Alex Trebek Has Led a More Interesting Life Than All of Us

His Ticket to Stardom Was Wheel of Fortune

There's no doubt that Alex Trebek rose to fame through the vehicle of Jeopardy! However, he didn't start off on the show. When Wheel of Fortune host Chuck Woollery fell ill for the day, Trebek was met with a stroke of luck—he volunteered as a stand-in. The program went so swimmingly that Jeopardy! producers asked Trebek to come on their program full-time.

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The More You Know

  • For 67 consecutive years, Mary was America's most popular female baby name. Linda broke the streak in 1947.
  • There are around 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. If you took them all out and laid them end to end, they’d stretch around the world more than twice.
  • The tongue is the only muscle in the body attached from one end.
  • During World War 2, a bear named Wotjek joined the Polish army. He carried ammunition and occasionally drank beer.
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