1

Alaska is so big, it could fit Texas inside twice

Image: Paxson Woelber

Sure, everything’s bigger in Texas… but where does that leave Alaska? The Last Frontier spans about 663,000 square miles , while the Lone Star State covers roughly 268,000 square miles. So yes, you could comfortably fit Texas inside Alaska twice, and still have room left over for California.

2

You could stack 10 Washington Monuments inside the Grand Canyon’s depth

Image: Sonaal Bangera

At its deepest point, the Grand Canyon plunges more than 6,000 feet. That’s more than a mile of height, to give you an idea. To put that in perspective, the 555-foot-tall Washington Monument could fit inside the canyon roughly ten times from top to bottom.

3

The Statue of Liberty’s sandal is the size of a small car.

Image: A n v e s h

Have you ever paid attention to the Statue of Liberty’s feet? Yes, they are visible, right next to the broken shackles at her base. You can’t stand next to the feet, of course, but if you could, you’d see that each sandaled foot measures about 25 feet long , which is a bit over the length of a Chevy Suburban.

4

The Empire State Building was built faster than a modern kitchen remodel

Image: Kit Suman

Did you know that one of the most famous buildings in the world was pretty much speed-built? Construction took just 410 days , starting in 1930 and finishing in 1931. This rapid progress was possible thanks to prefabricated steel parts and a workforce of roughly 3,400 workers each day. Nowadays, your average kitchen renovation takes 6 months to a year.

5

If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the Moon would be a tennis ball 24 feet away

Image: Anne Nygård

This is a fun way to illustrate the relationship between our planet and its satellite. If Earth were the size of a basketball (about 9.5 inches in diameter), the Moon would be roughly the size of a tennis ball (about 2.5 inches).

But they would be a whopping 24 feet away, about the length of a stretch limousine (or a Statue of Liberty sandal). This scale model helps explain just how far apart and disproportionate they really are!

6

A single cloud can weigh as much as 90 elephants

Image: Volodymyr Dobrovolskyy

Clouds may not look heavy, but these giant beauties are surprisingly massive. Scientists estimate that an average fluffy cumulus cloud contains about 1.1 million pounds of water, which is roughly the weight of 90 adult African elephants .

7

You could fit 7 Yankee Stadiums inside the Mall of America

Image: David Vives

With over 5.6 million square feet, the Mall of America is one of the largest indoor spaces in the country . Imagine trying to meet your friends in just one of its 500+ stores!

The mall also features an indoor amusement park and an aquarium. To give you an idea, Yankee Stadium covers roughly 800,000 square feet. You could fit about seven of them within the Mall of America.

8

A hummingbird flaps its wings faster than a car engine runs

Image: James Wainscoat

Hummingbirds beat their wings between 50 and 80 times per second , roughly eight times faster than the revolutions per second of a typical V8 engine at idle. No wonder they have enough force to seemingly fly in place!

9

Comparing lightning bolts with defibrillator shocks

Image: chutipon Pattanatitinon

The energy in lightning bolts can vary, but it’s not uncommon for them to unleash 5 billion joules . Roughly, a biphasic defibrillator delivers about 200 joules in a single shock. And, to give you an idea, it takes roughly 50,000 joules to toast a single slice of bread.

10

Yellowstone sits on top of a supervolcano the size of Rhode Island

Image: Denys Nevozhai

You might have heard of Yellowstone’s supervolcano and how tourists leave mesmerized by the geysers, hot springs, and wildlife.

But the size of its caldera is even more astonishing: it stretches 20 by 45 miles , covering nearly 1,350 square miles. That’s roughly the same area as Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state.

11

Niagara Falls could fill an Olympic pool in less than a second

Image: Hadi Yazdi Aznaveh

A standard Olympic-size swimming pool holds about 660,000 gallons. Niagara Falls, however, pours roughly 700,000 gallons of water every second, meaning it could fill a pool in under one second, approximately 0.94 seconds to be exact.

If you were filling the same pool with a standard hose, it could take about 19 days .

1

E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The friendship between Elliot and E.T. didn't just capture our hearts: it broke audience records, selling approximately 142 million tickets domestically, beating the incredibly successful Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). It held that record for over a decade, until Jurassic Park snatched the title in the 90s.

This Steven Spielberg classic starred Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore when she was still a child, and it featured a soundtrack by composer John Williams that made the audience feel like they were flying on a bicycle along with Elliot and his extraterrestrial friend.

2

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back contains one of the most famous lines in film history: "I am your father." The first installment of the Star Wars saga (later retitled as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) had been the biggest film of the 70s. As soon as the decade changed, Empire brought millions of fanatics to the theatres again. It sold around 98 million tickets in the US and Canada.

