1Derek
A man named Derek helped father nearly 500 children through sperm donation because of many men being dead or left unable to reproduce after World War I in postwar Britain.
2. A German man named Gunther drove the same car for 549,000 miles through 177 countries on a 26-year road trip. His wife Christine joined him for most of the journey, where they traveled to nearly every country on the planet.
3. American lawyer Robert S. Abbott founded 'The Chicago Defender' in 1905 for just $7. With the top circulation of any Black-owned newspaper in the States, it made him a multi-millionaire and contributed to “The Great Migration.” Thanking his ex-landlady for encouraging him, he gave her an 8 room house.
4. Of the 13 languages attested from before 1000 B.C., only two languages (Ancient Chinese and Mycenaean Greek) have descendants who continue to be speak them to this day.
5. A study on human psychology conducted by researchers found that men aren’t really attracted to women’s butts, but rather the implied spinal curvature that creates the illusion. The spinal curvature positively affects the ability to have children.
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6Woolly mammoth
The last woolly mammoth died out 1000 years after the pyramids at Giza were built.
7. In 1997, Mexican film director Guillermo Del Toro's father was kidnapped in Mexico and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $1 million for his release. James Cameron became aware of this and paid the ransom, even recommending a negotiator.
8. A 91-year-old woman named Dorothy Steel made her big film acting debut as a merchant tribal elder, who advises Chadwick Boseman’s character in Marvel’s "Black Panther." She sent in her audition tape and Marvel executives said “Who is that old lady? We want her.” She began her acting career at the age of 88.
9. Action movie star Steve McQueen was offered the leading role of Close Encounters by Steven Spielberg, but McQueen declined since he couldn't cry on cue. Spielberg offered to remove the scene but McQueen said it was the best part of the film.
10. Edison offered $50,000 to Tesla if he succeeded in improving the efficiency of Edison's prototypical dynamos. Despite Tesla making a great deal of progress, Edison claimed that the offer was a joke.
11Baristas
Baristas at the CIA Starbucks do not write down the names of the customers on their cups and there are no frequent-customer award cards.
12. During a visit to London, Boris Yeltsin nearly caused a diplomatic row by trying to hug the Queen. Afterward, it was suggested that the Russian should in the future be advised that apart from handshakes, people do not 'handle' the Queen.
13. The very last Peanuts comic strip, in which creator Charles Schultz ended the story of Charlie Brown and said farewell to his fans, was drawn by Schultz in November 1999. He would die in his sleep three months later, the night before the final comic was published.
14. The Spanish Flu, which killed 5% of the world’s population, was especially lethal to healthy adults. This happened because their strong immune reactions ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups.
15. The best man’s original purpose was to serve as an accomplice in case the bride needed to be kidnapped from disapproving parents.
16George Mallory
In 1924, an English mountaineer named George Mallory may have been the first person to reach the summit of Everest. He was last seen 800 feet from the summit but never returned. He carried a picture of his wife with him that he said he would leave at the summit which he did not have when his body was found 75 years later.
17. There was an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' in which three astronauts survive a crash landing and wander through the desert until the last man alive realizes he never left earth. Rodd Serling would use a lot of this plot for a film he helped write called "Planet Of The Apes"
18. In 2014, shareholders of the fast food restaurant chain Olive Garden voted to replace the company's entire board of directors after investors got into a disagreement over the promise of unlimited breadsticks.
19. If the genealogy of the early Germanic chroniclers is true, Queen Elizabeth II is descended from the Norse God Odin.
20. During World War 2, a B-17 bomber named Old 666 survived being attacked by 20 Japanese fighters for 40 minutes. The pilot and a gunner earned the Medal of Honor, the rest of the crew each received the Distinguished Service Cross. To this day, they're the most decorated American aircrew in history.
21Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux once said that “Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.”
22. Octopuses have a sucker-proof coating on their skin to make sure that they don't grab and tangle their own tentacles.
23. During a game of backgammon in the year 480 A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Zeno had a dice roll that was so unlucky that he had it recorded and we still know it to this day.
24. On average, British have healthier teeth compared to their American counterparts.
25. If you convince yourself that you slept well (even though you didn’t), you can trick your brain into thinking that you did sleep well. This phenomenon is known as Placebo sleep.
