The precursor of Christmas cards was calling cards handed out on New Year’s day by wealthy European families in the Middle Ages.

Elephants so strongly dislike bees (and their trunk-inflaming stings) that they have a specific warning call that tells other elephants there are beehives nearby.

Thanks to metal shortages during World War II, there was a three year span of time where Oscar recipients received a plaster statue painted gold; after the war, the Academy replaced the plaster statues with the traditional gold-plated metal ones.