When Alexander the Great died at the tender age of 32, he had conquered the known world. Many wondered at the time and since what he could have accomplished if he had […]
Was Alexander the Great Buried Alive?
How a Video Game Pandemic is Teaching Us How to Cope With a Real One
A new disease emerged from a remote part of the world. It started in an animal before jumping to humans. It was highly contagious, but many who caught the disease remained asymptomatic. […]
Rabies — 100% Fatal and 100% Preventable
When it comes to killer diseases, you will be hard-pressed to find anything more lethal than rabies. Tens of thousands of people contract the disease each year. Once the symptoms begin to […]
Cube-Shaped Wombat Poop and Other Scientific Breakthroughs
We at Commonplace Fun Facts are big fans of the Ig Nobel Prize and its mission to “first make people laugh, then make them think.” The list of 2019 laureates touched on […]
The Mysterious Illness That Killed 80% of a Nation
At a time when much of the world’s attention is on the COVID-19 coronavirus global pandemic, it is appropriate to remember an epidemic that history has largely overlooked, despite the fact that […]
How Did a Measles Outbreak Lead to the Use of Telephone Numbers?
As events such as the coronavirus outbreak affecting the ability to travel, many people are grateful for the option of picking up a phone, dialing a number, and being able to speak […]
Fleas Accelerate Faster than the Space Shuttle — 10 Fun Facts About the Flea
Fleas may have been directly responsible for wiping out a significant percentage of Europe’s population during the Middle Ages, but you can’t help but admire the tiny insect’s design. The body of […]
Some of the Weirdest Allergies Known to Exist
Those who suffer from allergies know that the world is filled with all sorts of things that can threaten their health. Even the most innocuous items, such as peanuts, pollen, or cat […]
Benjamin Franklin’s Heartbreaking Words to Parents about Vaccination
Benjamin Franklin has earned a lasting place in history as a brilliant scientist, inventor, diplomat, and philosopher. Due to tragic circumstances, he was also compelled to become one of history’s first pro-vaccination […]
Cannibalism: It Actually Can Be a Laughing Matter
Cannibalism is certainly no laughing matter. Or is it?
Naturally Protected
95% of all people have a natural immunity to leprosy. source
Man Flu Really is More Severe
Women have long disparaged men for acting as if their flu symptoms are more severe than those experienced by women. As it turns out, the men have been right all along. According […]
Not A Place for a Neat Freak or Germophobe
Manshiyat Naser is a slum of Cairo with a population of 60,000. Every space of this neighborhood is covered in garbage. For 20 million residents of Cairo, this where their garbage ends […]
Welcome to the White House. Don’t Drink the Water
Three Presidents who died in the years between 1840 and 1850 have inspired the well-known tales regarding the cause of their deaths. We all know that William Henry Harrison’s one-hour-and-forty-five-minute inaugural address, […]
Cheery Children’s Rhyme About a Ghastly Cataclysm
“Ring Around the Rosie” first appeared in Mother Goose in 1881. However, the origin of the poem may actually rest with the original Black Death outbreak of the mid-fourteenth century. The Black […]
