Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Fact Cards


These little fact cards are made by the community (thank you). The best ones are polished up and posted to our twitter account.

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There is a finnish battle cry from World War 2 called "Tulta munille" that means "fire at their balls".

Several countries have in the past banned ruling queens, but lacked any requirement that the king be male. This led to King Anna of Poland, and King Mary of Hungary.

Godzilla has official Japanese citizenship.

There's only one country between Norway and North Korea.

Simo Häyhä was a Finnish sniper in WWII who, with over 700 kills in 105 days, can be thought of as the most deadly human in history. The Russians refered to him as The White Death.

There actually is a Pakistani TV show called "Burqa Avenger", featuring a burqa-clad ninja who fights evil people that try to prevent girls from going to school.

The band Abba wore ridiculous outfits to avoid Sweden's taxes, which allowed deductions for clothing if it wasn't meant to be used every day.

In Finnish language there are more than 60 words for snow, but not a single one for "please"

There is a beer called "Fucking Hell" - Hell being the German term for light ale, and Fucking being a village in Austria.

A cat has been the mayor of an Alaskan town for the past 15 years.

When Sweden and Denmark play football, and Sweden is at home. It would say SWE vs DEN, SWEDEN, and the remaining letters, DEN of Sweden, MARK of Denmark, make DENMARK.

Reykjavík's last mayor was an anarchist standup comedian. He had a particular fondness for meeting dignitaries dressed as Star Wars characters.

Google searches for "move to Canada" spiked 1,500% in the USA after the results of last week's primary elections revealed Trump or Clinton were sure to be the next President.

While insultingly speaking Russian to a Polish crowd at a time of heavy anti-russian sentiment, President Carter told them he was abandoning the USA and desired them sexually. The translator was fired

Switzerland accidentally invaded Liechtenstein... More than once.

There have been six reported incidents of Americans being shot by their dogs.

"Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas" is a real military term in Finland.

United States President Lyndon B. Johnson owned an Amphibious car, the Amphicar, and used it to scare guests by driving them into his lake screaming about brake failure.

"lol" as word actually means "nonsense" in Welsh.

To say: "There was no holocaust." is a crime in Germany.

Welsh has several words for 'yes', but doesn't really have a word for 'no'; they basically say 'not yes

In Finland, You are given a Top Hat and Sword when getting A PHD Diploma

Finland has been declared "The happiest country in the world" of 2018.

In Iceland it's a legal requirement to be able to swim.

if you lose your voice, theres a swedish saying that goes “jag har en tupp i halsen” which translates to “i have a cock in my throat”

Sweden and Denmark had a Twitter war in 2016

According to a recent poll (bit.ly/1ZpftFF) by polling firm Maskína, literally 0.0% of young (age 0-25) Icelanders believe that God created the universe - not a single respondant out of 102 surveyed.

Despite SATW choosing to feature it, Texas does NOT have more cattle (11,8m) than the nordic countries have people (26,6m). Seriously, SATW, you need to *Fix This Feature*. :(

A man named Elijah Daniel was elected mayor of a town named Hell, in the American state of Michigan. His first act as mayor? Declare heterosexuality illegal!

In Norway there is a town called Hell, that regulary freezes over. However this is ironic, since hell means luck in norwegian

The largest force of foreign volunteers in history remains the 8,000 Swedes who fought for Finland in the Winter War.

North Korea owes Sweden €300m for 1,000 stolen Volvos and every 6 months Sweden sends them reminders.

Written by Icelandic composer Jón Leifs in 1964, the piece called Hekla, Op 52, requires four sets of rocks hit with hammers, steel plates, anvils, sirens, cannons and metal chains to play.

In Finland, there's a town called Candyland (Karkkila).

English has no second person plural, so a number of regional dialects have covered the word, such as "you guys", "y'all", "you lot", "yinz", "youse", and even "all y'all".

The proper name of Iceland is "Ísland". Today, "ís" is most commonly used to mean "ice cream" (go into a restaurant and order ís, see what you get). Hence, the country name means "Land of Ice Cream"

There are more museums in the U.S. than there are Starbucks and McDonalds – combined.

The word LEGO comes from the Danish words, "LEg GOdt", which means "play well".

Wife-Carrying is a actual Finnish sport.

Three cheers to SATW for adding a comments section to the fact cards section! Now we can confirm or refute what people write! Check the comments before voting a card up.

The King of Norway is 73rd in line to the British throne

The Royal Navy uses loud speakers blasting Britney spears music to scare off Somalian piraty

The thistle is the emblem of Scotland as a barefoot viking raider cried out in pain as he stood on one, alerting the Scottish army encampment that the Norse army were sneaking up on.

To annoy North Korea, the South Korean Government blasted K-Pop over the De-militarised zone.

In Thailand it is illegal to step on money.

"Batman" is a city in Turkey .

There are around 2.2 million saunas in Finland, 1 for every 2.5 people.

As WW2 ended, russians celebrated in the streets. After 22 hours Moscow remained without any vodka

Finland won the America's Plate pizza contest in 2008, beating the American-Italians. The winning pizza was named Berlusconi after the Italian prime minister, whom had insulted Finnish food in 2005.

