1Cleopatra's Needle
Central Park in New York is home to a 3500-year-old Egyptian obelisk named Cleopatra's Needle. Weighing 200 tons, it was gifted to the US in 1877 in gratitude for the US not interfering in Egyptian politics.
2. President George W. Bush was almost assassinated in 2005 after Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live RGD-5 hand grenade wrapped in a handkerchief at him. Miraculously it failed to detonate because the handkerchief remained around the grenade preventing the striker lever from releasing.
3. CBS created a show called Kid Nation (2007), where 40 kids ages 8-15 spent 40 days without direct adult supervision in a ghost town where they had to create a sustainable community.
4. After Hunter S. Thompson, the author best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died, he was cremated and his ashes were fired out of a cannon. The cannon was placed on top of a 153-foot statue of a fist holding a peyote button, paid for by Johnny Depp.
5. Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador, spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture in his country. He was murdered by unidentified gunmen while celebrating Mass. He was later declared a saint by Pope Francis.
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6Hercules Moth
The largest moth in the world, the Hercules Moth, has a wingspan of up to 36 cm (14 inches). It spends up to 2 years in its cocoon, but only lives two to eight days as it has no mouth and ultimately dies of starvation.
7. The French court dwarf Richebourg who was only 23 inches tall. During the French Revolution, he was used to pass secret messages in and out of Paris carried by nurses and disguised in an infant’s clothing.
8. Polo player Adolfo Cambiaso has cloned his best horse, Cuartetera, 14 times, and even swaps between the clones during a game.
9. Stephen King used the pseudonym "Richard Bachman" so that he could publish more than one novel a year without over-saturating the "King market". This evolved into a list of novels published under the pseudonym and was only revealed when a bookshop owner noticed a parallel in their writing.
10. The Rolls-Royce Phantom has a layer of foam inside its specially-designed tires, which lowers cabin sound levels by reducing tire cavity noise.
11Till Lindemann
Till Lindemann, the lead singer of German industrial metal band Rammstein was given his position after being heard singing whilst weaving baskets for a living.
12. A cafe in Japan is hiring paralyzed people to control robot servers so that they can still make an income.
13. In 2016, Alex Trebek, the host of "Jeopardy!", donated a total of $7.5 million to his Alma mater, University of Ottawa, to fund a Forum for Dialogue and a Speaker Series. His goal was to expose students to different world views through discussions and panels by speakers from around the world.
14. The Roman Catholic Church fully accepted the theory of evolution back in 1950. They accept it provided that Christians believe that God created all things and that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces.
15. Cats that have saggy bellies aren't just fat. It's called the primordial pouch and helps protect them during fights and move easier when running and jumping.
16John Hughes
John Hughes filmed "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" concurrently to save time and money. He even used the same closed high school for the interior scenes but built a second library in the gym for "Breakfast Club" as the original was too small.
17. British inventor James Dyson, partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, spent 5 years and made about 5,127 prototypes until the launch of the famous vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt.
18. Hugh Hefner tried to make sure his beneficiaries won’t blow through his money after his death. His will states that his children will be cut off “if the trustees reasonably believe that (the beneficiary) routinely or frequently uses or consumes any illegal substance."
19. Harvard Associate Professor Dr. Lester Grinspoon tried to prove pot was harmful to get his friend, Carl Sagan, to smoke less. He then wrote a book on the lies behind the pot and prompted a study into using THC for chemo associated nausea and vomiting, after seeing results in his son with leukemia.
20. Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic savant, who can draw detailed landscapes from memory. He was featured in a BBC documentary as a child and now he has his own gallery in London. He also has a 76 m panoramic memory drawing of New York on display at JFK Airport. He was appointed an MBE ('Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2006.
21Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes on "Sherlock," is distantly related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the character.
22. The actors playing the rebel soldiers on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, were all members of the Norwegian Red Cross. For their participation in the film, George Lucas made a large donation to the organization.
23. Switzerland has maintained neutrality in all wars since 1815 and is so adamant about remaining neutral that it rigged its entire infrastructure to explode in an attempt to prevent direct conflict if provoked.
24. Braille is imprinted on beer cans sold in Japan. This is to ensure that blind people won't confuse a can of beer with a soft drink.
25. "Sleepunders" are a thing. Kids arrive already in pajamas and do sleepover activities, but everyone leaves before bedtime.
