1Frederick Smith
The story of FedEx's founder, Frederick Smith, submitting his business plan as a term paper and receiving a failing grade with an admonition that it would never work, is a myth. He dimly remembers he got about a C, mostly because "it wasn't a well-thought-out paper."
2. The single oldest complete piece of music is actually from 1400 B.C. It's known as “Hurrian Hymn No. 6”. An example of its rendition can be heard, though it is only one of at least five “rival decipherments of the notation, each yielding entirely different results.”
3. Adopting puppies of the same litter is frowned upon because the puppies refuse to bond with the humans. It is known as littermate syndrome.
4. Writer Alan Ball was inspired to write a story about the hardship of living an authentic, happy life in the age of superficiality after he watched a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center for 10 minutes. That story was American Beauty and he won an Oscar in 2000.
5. In 16th and 17th Century Denmark, merchant ship captains had to pay a toll based on the value of the goods on the ship. The value was declared by the captain. The Danish authorities could take the value based toll (1-2%) or opt to buy the cargo for the declared value.
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6The Shadow
London has a real-life vigilante called "The Shadow."
7. In 2005, a barber sold Neil Armstrong's hair for $3000, which he got after giving him a haircut. Neil Armstrong threatened legal action. Currently, his hair is being sold at £399 for each half inch strand.
8. Tyrian purple used to be worth its weight in gold, and it took 250,000 snails to make one ounce of dye.
9. The Finnish island of Aaland threatened to leave the EU if they were not permitted to continue to use and sell a tobacco product called ‘Snus.’ Snus is considered a major source of income for the island and part of their national heritage.
10. Joe Dimaggio won 9 World Series rings despite taking 3 years off in his prime due to World War 2.
11Spider
Almost all the spiders you see in your home during the winter were actually born in your home.
12. If you stretched the DNA in one cell all the way out, it would be about 2m long and all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System.
13. Before virtual game achievements, Activision used to send physical iron on patches to players who mailed in photographs of their high scores.
14. Ancient Germanic armies would fight with their women wailing loudly from behind their formations, to constantly remind them that they must be victorious or their entire families would be annihilated.
15. Mel Brooks was a mine clearer in World War 2. He once said, “I was a combat engineer. Isn’t that ridiculous? The two things I hate most in this world are combat and engineering.”
16Mr. Dink
The neighbor’s name in the show Doug on Nickelodeon, Mr. Dink, actually stood for the acronym Double Income No Kids.
17. Jogging becomes running at 6mph.
18. Native Americans started the practice of reloading bullet cartridges during the Indian Wars. US military authorities found out and ordered all US soldiers to stomp on their fires cartridges after being fired. Frontiersmen took advantage of this and sold overpriced shells to the natives.
19. “I Want to Break Free” wasn’t popular in the United States, despite the song being a chart-topper worldwide. The reason the song wasn’t popular in America was that MTV wouldn't air the music video due to the members of Queen cross-dressing as female characters from a British soap opera.
20. VHEMT (Voluntary Human Extinction Movement) is an environmental movement that calls for all people to not reproduce. They support human extinction primarily to prevent environmental degradation.
21Passage du gois
There is a road named Passage du gois in France that can only be used twice a day, for a few hours. Then it disappears under 13 feet of water.
22. If we could power a smartphone with gasoline, one drop of it has enough energy to run the phone for an entire day. A gallon of gasoline would last for 20 years.
23. Older adults have a disproportionately good memory of events which occurred when they were 16 to 25 years of age, a phenomenon known as the reminiscence bump.
24. Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” Lady was fired after she appeared in a Prego Pasta Sauce ad saying, “I found it!”
25. The low pressure and humidity on an airplane dampens your sense of taste and smell by up to 30%, contributing to the poor reputation of airline food.
