Britain fought a war named after a severed ear.
Robert Jenkins displayed his pickled ear to Parliament in 1738; the outrage helped ignite the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE
Sources · October 14, 2026
Every claim from this day’s challenge, with its verdict, explanation and sources.
Round 1
Folding a paper 42 times would reach the Moon.
Mathematically sound — each fold doubles thickness: 2^42 × 0.1 mm ≈ 439,000 km, past the Moon's 384,400 km. Physically, no human fold passes ~12.
Massive doses of Vitamin C can cure or prevent the common cold.
Clinical trials show no preventative effect for the general public, though it may marginally shorten the duration of cold symptoms once you are already infected.
Round 2
The 1904 Olympic marathon winner drank rat poison during the race.
Trainers fed Thomas Hicks brandy laced with strychnine; the first finisher, Fred Lorz, had ridden in a car for 11 miles.
A "jiffy" is a real, precisely defined unit of time.
In physics, the time light takes to travel one centimeter (~33 picoseconds); in early computing, one tick of the system clock (classically 1/60 second).
Astronauts float in space because there is zero gravity.
Gravity at the International Space Station's altitude is still about 90% as strong as on Earth's surface. Astronauts float because they are in constant, continuous free-fall around the planet.
Round 3
Some tumors can grow teeth, hair, and miniature organs.
Teratomas arise from pluripotent stem cells and can contain skin, teeth, muscle, and even rudimentary brain tissue.
Decaf coffee is still caffeinated coffee.
Decaffeination removes most of the caffeine, not all: the FDA says a typical 8-oz cup of decaf still has 2–15 mg.
Blood is blue inside the body until it touches oxygen.
Blood is always red; deoxygenated blood is simply darker. Veins look blue through skin only because of how light scatters.