharks are older than trees. They have existed for around 400 million years, while the earliest trees appeared roughly 350 million years ago, meaning sharks predate most terrestrial plant life.

Fact of the Day: A bolt of lightning can reach temperatures of 30,000 Kelvin (53,540°F), about five times hotter than the sun's surface. This extreme heat briefly turns the air around it into plasma.

Fact of the Day: Butterflies can taste with their feet! Their taste sensors are located on their legs, allowing them to sample plants by landing on them to ensure they’re safe for their larvae to eat.

Fact of the Day: Pineapples were once so rare and expensive that European aristocrats would rent them as status symbols for parties. The fruit symbolized wealth and luxury, making it a prized centerpiece.

Fact of the Day: Cows have best friends and can become stressed when separated. Studies show that cows form close bonds within their herd, and when they're apart from their "friends," their heart rates increase, indicating stress.

Fact of the Day: Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still perfectly edible. The natural sugars and low moisture content create an environment where bacteria and microorganisms cannot thrive.

Fact of the Day: Did you know that art was once an Olympic event? From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics awarded music, painting, sculpture, and architecture medals. These artistic competitions were part of the cultural Olympics, celebrating the fusion of art and sport before being discontinued.

Fact of the Day: In 1881, Queen Victoria ordered two tricycles after seeing one on the Isle of Wight. The inventor, James Starley, personally delivered them. Her interest in tricycles made them fashionable among the elite, changing their association from children's toys to status symbols.

Fact of the Day: Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena named Bill, gifted by the Ethiopian emperor. Roosevelt, known for his love of animals, also owned a one-legged rooster, a badger, a pony, and even a tiny bear, making the White House a unique menagerie during his presidency.

Fact of the Day: Humans can use only 0.007% of Earth's water. While 71% of the planet is covered in water, only 2.5% is fresh, and just 1% of that is accessible. The rest is locked in glaciers and snowfields, according to National Geographic.

Fact of the Day: During World War I, Kimberly-Clark created a cotton substitute for gas mask filters. After the war ended, they improved the material, making it smoother and softer, and later marketed it as Kleenex, the first facial tissue.

Fact of the Day: Pistachios can spontaneously combust.

Apologies for the lack of facts recently. Two powerful hurricanes hit the Tampa area, and we're just returning to normal. Fact of the Day: If you heat up a magnet, it will lose some of its magnetism.