While more individuals use English as a second language, Mandarin Chinese is spoken natively by approximately three times as many people. English is studied as a second language by almost two billion people, yet only 350 million speak it natively.

With a surface size of 26,300 square miles, the Aral Sea was formerly the world's fourth biggest lake. However, the lake has been rapidly diminishing since the 1960s. The lake is diminishing due to the divergence of the main rivers away from the lake for irrigation projects. As of 1997, roughly 10% of the lake had vanished, leaving only patches of smaller lakes. The majority of the south-eastern lake had already dried up by 2009, while the majority of the southwestern lake had dwindled to become a narrow strip along the old southern sea. NASA images from 2014 showed the eastern section of the old Aral Sea, which had completely dried out and is now known as the Aralkum Desert.

Technically, it is a degree in "Viticulture and Enology" (a.k.a. grape cultivation and the science of winemaking), but we're still applying.

As of July 2019, Spain had 47 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-highest number in the world. These include old cities, massive churches, and other structures. Only Italy and China have more UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with each having 55.

Have you ever heard about Pangram? Pangram in the English Language is a sentence that contains every letter in the language. Sounds interesting? Isn’t it. One of the best examples of Pangram is ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’. The sentence has every letter and hence is a pangram. Can you think of some more Pangrams?

The renowned "Bloody Mary" drink was conceived at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. According to legend, this renowned drink was created for the famed author Ernest Hemingway! Hemingway asked for a drink that didn't smell like alcohol, so he had vodka blended with tomato juice.

Don't worry, the Swedish politician who wrote the letter of candidacy in 1939 did so sarcastically and afterward rescinded his nomination. In an even more ironic twist, Hitler barred Germans from accepting the prizes four years before his own name was called.

The endangered European bison, sometimes known as the wisent, is Europe's biggest land mammal, weighing more than 600kg on average. They may be found roaming the 150,000 hectares of Poland's Biaowiea Primeval Forest — Europe's remaining primaeval forest, which originally stretched across the continent thousands of years ago.

The longest novel which exists is ‘In Search of Lost Time’ by Marcel Proust. This masterpiece has made its mark and left its essence in the Gunnies Book of World Records. The whole novel is contained in 13 volumes clocking up nearly 1.3 million words. Isn’t this amazing?

The average delay of Japanese trains is 18 seconds. What makes them so punctual? Drivers are trained in ultra-realistic simulators and drive one train line only – many don’t even need a speedometer to know how fast they’re going. Competition is also fierce between rail companies, so lagging behind won’t do – they work hard to keep hold of Japan’s huge numbers of train commuters, whatever it takes (even if it means building fancy department stores in the stations…).

Japan is well-known for its non-stop festivals, but Hadaka Matsuri must be one of the most bizarre. Thousands of Japanese men strip naked in public to secure a fortune-filled year, with the biggest matsuri taking place in Okayama, where an estimated 9,000 men get down to their fundoshi.

There was a Canadian soldier who bought a black bear cub from a hunter at the time of World War I. Gradually that cub became his pet and mascot for his troop. The bear was named Winnipeg and was later given to the London Zoological Gardens where Christopher Robin Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne's son developed a great liking of the bear that he named his teddy bear after that cub bear.

On January 28, 1887, two years before Montana became a state, U.S. Army troops observed an unusual sight: a frisbee-sized snowflake descending from the sky near what is now Keogh, Montana. Snowflakes can occasionally clump together before hitting the ground, resulting in enormous, thick snowflakes. It is still the Guinness World Record holder for the biggest snowflake ever.

The Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village was raided by the police in 1969. It was a safe haven for the LGBT community, and rather than submitting, they fought back. Riots erupted as a result of the event, which sparked a global movement that has helped New York remain one of the most welcoming cities for gay people to this day. Indeed, more people identify as LGBTQ+ in New York than in any other American city (yes, we're giving you more NYC facts for free!).

The Hiroshima bombing was so powerful that the shadows of persons and things were permanently seared into the earth. These were dubbed "Hiroshima shadows."

Algeria is home to the greatest stretch of the Sahara Desert, which also serves as the world's largest hot desert, excluding the Arctic and Antarctica. Furthermore, the Sahara Desert covers roughly 80% of Algeria, covering a total area of 1,905,392 km2.

According to new research based on minutes of conversations between Japanese government officials in the run-up to capitulation, the Soviet Union's surprise entry into the conflict with Japan had a more crucial impact.

First, she misplaces her shoe while delivering breakfast trays. She then misplaces her glass slipper while fleeing the ball. Finally, on her wedding day, her shoe falls off.

The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature normally goes to Disney or Pixar films, however during the 75th Academy Awards in 2003, the anime film Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature. However, the film's director, Hayao Miyazaki, did not attend the event due to his opposition to the Iraq war.

Many people believe that the Bible began as a single book, but it is actually an anthology of 66 volumes written by many authors. The first printed bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible, was published in 1455, and it was also the first book ever printed. It has been written and rewritten several times, and it has been translated into over 3000 languages during a span of around 1400 years. Furthermore, the first known text of the Old Testament dates from the 2nd century BC. There are no original manuscripts of the New Testament, but owing to fragments and early copies, researchers are very positive that the Bible we have today is more or less the same way it was first written.

Paris is the fashion capital, and the majority of well-known fashion brands are French (Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Jacquemus, you name it). Of course, they were the ones who came up with the military uniforms as well. The French were the first to deploy camouflage clothes in the military; the name "camouflage" loosely translates to "make up for the stage."

China isn't bashful when it comes to banning anime for harmful content. Without hesitation, the Chinese government has outlawed famous anime series such as Highschool of the Dead, Attack on Titan, and Psycho-Pass.

According to the Pizza Hall of Fame, the first pizzeria in the United States opened in New York City in 1905. Lombardi’s Pizza on 32 Spring Street is still going strong and it is now one of around 1,600 pizzerias in the city. New Yorkers have noticed that when the price of subway tickets rises, so does the price of pizza. It's known as "the pizza principle."

In Japan, people don’t have signatures – they have their own seal. Known as Hanko, the seal is typically your name translated into Kanji characters, and are made from silk or plant-based paste. Adults will often have three Hankos; one for signing off letters and personal matters, a bank seal and an identify seal. They’re not necessary for tourists, but foreigners living in Japan can have one handmade in small, local shops.