Fun Facts: Martin Luther King Jr. got a C in public speaking

Despite the grade, MLK Jr. graduated valedictorian of his class in 1951 and became one of the most highly respected speakers in U.S. history. ( )

Election days were set on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November for several reasons. Sundays were meant for worship, and Wednesdays were often market days. To accommodate for long travel, Tuesdays became the best day of the week to vote. Election days also couldn't be the first Tuesday of the month in order to prevent voting on Nov. 1, a day some Christians observed as All Saints' Day. ( )

Montpelier, Vermont, has the smallest population of any state capital at 8,000 residents. While it is the only state capital without a McDonald's, there is one right outside its city limits. ( )

While adult feet can produce a cup of sweat each day, kid’s feet can sweat twice as much. ( )

According to the WorldAtlas, the precious metal is located 1,800 miles below the surface of the Earth and at many thousands of degrees. ( )

Each foot also has over 100 muscles, ligaments, and tendons. ( )

This is why insects can never get very big. Their respiratory system wouldn't allow oxygen to travel to the inner parts of a larger animal fast enough. ( )

Receiving two X chromosomes with the orange gene is not common, especially when other colors, such as black, are much more prevalent among cats. ( )

The whale's massive tongue helps the animal to eat massive amounts of krill, about 40 million krill a day.  ( )

Bumblebees, which have a large body size and relatively small wings, were previously expected to struggle flying at high altitudes. However, alpine bumblebees surprisingly proved that they can hover at extreme barometric pressures, according to two researchers from the University of California and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. ( )

According to the American Museum of Natural History, platypuses are unlike all other mammals when it comes to producing milk for their young. ( )

Cumulus clouds measuring one kilometer by one kilometer weigh about 131,894 gallons, according to the Library of Congress. ( )

Switzerland’s Animal Protection Ordinance states that guinea pigs "must be kept in groups of at least two animals." ( )

Japan is the country with the highest density of vending machines in the world. (Fox News)

The race, known as the Sahara Marathon or Marathon of the Sands, is 160 miles long and takes place in southern Morocco. ( )

The reason behind the planet’s retrograde, or backward, rotation is not clear. One theory suggests that a giant collision with another large body disturbed Venus’ counterclockwise rotation and caused the planet to spin the other way. ( )

Titin, which starts with "methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylsery," is the body’s largest known protein that maintains muscular passive elasticity. ( )

According to NASA, the celestial body is slightly more than one-quarter the size of Earth. ( )

According to the American Mathematical Society, neither one side of the coin nor the other is more likely to come up during a coin flip. Instead, the coin will land slightly more often on the same side that it started with. ( )

The fruit flies were sent into space in 1947. ( )

Space junk of that size could cause catastrophic damage to a satellite if a collision occurs, according to the European Space Agency. ( )

Phantom pregnancy occurs in 10 to 20% of pandas, according to the director of a China research and conservation center. ( )

Before the Polar Bear Holding Facility was created in the small town of Churchill, Canada, in the1980s, dangerous polar bears were shot instead. ( )

Air sacs in our lungs would slowly collapse if we didn’t sigh every five minutes, according to UCLA and Stanford researchers. ( )

According to Rare Historical Photos, "baby cages" were popularized in London partly due to an 1884 book that stated fresh air was required to renew and purify blood, suggesting that exposure to cold temperatures allowed babies to build an immune system. ( )

The now-famous kids’ toy used to be an off-white dough people would roll across their walls. ( )

The most commonly eaten variety in the U.S. is the Cavendish banana, partly due to its long shelf life, lack of seeds and lower production costs. ( )

This birthing method actually helps snap the female giraffe's umbilical cord. It also stimulates the newborn's first breath and even prevents damage to their necks. ( )

At dinner parties, attendees would not eat the fruit but admire it. ( )

At this speed, blood can travel about three feet per second, according to the Albert Vein Institute. ( )

The French capital removed its stop signs to make police intervention "from secondary ways" smoother and avoid penalizing residents, according to the country's police prefecture. However, other cities in France still use them. ( )

A forestry expert estimated the burden of producing disposable chopsticks in 2013, according to the South China Morning Post. ( )

While $1 million is a hefty price, some zoos are far from going bankrupt over the pandas, according to Business Insider. Scotland's Edinburgh Zoo saw a 51% increase in attendance due to their pandas in 2012. The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., also saw its food and merchandise sales double following the arrival of its two pandas in 2001. ( )

While men and women have different productivity levels depending on office thermostat settings, the relationship between temperature and female work performance was more pronounced, according to a USC study. ( )

