12 Pieces of Trivia to Put Under Your Pillow for the Trivia Fairy

As the head of the FBI, Hoover probably had plenty of reasonable fears, but he also was famous for an unreasonable one: He ordered his aides never to step on his shadow.

Next time you’ve got the hiccups, you could also say you’re “suffering from singultus.”

Despite being its first host and creator, Steve Allen’s brief three-year stint as the host of The Tonight Show isn’t nearly as well-known as the hosting stints of Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.

Robert Chesebrough, the inventor of Vaseline, noticed oilmen smearing wax from a drill on their cuts to help them heal faster. He’d eventually formulate that wax into the jelly known as Vaseline.

Think of a national park, and you’re probably imagining trees and picturesque expanses. In Wind Cave’s case, however, it also includes a massive underground cave system, the first cave to be protected as a national park in 1903.

National League umpires from 1876 to 1885 had bare, and probably very bruised, chests.

He also attempted to be a preacher, but was dismissed after less than a year on the job.

For most people, it conjures a picture of stiff, flavorless plastic, but “lamination” is also the baking technique of thinly layering butter and dough that's used for famously flaky pastries like croissants.

One could see how that could become pretty useless, pretty fast.

It directly translates to “the way of the empty hand.”

The world “diamond” comes from the Greek adamas, meaning “invincible.”

I mean that in a very literal, scientific sense. Giraffes’ hearts are 2 feet long and weigh 25 pounds.