79 of Our Favorite Facts of 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/reader-center/2019-best-facts.html

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1. In 2014, James D. Watson, who shared a 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, became the first living Nobelist to sell his medal.James Watson Had a Chance to Salvage His Reputation on Race. He Made Things Worse.

2. Child abandonment was once routine; in ancient Rome, 20 percent to 40 percent of babies were left to die of exposure.Raising Kids Isn’t Easy. Parenting Advice Often Makes It Harder.

3. Among the most notorious Malaysian royals was King Mahmood Iskandar of Johor, who was accused in the 1980s of fatally beating a golf caddy who had laughed at his putt. (He was immune from prosecution.)Malaysia’s King, an Unusual Monarch, Abruptly Leaves His Job

4. Everyone who works at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Burlington, Vt., is entitled to three free pints of ice cream for each day of work.There Is a Free Lunch, After All. It’s at the Office.

5. It took nearly four centuries to satisfactorily debunk the existence of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary — a tree, it was believed in medieval times, that grew gourdlike fruit filled with tiny lambs.Why Fighting Fake News With the Facts Might Not Be Enough

6. A cow’s weight can vary by up to 75 pounds in a day.Robotic Milkers and an Automated Greenhouse: Inside a High-Tech Small Farm

7. A duck can see ultraviolet light.How to Wear Camouflage

8. The Taiwanese artist Shu Lea Cheang’s piece “Garlic=Rich Air” (2002-2003) imagined a postcapitalist society in which currency would be replaced by garlic.The Art of the Internet, Restored and Out in the World

9. Mauritania was the last country to outlaw slavery, in 1981.4,000 Miles, Seven Countries: An African Adventure on Two Wheels

10. The National Hockey League player Andy Hebenton, who never missed a game during eight seasons with the New York Rangers, lost seven teeth on the ice in a two-week period in January 1961.Andy Hebenton, N.H.L. Ironman with 630 Consecutive Games, Dies at 89

11. The artist who now goes by the name Pope.L has belly-crawled the length of Manhattan, ingested entire issues of The Wall Street Journal, and created odoriferous installations from baloney and Pop-Tarts.MoMA, the New Edition: From Monumental to Experimental

12. Elizabethan preachers condemned coal as literally the Devil’s excrement.A Sensible Climate Change Solution, Borrowed From Sweden

13. The genome of the axolotl, sometimes called the Mexican walking fish, which can regenerate almost any body part, is 10 times as large as the human genome.Seeking Superpowers in the Axolotl Genome

14. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or Eniac, was the first programmable digital computer in the United States. It weighed more than 30 tons and included 17,468 vacuum tubes.The Secret History of Women in Coding

15. The McRib sandwich was introduced in 1981 as a way to give McDonald’s another unique menu item after the smash success of Chicken McNuggets resulted in a chicken shortage for the chain.My Lifelong Obsession With the McRib

16. The fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld had 300 iPods.The Last Designer

17. Tyrannosaurus rex strutted around on legs that were about 12 feet long, and weighed more than 10,000 pounds.Tiny Tyrannosaur Hints at How T. Rex Became King

18. Common animal-derived ingredients found in beauty products include squalene (shark liver oil), carmine (crushed-up beetles), allantoin (cow urine), ambergris (whale vomit) and placenta (sheep organs).Why You Should Care About Vegan Beauty

19. Harry Houdini left precise instructions with his wife and friends as to just how he would reach out, if it were possible, after his death.Inside the Secret Sting Operations to Expose Celebrity Psychics

20. King Kong Bundy, a professional wrestler who in his prime stood about 6 feet 4 inches tall and was said to weigh 450 pounds, was called a “walking condominium” by his fellow wrestler Gorilla Monsoon.King Kong Bundy, Gargantuan Professional Wrestler, Dies at 63

21. From 1977 to 2002, the number of Americans eating three or more snacks per day increased to 42 percent, from 11 percent.At Start-Ups, the Free Lunch Is Yours for the Making

22. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, undertook a campaign as an 11-year-old lobbying Procter & Gamble to withdraw an advertisement, for dishwashing liquid, that she thought was sexist.Meghan Markle ‘Moved the Dial’ for British Royal Family in Women’s Day Talk

23. For every one million people in India, there are only 11 eye doctors, according to the International Council of Ophthalmology.India Fights Diabetic Blindness With Help From A.I.

