When Jack Dorsey sent out his first tweet over 12 years ago, little did he know he would start a revolution like never before. Since then, there have been close to a little over 500 million tweets sent out into the Twitter world on a regular basis and with people responding to this new wave of social media, the world of texting got a much needed makeover. Before you send out your next tweet to the world, check out these super cool facts about Twitter!

1. Twitter did NOT invent the hashtag

Contrary to popular belief, Twitter did NOT invent the hashtag. The origin of hashtags can be traced all the way back to the year 1988, when people communicated through internet chat rooms called Internet Relay Chats. In fact, the first hashtag was used on Twitter only in the year 2007, when Chris Messena, a former Google employee, thought it would be a good idea to lump tweets by using hashtags.

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— 🅲🅷🆁🅸🆂 🅼🅴🆂🆂🅸🅽🅰︎ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

2. The Sweden account 

While every country has a dedicated person handling its Twitter account, Sweden used to use different citizens to handle the account on a weekly basis! However, as of September 2018, this is no longer going to be the norm. Now, after 365 curators, 119,000 new followers and more than 200,000 Erik was the last citizen who managed the Twitter account.

3. The first tweet about Osama Bin Laden

When Barack Obama pulled off the unimaginable and successfully led the mission against Osama Bin Laden, one would have thought the United States government would be the first to tweet about this spectacular news. However, it wasn’t the US media but Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who tweeted this news for the first time ever!

Just got word that will shock the world – Land of the free…home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 2, 2011

4. Iceland used Twitter for its Constitution 

While other governments used their ideas and inspiration on what they wanted for their constitution, Iceland used Twitter to crowd source ideas on what people wanted. The articles were documented through a vote which had six questions. Twitter users had to vote by saying yes or no and after a thorough research, the Iceland Constitution was formed! This crowd sourcing technique was termed as the first time ever in terms of forming the constitution.

5. Jim Carrey really is a doting father 

Did you know that despite having over eighteen million followers on Twitter, Jim Carrey only follows one person: his daughter? Is that called being a doting father or what?

6. The Hangtag 

Hangtagging is a very real thing. In simple words, this means that when you end a tweet with just a hashtag and without any text before the hashtag, the incident is known as ‘hangtag.’ Further, Twitterpated is also very real. It is used to describe the feeling of being so overwhelmed with information or excitement, you forget to tweet or share the information you are excited about.

7. People read about earthquakes before they felt it 

Social media is a very powerful tool. Did you know that during the devastating Virginia earthquake of 2011, some people in New England actually read about it on Twitter before it happened? Social media clearly has its hands all over the world! Also, the Virginia earthquake has a Twitter handle as well!

8. Mikey Welsh predicted his death 

Musician Mikey Welsh predicted his death almost close to the day on Twitter. In fact, he tweeted on 26th September 2011 saying he was going to die the weekend after the tweet in question and decided he had to tweet about the event. Shortly after, almost on the predicted day in fact, Welsh was found dead in his room. The death was suspected to be because of a drug overdose followed by a cardiac arrest. Creepy.

dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today.

— Mikey Welsh (@MikeyWelsh71) September 26, 2011

9. The most number of followers on Twitter 

Katy Perry remains undisputed when it comes to having the most number of followers on Twitter. Did you know that this beautiful singer has tweeted 9,294 times, she now has 108 million followers! For the last three years, Katy Perry stands at the top of the most number of followers list!

So much to learn about Twitter and so much to know about the rest of the world. If you think we missed out on any facts about Twitter, comment and let us know!