Directed by Irvin Kershner and produced by George Lucas, the film reunited audiences with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. The story follows the Rebel Alliance on the run. Though slightly less commercially dominant than its predecessor, it was still one of the top-grossing films of the decade.

3

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

By the time Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade hit theaters in 1989, the fedora-wearing archaeologist was already a global icon, having charmed audiences in the first two installments.

Three of the big names that were involved in this production have already been mentioned on this list: Director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas, and star Harrison Ford. This time, he was joined by the great Sean Connery playing his father. This installment sold an estimated 49 million tickets domestically.

4

Batman (1989)

When director Tim Burton took over the superhero’s story for this late-eighties movie, he gave a darker, stylized touch to the genre. Starring Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight alongside Jack Nicholson as the Joker, this film was a great departure from the comic book storytelling that audiences had gotten used to with the 60s iconic series in which Adam West played Gotham’s hero alongside Burt Ward as Robin.

The film sold around 62 million tickets locally and became the biggest commercial success of that year. Combined with an album filled with hits by superstar Prince, this movie was one of the first superhero blockbusters.

5

Back to the Future (1985)

This movie took the concept of time travel and worked it into one of the most beloved films of an era. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg, the film stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean built by the eccentric Doc Brown , played by Christopher Lloyd.

It was the highest-grossing movie of ‘85, selling 59 million tickets domestically. Its mix of comedy, science fiction, and heartfelt scenes made it a classic viewers love to rewatch.

6

Top Gun (1986)

Naval aviation had never stirred as much popular interest as when Tom Cruise played the daring pilot Maverick in this film. It was the most successful film of 1986, selling approximately 47 million tickets.

The action film, with high-speed aerial sequences and a strong focus on competition and camaraderie, boosted Navy recruitment in the years that followed its release . It also popularized songs like "Take My Breath Away" and "Danger Zone," and cemented Ray-Ban’s aviator sunglasses as a cultural icon.

7

Ghostbusters (1984)

"Who you gonna call?" Directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Sigourney Weaver, this film became one of the most beloved and memorable comedies of the decade. It earned nearly $300 million worldwide and sold 71 million tickets in North America alone, making it a huge success for the era.

Its theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., became a chart-topping hit, and the film’s imagery, from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to the proton packs, became instantly iconic.

8

Rain Man (1988)

This one film managed to make an impact without lightsabers, time-traveling machines, spaceships, aliens, ghosts, or men in capes. Rain Man showed Hollywood that character-driven stories could still become big hits.

Directed by Barry Levinson, the film stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman as newfound brothers who must embark on a cross-country journey. Selling around 43 million tickets, it was the highest-grossing film of its year, which meant the audiences loved it. It also went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Hoffman, which meant the critics loved it, too.

9

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Blending live action with animation had worked very well for Mary Poppins in 1964. Who Framed Roger Rabbit pushed boundaries of the technology and put it in the service of a film aimed at an older audience.

Directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, respectively, it starred Bob Hoskins amid a world shared by "toons," cartoon characters, which included Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit.

It was a major box office success, selling around 38 million tickets. It also won four Academy Awards, which praised its technical achievements.

10

Fatal Attraction (1987)

Directed by Adrian Lyne, this film was a huge triumph for Paramount: Its production cost only $14 million, and it went on to earn $320 million globally. Infidelity and obsession are the main themes of this dramatic thriller that stars Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination.

The film sold around 40 million tickets domestically. Its box office popularity was thanks to word of mouth, as people recommended this adult suspense movie in conversations.

1

Tom Sawyer

Image: Daniel Chekalov

We’ll start with an American classic . If Mark Twain is considered "the Father of American Literature" , then it would also be fair to consider Tom Sawyer as the father of many great literary characters. And while it is true that "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was heavily overshadowed by its sequel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", we have decided to choose Tom over Huck mostly because he was Mark Twain’s first and perhaps most iconic character.

Tom is introduced in the novel as an orphan boy who lives with his Aunt Polly in Missouri. Characterized by his penchant for avoiding work, Tom often uses his cunning and wits to skip school and chores. Perhaps his most famous feat is convincing the neighborhood kids that painting Polly’s fence was immense amounts of fun, and charging them for the privilege of doing his busy work.

2

Captain Ahab

Image: Austin Neill

Herman Melville tackled the issues of fanaticism and the battle between humankind and nature in his 1851 masterpiece "Moby Dick". In that sense, the character Melville chose as a vessel to portray these themes is definitively Captain Ahab, the frantic and monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship Pequod , hellbent on capturing the great white whale Moby-Dick.

