1Rick Rescorla
Rick Rescorla saved all but 6 of his 2700 employees during the 9/11 attacks by directing people down the stairs using a bullhorn and encouraging them by singing Cornish songs.
2. Back to the future was rejected by Disney. They said a mother falling in love with her son is not appropriate for a family film.
3. Vatican City is the only place in the world where cash machines offer instructions in Latin.
4. There is still a subway station named Cortlandt Street that hasn't reopened since 9/11.
5. About 10% of antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft is excreted unchanged by urine in humans. These antidepressants have been detected in aquatic animals. This has caused concern, as the drugs are linked to memory issues and more passive behavior in fish, and more aggression in crustaceans.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Cicada 3301
There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles and games online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.
7. The Emperor of Japan was historically very young. The duties of the emperor were considered incredibly tedious, and after a decade most emperors abdicated the throne to their younger brother.
8. An Oregon woman named Sadee Renee Johnson started a 50,000-acre wildfire and later told authorities that her "firefighter friends were bored and needed work."
9. A lawyer named James Thronton only works for one client- the Earth- and even managed to successfully sue the UK government to admit that it was breaching legal limits for air pollution.
10. On April 12, 1955, Edward R. Murrow asked Jonas Salk who owned the patent to the polio vaccine. His response was “Well, the people, I would say... There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
11Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons
Two researchers, funded by the British government, developed a mathematical formula for the "perfect human voice." The male voices that matched most closely were Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons; the closest matching female voices were Judi Dench, Mariella Frostrup, and Honor Blackman.
12. Of the 3400 years of recorded history, only 268 are considered peaceful.
13. Women often go into labor during storms because of the change in barometric pressure, hence why "storm babies" happen.
14. In the late 1990s, certain digital cameras used 3.5-inch floppy disks for picture storage.
15. About Schmidt won Jack Nicholson the 2003 Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Upon accepting his award, Nicholson quipped: "I'm a little surprised. I thought we made a comedy."
16Colin Warner
Carl King, with no prior background in law, took it upon himself to prove his friend was innocent after being jailed for 21 years. The jury convicted Colin Warner on charges of second-degree murder based solely on the eyewitness testimony from a 14-year-old boy who admitted to lying on the stand.
17. In 2009, Robert Downey Jr. was detained at a Japanese airport and held for 6 hours after authorities ran his passport and saw he’d failed to mention his previous convictions. He was eventually allowed to attend the ‘Iron Man’ premiere on the terms that he “never returned to Japan again.”
18. Horatio G. Spafford wrote the famous hymn "It is Well With My Soul" after hearing that his four daughters had died in a ship collision. This was two years after his only son died of pneumonia and his entire business was destroyed by the Chicago fire.
19. A single helmet for the Air Force's new F-35 fighter costs over $400,000.
20. 93% of Indians work in informal, off-the-books jobs, and get paid in cash.
21Geraldo Rivera
In 2003, an American reporter named Geraldo Rivera was kicked out of Iraq after drawing a map in the sand giving details of US locations and future plans during a live broadcast.
22. The Aztec Empire was one of the first societies to have mandatory education for all children regardless of gender or rank.
23. According to unclassified audio tapes of president Johnson, American president Nixon prolonged Vietnam War for political gain and Johnson knew about it.
24. Ernő-Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube didn't realize he'd built a puzzle until he scrambled it the first time and tried to restore it.
25. Julia Stewart, worked as a waitress for IHOP at 16, then through hard-work became the President at Applebees, and after being passed over as CEO for Applebees became the CEO at IHOP and ultimately acquired Applebees.
