26Making of A Christmas Carol
While writing "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens "took night-time walks of 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) around London" to flesh out the story in his head.
27. Emperor Norton was the first and only emperor of the United States. He was a successful businessman in San Francisco who declared himself Emperor of the United States in 1859 after losing his fortune. The people of San Francisco largely enjoyed his presence, accepted his currency, and paid him a "tax" to cover his rent.
28. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 1986 that the United States' actions in Nicaragua, which included the placement of mines in the country's ports, were illegal. After not taking part in the proceedings at first, the United States finally decided to take back its consent to the court's compulsory jurisdiction, which it had given 40 years earlier.
29. After the Gestapo interrogated his daughter Anna for over 12 hours, Sigmund Freud decided to leave Austria. With 31,000 Reichsmarks, he was able to secure a safe exit from Austria in time during the Nazi occupation of that country in 1938.
30. Clare of Assisi, who passed away in 1253, is revered as the patron saint of television. As the story goes, God showed her a video of Mass on her bedroom wall when she was too ill to leave her bed and go to church.
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31Steinert Hall Under Piano Store
Steinert Hall, an abandoned music hall dating back 120 years in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, can be found 40 feet below ground level, snaking its way under the foundation of a piano shop.
32. A London resident known as "The Mole Man of Hackney" spent 40 years excavating tunnels up to 18 meters long and below the water table beneath his home.
33. In the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" special, Boris Karloff, a horror actor best known for his roles as Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy in Universal monster movies, voiced both the Grinch and the narrator.
34. Computer security was such a problem for the Kremlin that they had to resort to buying typewriters in 2013 to stop leaks.
35. Batdorj-in Baasanjab, who played Genghis Khan in a 2004 miniseries, is a direct descendent of Genghis Khan's son Chagatai.
