26Burro Schmidt Tunnel
A miner named William H. Schmidt spent 40 years in the California desert digging a half-mile tunnel alone, by hand. Twenty years into the project, the state completed a road that eliminated the need for the tunnel, but the miner spent another two decades finishing it.
27. Karen Wetterhahn was a scientist who spilled two small drops of Organic Mercury on her gloved hand. She died a slow death over the course of 5 months of Mercury poisoning. Her speech slurred, she had trouble seeing and hearing, and experienced other terrifying symptoms.
28. Sperm whales click loud enough to hear each other from thousands of miles away. Some researchers believe this is how they can communicate with each other from opposite sides of the planet. If you’re close enough, the vibrations can paralyze or even vibrate you to death.
29. Sitting Bull’s warriors lost faith in his bravery. During the battle with the US Army, he calmly took his pipe and smoked it while bullets were flying over his head. After a few minutes, he calmly packed up his pipe and walked home. His men’s faith was restored.
30. The planes that struck the World Trade Center Twin Towers weighed 100% more, carried 100% more fuel, and flew 100% faster than the plane whose impact the buildings were designed to withstand, a Boeing 707 airliner flying at landing approach speeds.
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31B-52’s Cart Start
Explosive cartridges can be inserted into a B-52 bomber’s engines to get them up and running more quickly if needed. The “cart start” reduces takeoff time from about an hour down to ten minutes.
32. The arcade shooter game 'Area 51' saved Atari from the brink of bankruptcy and went on to become one of the most successful arcade games of all time.
33. Despite not existing for the past 30 years, the Soviet Union still holds the most Olympic gold medals for wrestling.
34. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He was frustrated with the fact that he had to go and ask his coworkers what data was on their computer so he can add it to his computer which led to him creating an application that became the World Wide Web.
35. In 2013, the Zimbabwean Government admitted that their public account held a grand total of just $217.
