1Criminal law
In English Criminal Law, you cannot kill a person for food, even out of necessity. In 1884, three sailors were stuck out at sea and killed the weakest one for food. After being rescued, they were found guilty of murder. This set a legal precedent which continues today.
2. A Wisconsin man named Don Gorske has eaten over 30,000 Big Mac hamburgers over 46 years, averaging 2 per day. He has only missed 8 days in those 46 years, including when his mother died as she requested he forgoes the burger in her memory.
3. The last Saturday of each month in Rwanda is Umuganda day, which means 'coming together in common purpose' when adult Rwandans are required to join in countrywide clean-up tasks like picking up litter.
4. 'A black sheep' is unlucky because its wool could not be dyed.
5. The term "silhouette" has a political backstory. King Louis XV's General of Finances, Étienne de Silhouette, had a reputation for being cheap. Shadow portraits became popular during his tenure and got named after him due to being very cheap to make compared to commissioning a painting of oneself.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Val d'Isere downhill ski competition
The prize for the Val d'Isere downhill ski competition in 2005 was a cow. The organizers intended to trade the cow for a $5000, but Olympian Lindsey Vonn declined and kept the cow. It was later found to be worth $20,000.
7. Red tape was actually used to bind government documents and you had to literally cut through them to get stuff done. And you can buy pieces of US red tape from the National Archives.
8. Despite being studied since its discovery in 1906, scientists have yet to rule out a germ origin for Alzheimer's disease. The infectious hypothesis could explain why neurosurgeons are twice and a half more likely to die from it than the general population.
9. The city of Detroit sits on top of a working salt mine, and that the mine has provided road salt for most of North America since 1910.
10. NY Rangers fan still chant "Potvin S*cks" at every game, against every team, even though Denis Potvin retired from the NY Islanders in 1988.
11Westgate shopping mall attack
During the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya, an ex SAS member and former Irish soldier joined forces to rescue victims of the shooting, organized police to attempt a counter-attack and evaded gunfire while rescuing people still trapped in the mall.
12. Jimi Hendrix played guitar in Little Richard's band until he was fired for being too flamboyant, out-dressing, and upstaging the singer.
13. The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E. destroyed the city of Pompeii and buried its library in ash. Texts from that library are now being read for the first time in two thousand years.
14. The Irish Elk was an extinct species of deer that weighed over 1,000lbs and carried antlers up to 12 feet wide.
15. A cat in heat can have multiple eggs, and they can be released over several days of her cycle. If Tabby has chosen more than one Tom during her heat cycle, it's possible she'll be carrying kittens from multiple fathers.
16Sailing
Humans have been sailing for 8,000 years, about 1500 years longer than we have been using wheels.
17. A train dispatcher named Patrick Vincent Coleman died saving hundreds of lives during the Halifax Explosion. His final message was “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys.”
18. As of January 2019, actor Val Kilmer (Top Gun, Batman Forever) has been fighting throat cancer and had a procedure on his trachea that has reduced his voice to a rasp.
19. When astronauts vote from space, they list their address as "low-Earth orbit" in their absentee ballots.
20. More than 90% of consumers have thrown away food because of mistaken safety fears over date labels. The dates printed on food are not intended to communicate safety information, instead, they signal the manufacturer's estimate of how long that food will taste its best.
21John Burns
In 1863, John Burns, who a resident of Gettysburg Pennsylvania, at the age of 70 insisted on joining the Union line with his outdated flintlock rifle. He shot a Confederate officer from his horse, fought with the Iron Brigade, was wounded several times, duped Confederate doctors into mending him, and snuck home.
22. Frances Kelsey, the physician who refused to allow the deadly drug Thalidomide from entering circulation into the US in the 1960s, saved numerous American infants from disfiguration and birth defects.
23. Between 1933 and 1941, the Chinese city of Shanghai accepted unconditionally over 18,000 Jewish people escaping Europe during World War 2. This was more than Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and British India combined.
24. In 2007, Keira Knightley was awarded £3,000 ($6,000) in damages from a lawsuit against Daily Mail for publishing an article about her having anorexia nervosa and added another £3,000 to this amount to donate to Beat, a charity for those who suffer mental illness and eating disorders.
25. In 1910, a Spanish shepherd named José María Grimaldos López went missing. Rumour spread he’d been murdered. Two men confessed to his murder under torture by the Civil Guard and served 12 years in prison before being pardoned in 1925. In 1926, it was discovered the shepherd had been living in a nearby town the entire time.
