26Harvard University
Harvard University (founded 1636) temporarily lost the title of "oldest university in the United States" when the US colonized the Philippines (1899-1946), as Manila's Universidad de Santo Tomas (founded 1611) predated Harvard by 25 years.
27. Hugh Laurie gave Lin-Manuel Miranda the idea for the song "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton after a guest-starring on House in 2009. Miranda mentioned to Laurie he was trying to write a breakup letter from King George to the colonies and "without blinking, he improv'd at me, 'Awwww, you'll be back."
28. Charlie Chaplin’s corpse was dug up and held for ransom in 1978.
29. The drought of 1976-77 aligned harmoniously with the rise of skateboarding. In an effort to conserve water, pools were being emptied all throughout Southern California. With that, emerging skaters like Tony Alva, Steve Olson, and the late Jay Adams were jumping fences and skating empty pools.
30. Robert-François Damiens, after trying to assassinate the king, was sentenced to be executed by having his skin ripped with pliers, molten lead and sulfur being poured onto his ripped skin, then dismemberment by four horses. At hearing this, Damiens replied: “Well, it's going to be a tough day.”
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Coffee beans
The first country to recognize Greek independence was not any of the western powers, but Haiti, which allegedly sent 25 tons of Coffee beans to finance their rebellion.
32. Clint Eastwood hated the cigars that his character smoked in the “Dollars Trilogy”. Because he would have to do multiple takes, he smoked them quite a bit. According to Eli Wallach, Eastwood would sometimes tell the director: “You’d better get it this time because I’m going to throw up.”
33. Hawaii was not a U.S. state when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was 18 years after Pearl Harbor that Hawaii officially became the 50th U.S. state on August 21st, 1959.
34. Mariano Martinez in 1971 modified an ice cream machine to create the first frozen margarita machine. He did this to meet the demand for a popular margarita recipe he was serving at the time. You can find his invention on display at the Smithsonian Museum for American history.
35. The rarest naturally occurring element on Earth, astatine, is so rare that there are only 28 grams of it on Earth at any given time. It is difficult to study, as most of its isotopes have a half-life of 1 second or less. Its appearance is not known with certainty.
