12 Trivia Tidbits Your Child Refuses to Learn Unless You Pretend They’re An Airplane

Confusingly enough, it's December, the 12th month. Thanks, Romans!

Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, reaching 12,183 feet about sea level, is the highest road that welcomes those lowly two-wheel-drive cars.

The Swedish tennis player was the last person to use a wooden tennis racket in competition, all the way into the early 1990s. No touching underdog story arose, however, and Borg’s racket proved why the world had moved on.

Or as it was known back then, “The Tower of Pisa.” It took a whopping 200 years to complete, and they still messed it up.

To this day, the diameter of a button is denoted in “ligne.”

When it comes time to cross to the afterlife, you’ll likely have wasted four months of your precious life waiting at traffic lights.

African dung beetles are the only species that’s known to navigate with the guidance of something a little larger than themselves: the Milky Way.

Rock band Duran Duran gets their name from a scientist named Dr. Durand Durand in the less-than-safe-for-work sci-fi cult classic Barbarella, featuring, of course, Jane Fonda.

Umbrellas were originally nicknamed “Robinsons” in England thanks to the novel Robinson Crusoe, in which the titular hero invents them.

Astronaut Ken Mattingly must have been bummed when he had to miss a scheduled mission to space after exposure to rubella. Though maybe a little less bummed after it turned out to be the doomed Apollo 13 mission. He still performed a hero’s role here on Earth, however, helping bring the astronauts safely back.

It turns out that the Mayan culture likely used cacao beans as a form of currency.

Though these days it’s usually seen as the “platinum” anniversary, the traditional gift for a 20th wedding anniversary used to be a set of china.