When the long-form census was restored to Canada in 2016, Canadians were so excited to fill out the form that they crashed the government's website.

vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur is an Icelandic word that means "a keyring on a keychain that has the key to the door of a toolshed used by the roadwork in Vaðlaheiði"

Internet is a de facto human right in Estonia.

Mexico's full name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos," which roughly translates to the "United Mexican States." This means "United States" can technically apply to either the USA or its southern neighbor.

Viking age Finns raided Sweden and Russia and were considered wizards. A norse saga of king Olaf tells how he was defeated by a Finnish tribal army and barely escaped a storm called by their witches.

After the massive success of the movie Kung Fu Panda in China, the Chinese government launched an investigation into why Americans made better movies about China than China did.

Estonia's national airline is named "Nordica"

North Korea uses a fax machine to send threats to South Korea.

The Doomsday Seed Vault on Svalbard has over 21,500 cannabis seeds in it. That means that there are more seeds in there for weed than there are for aspargus, blueberry and raspberry, for example.

There are three sheep per person in Australia. New Zealand has seven times as many sheep as people. Both pale in comparison to the Falkland Islands' amazing 167 sheep per person!

Finland has a competition for mobile phone throwing.

Sweden has an official Twitter account (@sweden) which is handed to a different citizen every week.

During the infamous Winter War (where Finland received no aid from allies) Finns invented the Moltov cocktail out of spare parts, to bomb Russian tanks, as the Finns only had one working tank in army.

17% of all Finns are lactose intolerant, but the country still drinks the most milk per capita in the world.

This scene was actually based on a well-known Youtube video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Norway once knighted a penguin who now resides in Scotland as Colonel in Chief of the Kings Gaurd

Anti-German sentiments during WW1 referred to hamburgers as "liberty sanwiches" because "hamburgers" sounded too German.

North Korea uses drones to take sneaky photos of South Korea

Right after Britain voted for Brexit, the pound's value slumped to its lowest point since 1985.

In Japan, there is a prank children do called "Kancho" where they put two fingers together and surprise someone by pushing it up against their anus through their pants

The smallest US state, Rhode Island (1,212 square miles), has a larger population than the largest US state, Alaska (663,300 square miles), with 1.055 million residents vs. 736,732.

Strongest alcoholic drink ever was made in Rakvere, Estonia during mid-war period. Labelled as "Fat Margaret" after famous tower in Tallinn, it was 98 percent pure alcohol.

Finland is turning a hundred years old this December 6. It's a HUGE thing for us Finns. There's tons of "Finland 100" merchandise like Finland 100 gum and even a box with a hundred beer cans.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was known to lay brick walls down when angry.

Only one person has been killed by the police in Iceland ever since it became a republic in 1944.

In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called ‘New Australia’

"backpfeifengesicht" is a word in the German language that means "a face that badly needs a punch"

Finland consumes the most coffee per capita in the whole world

Every year since 1947 Norway gives the city of London a mighty christmas tree as a gift in return for British forces aiding the liberation of Oslo from the Nazis.

New York, then called New Amsterdam, was originally a Dutch colony. Jan and Kees, common Dutch names, may be where we get the word Yankee. The very American words cookie and boss also come from Dutch.

In Iceland, one of the traditions for Christmas is to receive books and read them the rest of the night. Iceland also has the largest book sales per capita, mainly from those sold on Christmas.

George Washington called a ceasefire during the Revolutionary War to return a lost dog that belonged to a British General.

Estonians invented Skype, but then it was sold to Microsoft.

The Øresund Bridge, which connects Sweden and Denmark, also carries the Internet connection for all of Finland.

A myth in Germany states that "German almost became official language of the USA". Actually there was a petition on having the laws written in German beside English, which was rejected by 1 vote.

Estonia has WiFi available everywhere in the country.

Stephen Hawking passed away at age 76, he lived 55 years with Motor Neurone Disease.

Medical Students in 18th century Scotland could pay their tuition fees in corpses.

Norway once knighted a penguin.

In the Gaza Strip, Lesbianism is Legal, but Male homosexual relationships are not.

Australia has been broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest since 1983, where it has gained a massive fan following ever since.

People who are half Norwegian and half Swedish are called "Svorsk". A combination between "Norsk" (Norwegian) and "Svensk" (Swedish)

The meaning behind the France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was that the French Revolutionary army would water their fields with the blood of Prussian invaders.

Concentration camps were first used by the British during the Second Anglo-Boer War

The state of California has more debt than the nation of Greece.

Austria was the first Eurovision contestant to receive null points while hosting the contest.

At a newly formed Icelandic volcanic island, a tomato plant was mysteriously discovered. As it turned out it came from tomato seeds within human feces.

The 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, had never seen an episode of Doctor Who before starring in it

Napoleon Bonaparte was 5'7" (1.7m) tall, a normal height for men at the time. He appeared short because he was often surrounded by taller bodyguards, and his British enemies perpetuated the myth.

On this day, 100 years ago, the German Empire dissolved

20% of the world’s CCTV is in Britain



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