Random Real Facts That Sound Made Up, But Aren't (14 items)

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  (#1) President John Tyler - Born During George Washington's Presidency - Has A Grandson Who Is Still Alive

  John Tyler was the 10th President of the United States, holding the nation's highest office between 1841 and 1845. But even though he was born when George Washington was still President and passed decades before the invention of the light bulb, Tyler has grandchildren who lived well into the 21st century.

  Tyler had a son - Lyon Gardiner Tyler - when he was around 63 in 1853. Likewise, the younger Tyler fathered children into his 70s. Two of them survived into the 2020s: Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. passed in 2020; his younger brother Harrison Ruffin Tyler remains the last surviving grandchild of John Tyler as of 2021.
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  (#2) American And German Soldiers Fought Side By Side In One World War II Battle

  The final months and weeks of a war are often full of surprising turns of events. World War II was no exception. In May 1945, as the war in Europe was wheezing to a halt, German soldiers actually fought alongside American troops in the Battle of Castle Itter.

  Castle Itter, a medieval castle in rural Austria, had served as a jail for high-ranking French prisoners. American troops joined German soldiers assisting with Austrian resistance to liberate the French prisoners and fend off an attack from Nazi SS troops.
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  (#3) Rival Companies Adidas And Puma Were Each Founded By Feuding Brothers

  Adidas and Puma are two of the world's leading sportswear companies but their histories are surprisingly intertwined. The man who started Adidas was actually the brother of the man who started Puma.

  Before they were rivals, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler co-founded a shoe company in their hometown in Germany. But the brothers had an epic, mysterious falling out. Their joint-business ended, and they went in different directions: Adolf created Adidas and Rudolf founded Puma. The fraternal rivalry even stoked competition between the two companies.

  Though the Dassler brothers didn't agree on much, they apparently had one awful thing in common: both became members of the Nazi Party in the 1930s.
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  (#4) The United States Is Less Than Three Miles Away From Russia

  The United States and Russia are separated by the Bering Strait - and the tiny Diomede Islands mark the point where the two countries are closest together. The island of Big Diomede is Russian territory, while - less than three miles away - the island of Little Diomede is American. 

  Though the two islands are technically located in separate countries, indigenous families who called them home historically made little distinction between them. Cold War tensions, however, brought about a stricter border, thus partitioning the indigenous community.
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  (#5) The Dates October 5, 1582, And September 10, 1752, Never Existed In Many Parts Of The World

  Calendars are human creations that mark the passing of time. There have thus been different ways that humans have organized and re-organized calendars.

  Much of European history has been organized around the Roman Catholic Church. To that end, in October 1582, ten days were skipped over in the calendar to realign it with the equinox: folks in Catholic kingdoms went to sleep on October 4 and woke up on October 15, 1582. 

  Since England and Scotland were no longer Catholic in 1582, Great Britain had its own date recalibration centuries later. In September 1752, the British world - Great Britain and its colonial holdings - shed 11 days from its calendar.
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  (#6) The Polish Army Employed A Bear During World War II

  Polish soldiers in World War II found an unlikely mascot in a brown bear. Wotjek the bear crossed paths with the Polish Army as an orphaned cub. The men adopted him - even going so far as nursing him from a bottle that they had emptied of vodka and filled with condensed milk - and the bear became a soldier.

  Wotjek became a beloved member of the corps. As soldier Wojciech Narebski later recalled, "For people who are far from families, far from their home country, from a psychological viewpoint, it was very important" to have Wotjek around.

  Wotjek directly helped in the war as well. Though understandably spooked by the sound of shellfire, Wotjek nonetheless bravely helped carry supplies during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

  After the war, Wotjek earned a quiet retirement at Scotland's Edinburgh Zoo until his passing in 1963.
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  (#7) Cleopatra's Birth Happened Closer To The Digital Age Than To The Completion Of The Great Pyramid At Giza

  Ptolemaic ruler Cleopatra VII has the distinction of being Egypt's last pharaoh. At the time of her passing in 30 BCE, Egypt became a province of Rome. 

  Even though Cleopatra is one of Egypt's most storied leaders, her life was chronologically closer to today than it was to other icons of the ancient period. The Great Pyramid of Giza, for example, was completed around 2540 BCE. Since Cleopatra lived from around 69 to 30 BCE, she existed closer in time to the internet age than the Old Kingdoms of her homeland.
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  (#8) The Man Who Bought Segway, Inc. Passed In A Fatal Segway Accident

  In January 2010, British millionaire, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Jimi Heselden purchased Segway, Inc. the company that produced Segways, the personal motorized vehicles that run on two wheels.