24. Before its atomic red, extremely sweet bouquet came to dominate school cafeterias and birthday parties nationwide, Hawaiian Punch was sold as a cocktail mixer for adults and came in two flavors.How Big Tobacco Hooked Children on Sugary Drinks

25. The 20 warmest years on record have all come in the past 22 years.Pictures From Youth Climate Strikes Around the World

26. Since the Civil War, only four minor-party candidates for president have mustered at least 10 percent of the vote: Ross Perot, George Wallace, Robert La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt.For Clues to Howard Schultz’s Leadership, Look Beyond Starbucks

27. In 1969, the sculptor Siah Armajani wrote a Fortran program to plot the dimensions of a tower large enough to cast a shadow over the entire state of North Dakota. (If constructed, the tower would have been 18 miles tall.)Fraught and Fabulous: Art That Shows a Passion for Democracy

28. In November 2016, after the election of President Trump, immigration officials in New Zealand received 17,000 registrations from Americans. New Zealand typically receives 3,000 expressions of interest from United States citizens each month.After New Zealand Attacks, More People Registered to Move There

29. Dogs can learn words. One well-studied border collie named Rico knew 200 objects by name and, like a toddler, could infer the names of novel objects by excluding things with labels he already knew.How to Talk to Dogs

30. Bees’ eyes are tuned to a variety of wavelengths, including ultraviolet color patterns in flowers that are invisible to people.How Bees Find Your Flowerpots

31. Rhino horn is worth about $9,000 per pound in Asia, driving a lucrative and illicit trade.Rhino Poacher Killed by Elephant and Eaten by Lions, Officials Say

32. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo is one of the world’s longest-sitting heads of state, having been in office for the past 22 years.$7 Million Trump Building Condo Tied to Scandal-Scarred Foreign Leader

33. The media mogul S.I. Newhouse despised garlic so much that he banned it from Condé Nast’s Frank Gehry-designed cafeteria.Ruth Reichl Dishes on the Last Days of Gourmet Magazine

34. NASA engineers, in the 1980s, once guessed that Sally Ride would need 100 tampons for a week in space.Toxic Men Get All the Attention. But Not in These Plays.

35. Penn Station is today the busiest transit hub in the Western Hemisphere, through which more than 600,000 commuters pass each day.When the Old Penn Station Was Demolished, New York Lost Its Faith

36. In 2018, injections of Botox — the No. 1 aesthetic procedure since 1999, according to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery — were up 16.3 percent from the year before.Are You Ready for Drive-Thru Botox?

37. Nearly 10 horses a week, on average, died at American racetracks in 2018, a rate that is anywhere from two and a half to five times greater than in the rest of the racing world.At the Kentucky Derby, Prayers for a Safe Race

38. When Napoleon III of France declared war on Prussia in 1870, he dressed his soldiers to look like the army that his much more famous uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, had led decades before.To Stand Out, the Army Picks a New Uniform With a World War II Look

39. Nicolas Sarkozy, French president from 2007 to 2012, was known during his time in office as “President Bling-Bling,” thanks to his affinity for Rolexes and Ray-Bans and his tendency to favor an elevated heel.The Freudian Loafer, the Intellectual and the Politician’s Son

40. Americans have among the lowest levels of happiness and work-life balance in the developed world.Work in America Is Greedy. But It Doesn’t Have to Be.

41. Recently published findings confirm that bedbugs originated at least 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed Earth.Bedbugs Menaced the Dinosaur Age Before Moving Into Our Mattresses

42. The number of nuns in the United States has collapsed to below 50,000 today from 180,000 in 1965.These Millennials Got New Roommates. They’re Nuns.

43. Vincent van Gogh completed “The Starry Night” in 1889, shortly after having checked into a psychiatric hospital.A Noisy Half-Hour With van Gogh’s Masterpiece

44. The number of airline passengers worldwide has more than doubled since 2003.If Seeing the World Helps Ruin It, Should We Stay Home?

45. A single carp can produce 2,000 babies a season.Fish Cannons, Koi Herpes and Other Tools to Combat Invasive Carp

46. Each spring, around 70,000 garter snakes gather to mate in a series of sink holes near Narcisse, Manitoba.This Canadian Town Comes Alive Once a Year, as Thousands of Snakes Mate

47. Across the world, only 9 percent of all the plastic ever made has been recycled.Would You Drink Water Out of a Can? Pepsi Wants to Find Out

48. It was illegal to sell sex toys in Texas until 2008, and still is in Alabama.The Man Who’s Putting More Sex Toys on Walmart’s Shelves

49. Seventy-four percent of couples who married in 2018 created a wedding site, up from 59 percent in 2015, according to the WeddingWire’s latest Newlywed Report.Tips for Building a Wedding Website

50. Restaurant sales of meat alternatives have risen 268 percent this year.Arby’s Has an Answer to Plant-Based Meat: A Meat-Based Carrot

51. In 1954, the Cincinnati Reds changed their official team name to Redlegs, to avoid being associated with the Communist scare. (They changed the name back to Reds in 1959.)Does This Red Cap Make Me Look MAGA?

