50 Random Facts List #12

The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, becoming the first soundtrack album in history consisting entirely of previously released songs to top the chart.

2. Although many Simpsons characters are named after Matt Groening's family members, he refused to name the Simpsons' Grandpa after his own grandfather, Abraham, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. Coincidentally, they chose Abraham, unaware that it was the name of Matt's grandfather.

3. In 2014, when Pope Francis released white doves from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square in Rome the "symbol-of-peace" birds were immediately attacked by a seagull and a crow.

4. Special care was taken while restoring Shakespeare's grave to ensure that his bones remained untouched as the epitaph on his tombstone reads: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones."

5. In the mid-2000s, Disney bid the rights to use Harry Potter for theme park attractions. However, Disney refused to give its creative control to JK Rowling's demands, and JK Rowling went to Universal Parks & Resorts instead, in which Universal gave her terms.

In 1985, a man drowned at a pool party full of lifeguards that were celebrating that no one had drowned that season.

7. The name "Six Flags" refers to the flags of the six different nations that have governed Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, and the Confederate States of America.

8. Robert Downey Jr. was paid 100 times more for Iron Man 3 than he was for Iron Man 1. ($500,000 for Iron Man 1 vs. $50 Million for Iron Man 3.

9. James "Shanghai" Kelly, who in the 1800s kidnapped men and forced them to work on ships. One year on his birthday he announced he was hosting a free "booze cruise" to celebrate, served opium-laced whiskey to the attendees, then offloaded them onto waiting ships and got 100 men in one night

10. People used to think the kidneys governed one's conscience, and several Bible verses say God inspects the kidneys of the dead. Jewish tradition holds that one kidney counsels what is good, and the other what is evil.

In 2013, Robert Downey Jr. beat out George Clooney in a bidding war for movie rights to Black Mirror (UK) episode 'The Entire History of You' because they loved it so much.

12. Snoop Dogg has a charity to stop young kids from getting hooked on drugs or getting mixed up with gangs.

13. When Einstein died his brain went missing which was found 23 years later in the basement of a pathologist, stored in tupperware containers.

14. Low-background steel is steel made before the first nuclear bomb tests in the 40's because modern steel is contaminated with radionuclides because its production used atmospheric air

15. Two-thirds of McDonald's total revenue in Europe comes from collecting rent

Rats, dolphins and humans, are thought to have metacognition, the awareness of your ability to think.

17. When Governor Len Small of Illinois was acquitted of embezzlement, eight of the jurors who made the decision received state jobs

18. During New Zealand's first rugby match vs England, an English player's shorts got ripped off. The NZ players formed a circle so he could change. Another Englishman picked up the ball and scored. Later the English demanded an apology after NZ criticized the referee, which was "unsportsmanlike".

19. At the age of 13, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II was one of the first known teenagers to take a mirror selfie.

20. Steve Jobs and Shirley Temple are buried in unmarked graves in a Palo Alto Cemetery.

19th-century physicists couldn’t explain cats always landing on their feet because it’s impossible for a rigid body to gain angular momentum. The solution is that cats are not rigid bodies.

22. Left-handed sugar exists. It is an artificial, mirrored variant of regular glucose which tastes exactly the same but can't be metabolized as normal. As a result, it contains very few calories, can be eaten by diabetics and doesn't promote any tooth decay.

23. Blue Smarties were not removed from circulation for making kids hyper, but instead because when Nestle was replacing artificial dyes with natural ones, no natural dye could be found which would make smarties blue

24. The jets extending from slow-motion Nuclear Explosions are the tower's support cables being vaporized by x-rays before the shockwave even hits.

25. The first recipient (Hal Finney) of a bitcoin transaction was using his amassed fortune from the cryptocurrency to fund the cryogenic preservation of his body. He died in 2014 from ALS.