‘All That’s Interesting’: 45 Cool Facts To Spark Your Curiosity

In the 1950s, Ella Fitzgerald wasn't allowed to perform in Hollywood’s most popular nightclub, The Mocambo, because of her race.⁠ ⁠ Marilyn Monroe called the owner and explained that if he booked Ella, she would be there every night. He booked Ella and Marilyn was there, front table, every single night as promised.⁠ ⁠Ella said, "After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman, a little ahead of her time, and she didn’t even know it."⁠
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A cat that befriended a herd of capybaras at a Malaysian zoo is now an official member of their enclosure. Oyen the cat first appeared with the other animals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the capybaras seem to have adopted him as one of their own. With visits spiking as the cat and his new family have gained fame, the zoo has codified his interspecies adoption by putting up a sign reading "Capybaras & Oyen."

Rosemary Hayne, a 39-year-old mother of four, recently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after throwing a burrito bowl in the face of a Chipotle employee because her food looked "disgusting." Judge Timothy Gilligan wanted Hayne to face justice, but he also wanted her to gain "a sense of empathy," so he gave her a choice. She could either face a 90-day jail sentence or spend 30 days behind bars and 60 days working in a fast food restaurant. Hayne chose the second option — and now she will have to spend at least 20 hours per week dealing with fast food customers herself.

"I was, like, completely speechless."⁠
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In July 2022, seven-year-old Liam Fisher, his 10-year-old brother Jessin, and their nine-year-old cousin Kaiden Madsen were out for a hike near the tiny town of Marmarth, North Dakota. The boys then saw what looked like a small fossil sticking out of the ground. Liam initially thought it was just a "chunk-osaurus," a made-up name these aspiring paleontologists created for any fossil fragment that's too small to identify. And when they showed it to a family friend, a paleontologist at a museum in Denver, he thought it might belong to a common duckbill dinosaur known as a hadrosaurus. But when the boys returned to the site and resumed their dig, they quickly came across a jawbone with enormous teeth sticking out of it — and soon realized that they'd actually uncovered a T. rex.

In 1882, a Seychelles giant tortoise was gifted to William Grey-Wilson, the future governor of St. Helena. The creature was later named Jonathan, and he has since lived to see 30 more governors take office. Based on his size when he arrived on the island, experts believe Jonathan was born no later than 1832 — which means the 191-year-old reptile is both the world's longest living land animal and the oldest known tortoise to ever live.

On May 18, 1980, Washington's Mount St. Helens erupted in a cataclysmic blast that left 57 people dead and an area the size of Chicago completely devastated. That day, a freelance photographer named Robert Landsburg was just four miles from the summit when the volcano erupted, and he managed to capture a series of haunting images as a tidal wave of ash and hot gas raced toward him. Ultimately, when he realized he wasn't going to survive, Landsburg used his final moments to make sure that his photos would, so he shielded the film with his body.⁠

Just before the start of the 544-mile Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983, one particular runner caught the attention of the Australian media: a 61-year-old potato farmer named Cliff Young. He had shown up before the race wearing overalls and work boots, telling journalists that he had trained in his large rubber boots and had spent much of his childhood chasing after sheep, sometimes for days without rest. ⁠
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Soon after the race began, Cliff Young fell behind the other runners and seemed on track to finish dead last. But after getting just two hours of sleep the first night, Young got back up and started running — and didn't stop. While the other runners stopped each night to sleep, Young kept moving continuously at his slow pace for five days straight. "I'm just an old tortoise," he said. "I have to keep going to stay in front." In the end, Young won the race in record time, smashing the previous mark by two whole days and leaving the entire world stunned.⁠

The 1883 eruption of Indonesia's Krakatoa volcano was so gargantuan that it's almost impossible to comprehend. The loudest sound in recorded history, it ruptured the eardrums of people more than 40 miles from the epicenter, created a sound wave that circled the globe seven times and could be heard all the way in New York City — more than 10,000 miles away.⁠ ⁠ ⁠
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And even those around the world who didn't hear the blast still reported seeing the sun turn purple, the moon turn blue, and the sky turn red. In fact, the sky grew so red as far away as Connecticut that one local fire department was dispatched to put out what they were sure was a blaze burning somewhere right in town.⁠ ⁠From calamity to heroism to the just plain bizarre, these lesser-known history facts will take you inside the most interesting moments from humanity's past