52. Scientists have used genetics to reverse-engineer chickens with dinosaurlike snouts.Dinos for Dinner

53. The American swimmer Katie Ledecky owns the 22 best times in the history of the 800-meter freestyle.Katie Ledecky, Overcoming Illness, Qualifies for a Shot at Gold

54. Slightly more than two-thirds of cancer patients treated in the United States are cured.Cancer Treatment at the End of Life

55. Franz Kafka had instructed his close friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn his manuscripts, letters and papers after his death. Instead, Mr. Brod published many of the writer’s most monumental, if incomplete, works.A Yearslong Battle Over Kafka’s Legacy Ends in Jerusalem

56. Until the 20th century, there was little fanfare around the Mona Lisa. Her theft in 1911, and a trip to the Met in New York and the National Gallery in Washington in 1962-3 made her a global media sensation.Want to See the Mona Lisa? Get in Line

57. The longest of the dashes — roughly the length of the letter “M” — the em dash is still largely undefined.The Em Dash Divides

58. Before 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified, 15 states, mainly in the West, already had full female suffrage, while others granted women partial voting rights.The Complex History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

59. In 1971, the average 19-year-old man weighed 159.7 pounds, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and the average woman 131. Today, the average man weighs 14 pounds more, and the average woman 20 pounds more.Naked Came the Strangers

60. In the past, books were more often borrowed than bought, even among middle-class Victorians, who would pay to join for-profit circulating libraries so that they could rent books and get rid of them after reading.Recalling a Time When Books Could Give You Indigestion

61. As recently as the 1950s, doctors considered exercise dangerous for people over age 40; for heart disease, which was then killing a record number of Americans, they prescribed bed rest.How Many Steps Should You Take a Day?

62. The floor in a public restroom has around two million bacteria per square inch. A toilet seat, on the other hand, has an average of about 50 per square inch.Should You Take Your Shoes Off at Home?

63. More than 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions is being stored in the ocean.How Has Climate Change Affected Hurricane Dorian?

64. One in four cowboys during what is known as the Pioneer Era, which began following the Civil War in 1865 and ended around 1895, were black, according to historians.Restoring Black Cowboys to the Range

65. The advantage for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors fades steadily after their first jobs, and by age 40 the earnings for majors like social science or history have caught up.In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure

66. Hurricane Dorian blew some birds to Nova Scotia. And some were spotted hiding out in the hurricane’s eye.Hurricanes May Kill Some Birds, but Humans Are the Real Threat

67. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that alcohol-induced hangovers are a protective warning sign that has compelled humans to modify future behavior and “pass on this evolutionary advantage to next generations.”German Court Says a Hangover Is an Illness

68. In 2014, a survey found that the YouTube celebrity PewDiePie was more popular with American teenagers than Katy Perry, Johnny Depp or Leonardo DiCaprio.What Does PewDiePie Really Believe?

69. Elton John is Eminem’s A.A. sponsor.Elton John Puts Down in Words How Wonderful (and Weird) Life Has Been

70. The biggest human Ebola outbreak, the West African outbreak that began in late 2013 and killed more than 11,000 people, is thought to have started when a child played inside a tree where Ebola-infected bats roosted and left droppings.You’re Swabbing a Dead Gorilla for Ebola. Then It Gets Worse.

71. “The Office” is Netflix’s most-watched show. It clocked 45.8 billion viewing minutes last year, according to Nielsen.The ‘Office Ladies’ Return to Dunder Mifflin

72. The data marketing company Epsilon Data Management claims on its website to have “insights on virtually every U.S. consumer.”Ad Giant Wins Over Disney With Big Data Pitch

73. The word “Sioux” refers to a coalition of seven allied and related nations, including the Lakotas, but the word itself is a French corruption of “Nadouessioux,” an Ojibwe word meaning “snake” — or enemy.‘Lakota America’ Puts the Tribe of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse Front and Center

74. In a survey published in October by a respected French polling firm, in The Journal du Dimanche, 61 percent of respondents said that Islam was “incompatible with the values of French society,” an increase of 8 percent over February.How ISIS Changed France

75. Kissing, according to one study, transfers up to one billion bacteria from one mouth to another, along with 0.2 micrograms of food bits.Your Body Is a Wonderland

76. On Nov. 11, 1911, both a record high of 82 degrees and a record low of 13 degrees were recorded in Columbia, Mo.Arctic Blast Could Break Dozens of Weather Records

77. The 2018-19 season was the first time more than half of the television episodes produced in a year were directed by women or people of color, according the Directors Guild of America.Study of TV Directors Finds Record Level of Diversity

78. In France, a bachelor’s program at a public university costs 170 euros, or about $187, a year.Student Sets Himself on Fire, Highlighting Broader Distress in France

79. An increase of just one star in a rating on Amazon correlates with a 26 percent increase in sales, according to a recent analysis by the e-commerce consulting firm Pattern.When Is a Star Not Always a Star? When It’s an Online Review

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