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An 11-year-old is responsible for naming  Pluto.

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In 1930, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) was struggling to come up with
a name for a newly-discovered planet. They considered Minerva, Zeus, Atlas,
and Persephone—but it was 11-year-old Venetia Burney Phair who suggested
Pluto, inspired by the god of the underworld. When the idea eventually
reached RAS with the help of the girl's connected family—her librarian
grandfather knew many astronomers—they loved it and ultimately decided to
use the suggestion.
8
Armadillos swallow air to become buoyant when they swim.
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When armadillos go swimming, they don't need a flotation device to keep
them from sinking—they are the flotation device. To stay afloat, the creatures
swallow air to make themselves buoyant, according to the Library of Congress.
However, they also have another option, which involves expelling air so they
can sink and walk across the bottom of a body of water. Stunningly, armadillos
can hold their breath for six minutes or more.
9
People write love letters to trees in Australia via email.
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The city of Melbourne, Australia, wants to take care of its trees—so much so
that in 2013, they assigned each one an email address so that the public could
report any problems—like dangerous branches—that they noticed.

However, instead of sending messages about issues, people began writing love
letters to the trees. "My dearest Ulmus," one note began, according to The
Atlantic. "As I was leaving St. Mary's College today I was struck, not by a
branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time.
You're such an attractive tree."
10
Where the Wild Things Are was supposed to have been about horses—but
the illustrator couldn't draw them.
HarperCollins Publishers
Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is a beloved children's book
from 1963 that was inspired by the author's own childhood. But it wasn't
always about the so-called "wild things." The book was originally going to be
about a young boy who finds himself in a land filled with wild horses.
Although Sendak's editor loved the idea, there was one problem: Sendak, who
was also the book's illustrator, couldn't draw horses. However, he was able to
draw "wild things"—and so the entire premise of the book changed.
11
On Mars, sunsets are blue.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
The sunsets we know are typically mellow yellow or fiery pink. But if we lived
on Mars, we'd witness blue sunsets, as seen in a series of images snapped by
NASA's Curiosity rover in 2015. As Mark Lemmon, a scientist who worked on
the Curiosity team, explained to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "The
colors come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue
light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently."
12
There's a Russian village where every resident is a tightrope walker.
Shutterstock
Traversing a highwire may seem like a relatively uncommon ability. However,
there's one Russian community where it's a perfectly normal thing to be able
to do. In Tsovkra-1—a small, secluded village in the southern republic of
Dagestan—everyone who's physically able can walk on a tightrope in
a tradition that's existed for more than 100 years. It's even taught in school to
the village children. Even though only 400 people still live in the region, at
least 17 tightrope walkers from the area have found fame in circuses due to
their impressive aerial abilities.
13
Domino's Japan trained reindeer to deliver pizza.
Shutterstock
Back in 2016, Domino's Japan wanted reindeer to do a little more than just
pull Santa's sleigh—they wanted the animals to deliver pizzas to hungry
customers. The company released a video of employees tying pizzas to the
animals' backs and said customers would be able to track their pies via GPS.
14
The world record for the tallest stack of doughnuts totaled more than
3,000.
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Measuring almost 5-feet tall, the pyramid-shaped tower was made up of 3,100
doughnuts. According to Guinness World Records, the structure was
"designed on a number of different software products to ensure its structural
integrity." The organizers behind the project enlisted the help of a structural
engineer and an architect, who eventually concluded a pyramid shape would
give them "the best combination of stability and height."
15
Benjamin Franklin was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of
Fame.
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Benjamin Franklin wasn't only a skilled writer, politician, and scientist—he
was also an avid swimmer. Franklin began swimming as a child in Boston,
which led to one of his first inventions: oval palletes worn on the hands so he
could swim faster. His enthusiasm for the sport continued throughout his life
and was so well-documented that he was eventually given an honorary
induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
16
Only two national flags have the color purple on them.
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Those two countries are Dominica, which uses purple in its flag's central
image of a sisserou parrot, and Nicaragua, which includes a purple stripe in a
rainbow that's featured on the national coat of arms at the center of the flag.
17
There's a shrimp-like creature that makes aluminum armor to protect
itself.
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The pressure of the deep sea is so intense that it would crush the bodies of any
critter not equipped to withstand it. That's why Hirondellea gigas—a small,
shrimp-like amphipod—adapted to form a layer of aluminum hydroxide gel to
cover its exoskeleton, acting as a kind of pressure-resistant armor, according
to 2019 research published in the journal PLoS One.
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Your dog knows when someone isn't trustworthy.
Shutterstock
You may be able to tell when your furry BFF is thrilled to see you, but your dog
probably knows even more about you and other people than you do about
them. Not only do dogs have innate instincts to protect their humans, but a
2015 study published in the journal Animal Cognition suggests that pups can
even tell if a person is untrustworthy based on their behavior.
19
Mount Rushmore cost less than $1 million.