26Thomas Cook and Joseph Feeney
Friends Thomas Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992, swearing if either one won the Powerball jackpot, they would split the winnings. Well, the power of friendship and a handshake has paid off and 28 years later, in 2020, Tom won €22 million and split the winnings with his friend.
27. Introduced in 1997, Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. It was named one of the 50 worst inventions by Time magazine.
28. Walter Breuning stopped smoking cigars at the age of 103 because they became too expensive. At the age of 108, he began smoking cigars again after receiving lots of cigars as gifts. He ultimately ended up living to the age of 114.5 and was the second-last verified surviving man born in the 1800s.
29. English Parliament was conducted entirely in French until the 1400s. Even today, bills are formally passed into law with a French phrase: "Le Reyne le veult", meaning "The queen wills it."
30. NASA has designed a $23 million toilet for deep space missions. With odor control being a serious issue, NASA pays certified sniffers to smell the toilets after they have been used to evaluate odor-control measures. The lead engineer calls them the “unsung heroes of the space program.”
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31George Remus
German lawyer George Remus after being released from jail for bootlegging murdered his estranged wife in broad daylight. She had stolen his fortune and attempted to have him killed after running off with a corrupt federal agent. He was acquitted by a jury after only 19 minutes of deliberation.
32. After Salvador Dalí and Harpo Marx met and expressed mutual admiration, Dalí sent Harpo a Christmas present: a harp with barbed wire for strings and spoons for tuning knobs, wrapped in cellophane. Harpo was delighted and sent Dalí a photo of himself sitting at the harp with bandaged fingers.
33. In 1911, physicist George de Hevesy suspected his landlady was bulking up his meals with leftovers. He proved it by sprinkling radioactive material over his dinner and detecting it in the next day’s portion.
34. Keith Flint (of The Prodigy) became a popular pub owner in Essex following his music career. Flint eventually brought in a jar to collect one-pound fines from customers who referenced the song "Firestarter" as he tended to the pub's fireplace.
35. The band UB40 is named after Unemployment Benefit, Form 40, a form issued to people claiming unemployment benefits. The name was suggested by a friend of the band because all the members were unemployed.
