From time to time, we all find ourselves in those awkward situations where we do not know what to do or say. It can happen anytime, anywhere, and everywhere- waiting in line at a bus stop or supermarket, at dinner parties, eating a good healthy meal visiting friends…suddenly, we are out of topics. For these eventualities, we humans have a solution; the so-called little-known fun facts.

Here are some of them:

1. Karl Marx’s mother once said to him “instead of writing about it all the time, why don’t you MAKE some Kapital for a change?”

2. Male ants do not have a father; males are born from eggs that are not fertilized. And what is also remarkable, is the fact that there are no ants in Antarctica…

3. Most quotes attributed to Einstein were actually never said by him. But that’s relative…

4. The song Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond was written for Caroline Kennedy.

5. Honey will never go off- archeologists have found honey that was thousands of years old, but still edible. Bees are quite remarkable little animals; did you know that they can fly higher than Mount Everest? But then again, mount Everest hardly comes off the ground…

Check this awesome recipe: “Roasted pineapple with Penja pepper & honey”

6. The discovery of the Americas was probably the biggest game-changer in the culinary history.

7. Before Columbus set out on his journey, nobody had even heard of maïs, tomatoes, peanuts, potatoes, or chocolate. After that, European cuisine was never the same again.

8. The fax was invented decades before the telephone was.

9. The real name of the woman who founded the cosmetics brand Elisabeth Arden was Florence Nightingale- yes, the same name as the nurse who killed almost all of her patiënts. She changed the name for obvious reasons….

10. Football icon Diego Maradona has his own church. And by that, I don’t mean that he had a church built somewhere- no, there is an actual church where the life and works of Maradona are celebrated like a religion. Complete with footballprayers….

11. Napoleon Bonaparte, the man who entered happily in many battles, was terrified by…Cats. I know the musical is horrific, and the movie was even worse but really- terrified?…

12. Stalin once killed his pet parrot for impersonating him. He was sorry afterward- only because he could not kill the birds twice…

And there you have it- a few fun facts to break the ice.

Click here to discover fun food facts you won’t believe are true.