The Royal Spanish Football Federation grew preoccupied with inviting Lionel Messi to join the Spanish Football Team a few years after he arrived in Barcelona. But Messi had a different plan; he wanted to follow in the footsteps of former Argentina great Diego Maradona and play for his country, so he turned down the opportunity. When the Argentine Football Association learnt of the situation, they planned two under-20 friendly despite knowing nothing about young Messi (actually, they did not know who that Messi guy was).

One of the sweetest facts about the Netherlands is that the Dutch adore licorice. They eat around two kilos per person per year. That’s around 32 million kilos of the sweet treat consumed each year! 

You’ll be spoilt for choice, with shops in the Netherlands selling over 80 different kinds of drop (the Dutch word for licorice).

A lot more, in fact. The canine actor earned $125 per week for his efforts, while the actors playing the Munchkins brought in just $50 a week.

Consistently on the late spring solstice, a special ball game is played at the Growden Remembrance Park known as the 12 PM Sun Game. The game took place in Fairbanks, Alaska, and because the Sun was out for almost 24 hours on the solstice, there was no artificial lighting from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. The custom started in 1906 and has been played consistently beginning around 1960 by The Frozen North Goldpanners.

As reported by Oprah Magazine, scientists have studied the way that the amount of Vitamin D via sunlight a person gets when their pregnant ends up manifesting in their child's personality and mental health. And that's largely dependent on when the child is born.

"People born in the fall are more likely to develop the panic disorder and/or drug abuse problems; in late winter and early spring to become schizophrenic; and in spring and early summer to have propensities for anorexia, suicide, and dyslexia," the publication says.

 

In 1895, the Frenchmen Auguste and Louis Lumière are credited with creating cinema. They applied for a patent for their Cinématographe, a device that could not only capture moving pictures on film but also display them on a screen. This breakthrough transformed the entertainment business, giving rise to the modern film industry as we know it today.

Mirrors can reflect both light and matter. These mirrors are referred to as atomic mirrors. They trap slow atoms or focus an atomic beam by using an electromagnetic field to reflect neutral atoms.

Have you ever thought of a tongue getting fat? But it gets fat when the other parts of the body get interesting, right? There is a correlation between tongue fat volume and obesity. So, the tongue also gets fat when the body of a person does. Notice this from now on!

When luciferase was first discovered, fireflies were the only source of the chemical. Even though synthetic luciferase is now readily available, some businesses continue to collect fireflies, which may be a factor in their decline.

Above the fire station on Main Street, Walt Disney had his own private - and secret - apartment. The apartment is still standing today, with a light in the window symbolising Walt's presence.

A hogchoker is, indeed, a flounder. It is a little flatfish known as a "right-handed" flounder because its mouth and eyes are on the right side of its body while facing to the right. The basic hue on the "top" side of its body is normally pale sand to dark brown.

Capsicums of various colours do not always come from the same plant. While some green capsicums are simply unripe red capsicums, yellow, orange, and even red capsicums are all distinct plants with their own seeds.

Eulachon or "candlefish" are two names for it. This fish can be used as a candle due to its high-fat content.

Another interesting Egyptian football fact. There are two clubs that are great rivals yet share the same venue, similar to how A.C Milan and Inter Milan share the same stadium while being rivals in Italy!

If you know Hindi or have studied it from the beginning, you will be familiar with all 11 vowels and 33 consonants. It is also written in Devanagari script, as previously stated.

Nepal does not observe an independence day because it has never been occupied by a foreign power. The country is the oldest in South Asia. Nepal was a monarchical monarchy until 2008 when it became a federal democratic republic. Isn't that amazing for a small country surrounded by Asian behemoths?

The yeti belt is home to both polar and brown bears, and due to climate change, their ranges are overlapping, resulting in the interbreeding. Yetis are merely regular bears or hybrid polar-brown bears, according to some skeptics. However, hybrids have only been reported in North America.

Being a pirate was not limited to men. Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Grace O'Malley, and Ching Shih are examples of famous female pirates.

There is little to no scientific proof that chamomile tea can help people lose weight, but it is a pleasant, calorie-free drink that you can drink throughout the day (as long as you don't add sweets). So, while the herbal beverage may not contain any miraculous fat-burning component, it may be a handy pantry item if you're attempting to lose weight and want something a bit more tasty than water. Furthermore, chamomile tea may help control stress, which, as previously said, can lead to weight gain for a variety of reasons; therefore, by keeping your stress levels in line, chamomile may be able to indirectly help you shed pounds.

The Batcave made its television debut. The Batcave, as well as a slim Alfred Pennyworth, were presented in a 1943 TV serial called The Batman. Batman's all-encompassing awareness of everyone's secrets, whether friend or foe, defines him. But this time, we did the research on the Dark Knight, and we uncovered some lesser-known facts about him, ranging from his lost "first film" to some insane comic-book achievements.

With all that land, there has got to be a couple of libraries, right? Harvard has some of the world’s most famous university libraries that boast a collection that is the oldest in America. There are 79 libraries, the main and largest one is known as the Widener Memorial Library. It houses about 3.5 million works in over 100 languages and 92 kilometers of shelves across ten levels. Four of the floors are underground because they needed to expand and could not go anywhere but down.

The greenish-brown dots next to the antennae are lobsters' antennal glands, and it's common practice for them to urinate at one another during conflict or courtship. A male enters a pheromonal state of calm when the female, who initiates contact, repeatedly urinates in his shelter.

Long before it was used on New Year's Eve, a ball dropped from the top of England's Royal Observatory in Greenwich at 1 p.m. every day (beginning in 1833) to assist ship commanders in coordinating their navigation equipment. Similar balls have been installed in coastal places across the world.

Although Lionel Messi is one of the most brilliant football players in history, and despite winning the Under 20 World Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal with Argentina, he has yet to win a major international prize. He came close in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and will have another shot as a veteran in 2022. Lionel, go for it! You certainly deserve it!