  But Heselden's enthusiasm for the machines may have been his downfall. Only nine months later, he was involved in a Segway accident that took his life.

  Heselden was on his Segway in England when he was trying to move out of the way for a pedestrian. In the process, he apparently lost control of the machine or misjudged his surrounding space - Heselden plummeted off a cliff and into a river. His injuries were fatal.
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  (#9) Yellow Stop Signs Used To Be A Thing

  Stop signs are red and always have been, right? Wrong. Stop signs were originally regulated as yellow, not red, in the 1920s.  

  Though yellow became the official color, it wasn't the first-choice one. Regulators had initially wanted red signs, but the red dye would have worn away. 

  By the 1950s, technology had changed, and red dye was now able to hold up. So in 1954, red became the new color of stop signs.
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  (#10) The Coolidges Kept A Pet Raccoon In The White House

  One of the most surprising presidential pardons came in 1926 when Calvin Coolidge decided to spare the life of a raccoon. The raccoon had been shipped to the White House from a Mississippian to grace the Coolidges' Thanksgiving table. 

  Rather than feast on it, Calvin Coolidge, his wife Grace, and their son took in the raccoon as a family pet. Named Rebecca, the First Raccoon lived a life of luxury in the White House, complete with lawn games and baths.
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  (#11) Scotland's National Animal Is The Unicorn

  It's the land of Highland cows, Shetland ponies, collies, and terriers, but Scotland's actual national animal is a creature of myth, legend, and fantasy: the unicorn. Unicorns appear on the royal arms of Scotland, as well as the royal arms of the United Kingdom, alongside the English lion.

  In the Middle Ages, the unicorn symbolized power and purity. Moreover, unicorns were reputed to have magical properties. Many people in the medieval and early modern world even believed that unicorn horns, which were actually narwhal tusks that enterprising Viking traders peddled around Europe, could counteract the effects of poison.
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  (#12) The United States Army Had A Camel Corps

  As the United States expanded into the southwestern part of North America in the years before the Civil War, the US Army explored ways to overcome the region's dryness and rugged landscape. One lieutenant offered a unique solution in 1836: camels would be ideal partners in the army's southwestern activities:

  For strength in carrying burdens, for patient endurance of labor, and privation of food, water & rest, and in some respects speed also, the camel and dromedary (as the Arabian camel is called) are unrivaled among animals. The ordinary loads for camels are from seven to nine hundred pounds each, and with these they can travel from thirty to forty miles a day, for many days in succession. They will go without water, and with but little food, for six or eight days, or it is said even longer. They feet are alike well suited for traversing grassy or sandy plains, or rough, rocky hills and paths, and they require no showing.

  It would take another several years before the suggestion was tested. In the 1850s, the US Army actually set up a trial program at Camp Verde in Texas to test out whether camels could in earnest be used. 

  Though the experiment wasn't really a failure, it ultimately came to end due to the Civil War.
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  (#13) Astronauts Have Never Eaten Astronaut Ice Cream In Space

  That crumbly, freeze-dried, ice cream treat that graces the walls of gift shops in science museums may call itself astronaut ice cream, but it is not eaten by astronauts. Those crumbs and dust from the freeze-dried bars would actually make it more unsuitable for a space food than regular ice cream.

  It was developed under contract to NASA for the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, and the sole surviving member of that mission, Walt Cunningham, straight up says, "We never had that stuff." Most likely it was tested on the ground before the mission and got the boot before it ever made it on board. When astronauts want an ice cream treat these days, they reach for regular ice cream. Freezers were included on International Space Station resupply missions starting in 2007.
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  (#14) The State Vegetable Of Oklahoma Is The Watermelon

  There's nothing quite like biting into a nice juicy watermelon on a hot summer day. With that lovely feeling in mind it should come as no surprise that Oklahoma would make watermelon its official state vegetable. Except that it's a fruit.

  Oklahoma already had a state fruit, the strawberry, so to honor the state's love of watermelon and its watermelon growing industry a senator introduced a bill in 2007 to name the melon the state vegetable, arguing that it's in the same family as the cucumber, so close enough. The bill passed and watermelon's state vegetable status was here to stay, although it is challenged from time to time.

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