1Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover and his wife learned Mandarin when living in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and used to speak it in the White House to foil eavesdroppers.
2. In 1953, the City of Niagara Falls bought a plot of land called "Love Canal" for $1 from a chemical company that had used the area as a dump. Despite warnings from the company, a school was built on the land. From 1974–1978, 56% of children in the area were born with birth defects.
3. In 1985, a rock band named Simple Minds rearranged and recorded "Don't You Forget about Me" in 3 hours then forgot about it until The Breakfast Club came out and it became a #1 hit.
4. When Liam Neeson read the script for the Taken movie, he thought the movie would go straight to DVD.
5. Until 1953, New York City had a pneumatic tube mail network that spanned 27 miles and connected 23 post offices. At its peak, the system moved 95,000 letters a day.
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6Jessica Sandy Booth
A woman named Jessica Sandy Booth mistook some cheese for cocaine and so she hired a hit-man to kill a house full of people to steal it. The hit-man then turned out to be a police officer.
7. Hermit crabs form gangs to steal other hermit crabs' shells.
8. A corrupt U.S. immigration official named Mai Nhu Nguyen once accepted 200 eggrolls in exchange for granting citizenship.
9. A book named Agrippa was released in 1992 that can only be read once before it destroys itself. It also includes a floppy disk with a 300-word poem designed to corrupt itself after a single read. It cost $450.
10. There is a breed of chicken called the Silkie, which has black skin and black bones.
11Pelorus Jack
A dolphin named Pelorus Jack regularly guided ships in New Zealand through treacherous waters until his disappearance in 1912.
12. In 1996, McDonald's attempted to introduce a hamburger called the "Arch Deluxe," a higher-end burger marketed specifically to adults. It was released with one of the most expensive advertising campaigns to date and was a complete failure.
13. In 2012, a gang in the Czech Republic stole a 10-ton metal bridge to sell for scrap metal.
14. Companies use Elmer's Glue as milk in cereal commercials, so that the cereal won't look soggy, and so that they can strategically place the cereal in the bowl.
15. Since the 19th century, western music has had a 'Pitch Shift'. In effect, a C in Mozart's day was half of a semitone lower than what a C is today and all music today is sharper than how several composers wrote it.
16Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh used to put candles in his hat, so he could paint at night. He walked ridiculously fast, was a widow-chaser, and never once signed his paintings "Van Gogh".
17. Elmer Fudd initially just wanted to shoot Bugs Bunny with a camera. He came to the country to photograph wildlife, but Bugs drove him crazy, causing him to jump into a lake and nearly drown. After that Elmer replaced the camera with a rifle.
18. In Sweden, the body heat of commuters passing through Stockholm's Central Station is harvested to provide heat for an office building across the road from it.
19. In between the two runways in Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport (14th busiest airport in the world) is a fully functioning golf course. Golfers are held back by a red light whenever a planes land.
20. The phrase "show your true colors" was coined centuries ago when ships used to fly false national flags to get close to enemies and then switch to their "True" colors just before attacking.
21The Beards
There is an Australian rock band named "The Beards." Every single one of their 38 songs is about beards.
22. The "jump" you sometimes get while falling asleep is known as hypnic myoclonus and as much as 70% of people worldwide experience this.
23. There are many untouched plane wrecks in various parts of the United Kingdom dating back to World War 2 and removing them is forbidden.
24. There is a town in the New Mexico called Truth or Consequences.
25. In 1953, after co-discovering the structure for DNA, Francis Crick stormed into The Eagle pub, interrupting people's lunch, to announce that they have "discovered the secret of life." The pub serves 'Eagle's DNA' beer to this day.
