26Elizabeth Crofts
In 1554, a woman named Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall in Aldersgate Street in London, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Supposedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda.
27. An area in Texas is called "The Texas Killing Fields." Since the early 1970s, roughly 30 bodies have been extracted from the fields, mainly young girls. The fields have been described as "a perfect place for killing somebody and getting away with it."
28. In Sweden in the Middle Ages, the lawspeaker was a respected official who knew all of the local laws by heart. They were chosen because they were wise and could communicate well, and it was their job to keep traditional Swedish laws and customs alive. Today, the position has evolved into a ceremonial role held by the speaker of the Swedish Parliament.
29. The Higgs-Boson particle, aka "the god particle,", was actually called "the goddamn particle" by physicists because it was so difficult to detect. Publishers forced the renaming, resulting in a confusing tie to religion for the particle, which is nearly universally hated by physicists.
30. Sea urchins are called sea urchins because hedgehogs used to be called urchins until about the 15th century. Sea urchins are, therefore, ocean hedgehogs.
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31Statute of Labourers 1351
Due to a lack of workers after the Black Death in England, peasants were able to negotiate better pay. In response, Parliament passed the Statute of Laborers 1351, which prohibited the soliciting of wages above pre-plague levels. This contributed to the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
32. Henry Ford refused for years to make any significant improvements to the Model T. When his designers surprised him with a new prototype, he destroyed it in front of them with his bare hands.
33. In 1794, George Washington signed the Slave Trade Act, which banned U.S. ships from participating in the Atlantic Slave Trade as well as the exportation of slaves for foreign sale. The United States government passed it as the first significant piece of anti-slavery legislation.
34. Texas A&M University used to have an annual bonfire. In 1999, 12 students died when the Aggie Bonfire collapsed upon them during construction. The deaths led to the end of the tradition as the university faced a series of lawsuits and couldn't afford the expected $2 million in insurance per year for conducting the bonfire.
35. Lego was flirting with bankruptcy, and the release of Bionicle, which accounted for 100% of their profits in 2003, saved them from going under.