While Ahab's obsession is fueled by revenge (since the whale bit off his leg), many critics observe how the captain’s mind doesn’t allow for any other feeling other than his mindless obsession with catching Moby-Dick. In the end, this hatred makes him forget to care for himself and his crew, and in their final battle, the whale drags Captain Ahab’s body beneath the sea.

3

Jack Torrance

Image: Luis Villasmil

Immortalized by Jack Nicholson’s superb performance in the 1980 film adaptation of "The Shining", Jack Torrance is arguably the tortured main character of this iconic horror masterpiece. Jack is a down-on-his-luck writer who gets hired as the winter caretaker of the fictional Overlook Hotel, a historical location in the Colorado Rockies.

Much like Captain Ahab, a big part of "The Shining" focuses on Jack’s fight against his own demons. However, where the Captain fails Torrance succeeds: While the dark presence that rules the Overlook possesses him and makes him attack his family, Jack overcomes these manipulations and sacrifices himself in order to save his wife and son.

4

Hester Prynne

Image: Debby Hudson

Hester Prynne might be the very first American heroin : The protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Scarlet Letter" faces public humiliation and the disdain of her fellow residents of the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, who force her to wear a red "A" on her clothes after committing the sin of adultery.

Yet, Hester always maintains her dignity and love for her daughter Pearl throughout the rest of her life. In the end, the red "A" that decorates her tombstone is not a reminder of her transgressions, but a monument to her determination.

5

Ignatius J. Reilly

Image: mana5280

Ignatius J. Reilly, the bumbling protagonist of "A Confederacy of Dunces", is no hero. He is more of a man-child, an unemployed and unpleasant buffoon whining about the lack of morality in his birthplace, the beautiful city of New Orleans. However, there’s no denying that Ignatius is a wonderfully crafted character and an essential part of what makes John Kennedy Toole’s novel so unforgettable.

"A Confederacy of Dunces" is, undeniably, a unique book: Its characters are as particular and hilarious as the bizarre situations in which they constantly find themselves. In that regard, Ignatius is the perfect protagonist for this unparalleled masterpiece.

6

Philip Marlowe

Image: Michelle Ding

What image comes to mind whenever you hear the phrase "private detective"? Do you picture a sullen man dressed in a beige overcoat and matching fedora , immersed in intense inner monologues about unsolved cases? Well, if that’s the case, you can thank iconic American author Raymond Chandler for creating the quintessential private detective, Philip Marlowe.

Immortalized by the great Humphrey Bogart in the film "The Big Sleep", this chainsmoking detective is one of pop culture’s most iconic characters and one that has endured as a symbol throughout its 90 years of history.

7

Atticus Finch

Image: David Veksler

Just like Philip Marlowe, many consider Atticus Finch to be the quintessential American lawyer : After all, his character is defined by his honesty and dedication to justice. However, the depth of this character from Harper Lee’s "To Kill a Mockingbird" is not only determined by his morality, but for the unconditional love he feels for his two children, Scout and Jem.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" tells the story of the Finch family, which is intertwined with the prejudice-filled trial of Tom Robinson. Atticus acts as Tom’s defense attorney, as he battles the hateful mob mentality of this 30’s Alabama town.

8

The March sisters

Image: micheile henderson

It would feel wrong to separate the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - from Louisa May Alcott’s iconic novel "Little Women", so we have decided to include multiple characters in this entry. Alcott’s masterpiece describes the lives of these four sisters and focuses on their passage into womanhood.

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, "Little Women" is considered to this day to be one of the cornerstones of American literature . Not only that, many believe that the author was able to create a new form of sentimental literature with this book.

9

Blanche Dubois

Image: Lokesh Anand

Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire" proves itself to be a gemstone of American literature just by the genius in its title: While it might seem completely objective, referring to a real-life New Orleans streetcar line named "Desire", it also perfectly describes the unstoppable passion that involves the characters of this play.

In that regard, this play’s protagonist, Blanche Debois, is definitively unforgettable: A stunning yet down-on-its-luck Southern Belle who moves to her sister’s place in New Orleans. She is considered one of the most iconic characters in theater and was played on uncountable occasions.

10

Dorothy Gale

Image: ActionVance

We’ll end this article with one of the most popular American characters in our country’s history. Few characters are as iconic in pop culture as Dorothy Gale is: Immortalized by Judy Garland’s unforgettable performance, Dorothy’s trip to the wonderful land of Oz will forever be a part of American culture and history.

Perhaps the reason why this character is so memorable is the fact that, at the time when L. Frank Baum’s original book was published, Dorothy seemed to be just like every other American girl living on a farm. In a way, millions of American children were able to join Dorothy throughout her trip through the yellow brick road.