While a slug's jaw cuts off larger pieces of food, its flexible band of teeth scrapes up the food particles. ( )

It may take a total of 11.5 days of clicking to burn one calorie, according to Wired. ( )

The Laurentide Ice Sheet, which once covered much of Canada, caused a large indentation near the Hudson Bay. One theory suggests that the Hudson Bay's lack of mass has affected its gravity. ( )

Right-handed people tend to live longer than left-handed people by nine years, according to a 1991 study. ( )

NASA is in the process of developing its next generation of spacesuits, which will cost over $1 billion. ( )

The length of an Earth day has been gradually increasing over the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. This is due to the Moon's influence in slowing down Earth's rotation, according to Dr. Rosemary Mardling, a mathematical scientist at Monash University. ( )

From Honeycrisp to Granny Smith, there are 7,500 known varieties of apples in the world. ( )

The word peachtree was deeply rooted in the Georgia city due to an indigenous Muscogee settlement that translated into "Standing Peach Tree." ( )

In the late 20th century, airlines began reducing cruising speeds in order to save on fuel costs, which spiked dramatically following the 1970s oil crisis. ( )

Because motorists spend a lot of time and gas waiting for left turn signals, UPS drivers usually make only right turns. This strategy also helps curtail accidents at traffic lights. ( )

While American kids make up 3.7% of the world’s children, they have almost half of all toys and children’s books, according to the Los Angeles Times. ( )

A forest area equivalent to the size of Italy was lost that year due to deforestation. ( )

A study into 3,000 sleep-deprived Brits revealed that people were most likely to wake up at 3:44 a.m. ( )

Flamingos typically live near lakes with extremely high salt concentrations, so they often resort to boiling geysers for fresh water. ( )

One jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds across the globe. ( )

That is enough to write 45,000-50,000 words or the entirety of "The Great Gatsby." (Fox News)

The first people to vote from space were two Russian cosmonauts in 1996. NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from orbit the following year. ( )

The word "hello" was previously used to attract attention, such as, "Hello, what do you think you're doing?" ( )

The original owner of the book, a doctor, sourced the binding from a deceased female patient at a hospital where he worked. According to him, "a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering." ( )

It would require 1.3 million Earths to fill the volume of the sun. ( )

The distance between sea level and the edge of space is 62 miles. ( )

Wheels were added to suitcases in 1970, one year after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. ( )

His teacher later bumped his grade to an A after the U.S. Congress accepted it as America’s national flag. ( )

People will waste sixth months of their lives waiting for traffic lights to turn green. ( )

Humans will start the day just slightly taller. ( )

Writers used to use wet bread as erasers until the modern rubber tools were invented around 1770. ( )

Many Russians considered beer a soft drink until a decade ago. ( )

The Australian marsupials are the only animals known to produce cube-shaped feces. ( )

Salivary gland production varies between two to six cups per day. ( )

The underwater mailbox was proposed to attract more tourists and divers to Susami Bay. ( )

The addictive quality and small packaging of cheese makes the dairy product highly targeted among shoplifters. ( )

The 1992 law helps prevent people from spitting gum on the ground. ( )

The "immortal jellyfish" can also hit the reset button when it becomes injured or threatened. ( )

Birds, monkeys and even snakes have been spotted inside the Vietnamese cave. ( )

An average person in the Western world eats about 70,000 pounds of food in a lifetime. ( )

The Eiffel Tower was scheduled to be demolished after 20 years. ( )

Lightning also moves about 30,000 times faster than a bullet. ( )

Dubai's Burj Khalifa set the record as the world's tallest building in 2010, when it first opened. ( )

People would spend five years of their entire life with their eyes closed solely from blinking. ( )

Antarctic glaciers contain so much water that they would raise sea levels by 190 feet if they ever completely melted. ( )

A quarter-pound burger requires the equivalent of about 10 bathtubs of water to be created. ( )

Mount Everest could grow 10 inches in the span of a human lifetime. ( )

There are more trees on Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way. ( )

Honeybees must visit 2 million flowers to create one pound of honey. ( )

The length of the Great Wall of China equates to more than half the Earth's circumference. ( )

While it took over a century for the human population to go from 1 to 2 billion people, it took just over a decade for 7 billion to go to 8 billion. ( )

The Eiffel Tower can stretch an extra six inches depending on the temperature. ( )

On Venus, a day shockingly lasts longer than a year. ( )

Data equivalent to a quarter-million Libraries of Congress are created every day. ( )

The total length of a human's blood vessels could circle the Earth at least twice. ( )

In 2010, the longest traffic jam in history occurred in China, lasting 12 days. ( )

There are over 100 strikes per second around the world. ( )