Looking for a fun way to discover new knowledge? Our Random Facts Generator delivers 10 surprising facts every time you refresh — covering history, science, culture, and more. It’s the easiest way to explore fascinating trivia on the fly, with fresh facts waiting for you on every visit. Keep clicking to uncover unexpected stories and boost your knowledge instantly.
1. Stephen Paddock, known for committing the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, had a father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, who was also a criminal. Benjamin was a bank robber who appeared on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list from 1969 to 1977. The Paddock family's criminal history spans decades.
2. On February 14, 1884, tragedy struck Theodore Roosevelt twice in the same house. His mother, Martha, died of typhoid fever at age 49, and less than twelve hours later, his wife, Alice, succumbed upstairs to kidney failure shortly after giving birth to their daughter. The 26-year-old Roosevelt recorded the moment in his diary with a single, haunting line beside a large X: "The light has gone out of my life." The double loss shattered him and marked one of the darkest days of his life.
3. The density of Phobos, Mars' largest and closest moon, suggests that 25-35% of its volume consists of empty space. Tidal forces will eventually cause Phobos to either collide with Mars or break apart into a ring in approximately 50 million years.
4. In 1941, Missouri senator Harry Truman took charge of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, quickly nicknamed the "Truman Committee," to police waste and profiteering in U.S. war production. Over the war years, the bipartisan panel exposed enough corruption and inefficiency that it was credited with saving an estimated 10 to 15 billion dollars in military spending, several times the roughly 2 billion dollar cost of the Manhattan Project. The committee's tough, high-profile investigations turned Truman into a national watchdog figure and became a major reason party leaders chose him to serve as Franklin Roosevelt's vice president.
5. In 1816, white American reformers founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) to promote sending free Black Americans and emancipated slaves to Africa. Among its prominent supporters were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison, all of whom saw colonization as a potential solution to racial tensions in the U.S. Madison even became president of the Society in 1833, and Monroe actively backed efforts to acquire land in Africa for settlement.
6. In 1981, NASA planned to send astronauts to Mars using NERVA nuclear rockets. However, Congress cut NASA's funding, and President Nixon canceled the NERVA project entirely in 1973. As a result, NASA shifted its focus to developing the Space Shuttle program instead.
7. Thomas Jefferson's interest in natural history led him to send Lewis and Clark on an expedition to map the American West. He hoped they might discover living mastodons, large, extinct, elephant-like mammals. Jefferson was fascinated by the fossils being found across North America and believed these creatures might still roam the unexplored territories.
8. George Washington asked James Madison to draft a farewell address after his first term. Madison wrote it, but Washington was persuaded by his Cabinet to run for a second term. Four years later, Alexander Hamilton helped him rewrite his "Farewell Address."
9. The Grand Tack Hypothesis suggests that Jupiter originally formed at 3.5 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. It then migrated inward to 1.5 AU before reversing course. This reversal occurred due to an orbital resonance with Saturn, eventually stabilizing Jupiter near its current orbit. This migration played a significant role in shaping the solar system's structure.
10. In 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas. The locals, however, opened fire on them, resulting in a dramatic shootout that killed most of the gang members. This failed heist marked the end of the Dalton Gang's criminal exploits.
