When Haiti was fighting the French in a civil war, the French sent some polish to deal with it, when they saw how the slaves were treated the Polish joined the Haiti revolution

On 1939, February 14th a German battleship was launched and was sank with only 118 of the 2,200 crew members surviving. Among them was a black and white cat named Oscar which was found floating on a board and was picked up from the water by a British ship.On October 27th, 1941, the ship sank to the west of Gibraltar and Oscar was found clinging to a piece of plank and was later brought to the shore establishment in Gibraltar. When British officers learned what happened they named him “Unsinkable Sam”.After that he was adopted by the crew of the HMS Ark Royal and in 1941, November 14th, a torpedo hit the ship. Sam was AGAIN found clinging to a piece of plank and was described as “angry but unharmed”.By this time it was enough for the por cat and remained it’a days on land hunting mice in Gibraltar and then being transferred to the UK where he lived his final days.And this was the story of “Unsinkable Sam”

Elephants can purr, like cats.

On 8 April, 1942, a detachment of Polish soldiers, deployed to Iran by the Allies, bought a bear cub from an Iranian boy. In August the bear was given to the 22nd Artillery Supply company and named Wojtek by the soldiers.They fed him condensed milk, honey, fruit, and beer, which ended up being his favorite drink. He also picked up smoking, and enjoyed wrestling with his human friends, and bunking in on cold nights.When the Polish II Corps was redeployed it Italy to fight alongside the British, the Brits wouldn’t transport mere mascots on a troop ship, so Wojtek was formally enrolled in the Polish army as a private.During the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino Private Wojtek helped keep the guns firing by hauling boxes of ammo, each containing four 25 pound shells. These crates normally took four men to haul. For his bravery and service in battle Wojtek was promoted to Corporal, and his visage became the emblem of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.After the war the 22nd was sent to Scotland, before being demobilized, at which point Wojtek was given to the Edinburgh Zoo, where he was often visited by Polish soldiers until his death in 1963.That is the story of Corporal Wojtek, the Polish artillery bear.

If you ever see someone using an iPhone in a movie, they are not one of the bad guys. Apple requires as a condition of licensing their products for use in film/TV, that only protagonists are allowed to operate them on camera. So, if a character is using an iPad in a horror movie, they will not end up secretly being the killer.

The world's largest tire producer by total number of tires made is Lego.

Alexander the great, Mussolini, Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Hitler allegedly suffered from ailurophobia, the fear of cats.

Ground cinnamon is technically sawdust

Your immune system doesn’t know your eyes exist. They have their own immune system. If your body’s immune system ever learned about your eyes it would view them as a foreign invader, and your white blood cells would melt them straight out of your sockets.

A baby could swim in a blue whale's veins. That's how huge it is.

In Starship Trooper, the actors agreed to do the coed shower scene only if the director got naked with them and he did.

Alligators don’t age biologically, they don’t die from old age, they die from starvation or a disease. Blew my mind.

The potato was once so undesirable that even the poor of Europe wanted nothing to do with it. They believed it caused leprosy, sterilization, and an over active sex drive.

There is a forest that is 107 acres, but made up of only one tree. Thousands of aspens that share a single root system.

Michael Jackson owned the original pair of scissorhands from the movie Edward Scissorhands .

When a rooster crows it partially pinches shut its ear canals so it won't deafen itself...

There's a surgery called a rotationoplasty where they remove the middle of your leg, then re-attach the foot (backwards) to your thigh so that your ankle can be your new knee for a prosthetic leg.Seems gross but it really improves the quality of life over the other option, which is no knee at all.

The "little piggie" that went to market...Wasn't shopping.

Chainsaws were originally made for assisting in difficult childbirth (breech, etc).

Dragonflies suck water up their butts and shoot it out like jets when they get tired.

You can smell your own lungs. Your brain just filters it out.

Humans share 99.9% of their DNA with any other human on the planet. Humans share 99% of their DNA with their closest relative, the chimpanzee. Humans also share 60% of their DNA with bananas.

The speed at which an insect can run is limited by its leg length.Cockroaches have hind legs which are longer than the front four legs.In some cockroach species, when running at full speed over flat ground, the front four legs leave the ground. The cockroach’s body acts like an aeroplane wing, flying just above the ground, kicking along with its back legs.

"Louie Louie" was a #2 hit in 1963 for The Kingsmen. The vocals were so garbled and slurred, rumors spread that the lyrics were dirty. The FBI investigated the song on suspicion of violating obscenity laws. After two years, they decided the lyrics were "unintelligible at any speed."Somehow, they missed the drummer yelling "F**k!" at 0:54

Penguin eggs turn transparent when hard boiled.

Queen Elizabeth made the first transatlantic phone call as a teenager to her parents while traveling abroad.

German submarine U-215. Sank during WW2. Didn’t decompress though. It’s still sealed on the bottom of the ocean with 49 people inside. I’ve always wondered what went down in there…

In toddlers, their adult teeth are right underneath their eyes.

There was a Finnish soldier named Aimo Koivunen who got separated from his unit. He had no food or weapons, and to avoid dying, took enough methamphetamine for 30 men. During his insane drug binge, he skied about 250 miles, passed over a landmine and survived, and caught and ate a bird raw. That's just a few details, I recommend actually reading about this absolute legend yourself.

A majority of near-death experiences(being clinically dead but brought back) are positive. Do with that as you will.