34 Brilliant Random Facts To Immerse Yourself In – Part 116

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1Jaws

Jaws

The creator of “Jaws” dedicated the last decade of his life to preserving sharks after witnessing horrific abuse and to make up for the anti-shark hysteria the movie caused.


2. Fast food chains are banned in Bermuda under the Foreign Restaurants Act of 1977, with the exception of one KFC that was grandfathered in.


3. Han Solo was supposed to die in the 'Return of the Jedi'. George Lucas was afraid that would affect toy sales, so he changed it to an Ewok party.


4. David Bowie ripped into MTV for not embracing black artists in 1983 but Michael Jackson's Thriller likely saved the network.


5. An electric car named “The Phoenix” holds Guinness world record for the longest driven distance on a single charge which is 1600 kilometers. It was built almost exclusively out of recycled parts and cost less than $14,000.


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6Secretariat

Secretariat

Upon the death of the greatest racehorse of all time, Secretariat, scientists discovered that the horse had a heart twice the size of the average horses.


7. If you convince yourself that you slept well (even though you didn’t), you can trick your brain into thinking that you did sleep well. This phenomenon is known as Placebo sleep.


8. On average, British have healthier teeth compared to their American counterparts.


9. During a game of backgammon in the year 480 A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Zeno had a dice roll that was so unlucky that he had it recorded and we still know it to this day.


10. Octopuses have a sucker-proof coating on their skin to make sure that they don't grab and tangle their own tentacles.


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11Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux once said that “Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.”


12. During World War 2, a B-17 bomber named Old 666 survived being attacked by 20 Japanese fighters for 40 minutes. The pilot and a gunner earned the Medal of Honor, the rest of the crew each received the Distinguished Service Cross. To this day, they're the most decorated American aircrew in history.


13. If the genealogy of the early Germanic chroniclers is true, Queen Elizabeth II is descended from the Norse God Odin.


14. In 2014, shareholders of the fast food restaurant chain Olive Garden voted to replace the company's entire board of directors after investors got into a disagreement over the promise of unlimited breadsticks.


15. There was an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' in which three astronauts survive a crash landing and wander through the desert until the last man alive realizes he never left earth. Rodd Serling would use a lot of this plot for a film he helped write called "Planet Of The Apes"


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16George Mallory

George Mallory

In 1924, an English mountaineer named George Mallory may have been the first person to reach the summit of Everest. He was last seen 800 feet from the summit but never returned. He carried a picture of his wife with him that he said he would leave at the summit which he did not have when his body was found 75 years later.


17. The best man’s original purpose was to serve as an accomplice in case the bride needed to be kidnapped from disapproving parents.


18. The Spanish Flu, which killed 5% of the world’s population, was especially lethal to healthy adults. This happened because their strong immune reactions ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups.


19. The very last Peanuts comic strip, in which creator Charles Schultz ended the story of Charlie Brown and said farewell to his fans, was drawn by Schultz in November 1999. He would die in his sleep three months later, the night before the final comic was published.


20. During a visit to London, Boris Yeltsin nearly caused a diplomatic row by trying to hug the Queen. Afterward, it was suggested that the Russian should in the future be advised that apart from handshakes, people do not 'handle' the Queen.


21Baristas

Baristas

Baristas at the CIA Starbucks do not write down the names of the customers on their cups and there are no frequent-customer award cards.


22. Edison offered $50,000 to Tesla if he succeeded in improving the efficiency of Edison's prototypical dynamos. Despite Tesla making a great deal of progress, Edison claimed that the offer was a joke.


23. Action movie star Steve McQueen was offered the leading role of Close Encounters by Steven Spielberg, but McQueen declined since he couldn't cry on cue. Spielberg offered to remove the scene but McQueen said it was the best part of the film.


24. A 91-year-old woman named Dorothy Steel made her big film acting debut as a merchant tribal elder, who advises Chadwick Boseman’s character in Marvel’s "Black Panther." She sent in her audition tape and Marvel executives said “Who is that old lady? We want her.” She began her acting career at the age of 88.


25. In 1997, Mexican film director Guillermo Del Toro's father was kidnapped in Mexico and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $1 million for his release. James Cameron became aware of this and paid the ransom, even recommending a negotiator.

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