34 Refined Random Facts For Your Reading Pleasure | Random List #212

Robert Chesebrough, the man who invented Vaseline used to go city to city dipping his hand in acid and burning it, showing previous wounds that had healed using his product.

27. In 2015, Nathan Fielder became aware that his favorite jacket company Taiga had published a tribute to Holocaust denier Doug Collins in one of their winter catalogs. So he created his own company to raise awareness of The Holocaust. He also gives free exchanges for Taiga coats.

28. In Star Trek, Captain Kirk's phrase "You have the conn" has its origins in early battleships dating as far back as the 1860s. These ships were built with conning towers. A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine from which an officer in charge can issue commands.

29. A Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen suffered huge losses after a fire broke out in his woodworking shop that made furniture. He descended into bankruptcy and decided to start making small wood items, including toys. He even renamed his company to 'leg godt' ('play well') or Lego.

30. By default all Singaporeans over 21 years old are organ donors allowing for the kidneys, heart, liver, and corneas to be transplanted in the event of death from any cause. Individuals who do not wish to be donors must actively opt-out, and few do: 97% of its citizens are organ donors.

Tommy James and the Shondells declined an invitation to perform at the Woodstock festival, because James' secretary put it to him as "Yeah, listen, there's this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field."

32. Terence Kirk was an American soldier who was captured by the Japanese on the day they bombed Pearl Harbor. He spent the entire war at a brutal prison camp. While there, he built a camera out of scrap and took many pictures. After the war, he was put under a gag order, and only told his story 38 years later.

33. In the Middle Ages, the word "poop" meant to blast a horn. By the 1600s it was slang for farting.

34. William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son was the Governor of New Jersey when the Revolutionary War broke out. Will sided with the crown and the two never spoke again for the rest of their lives.