1The Royal Clipper
The Royal Clipper is a cruise ship that is built on the lines of the Preussen, a five-mast sail ship that was built in the year 1902. At present, the Royal Clipper is regarded to be the world’s largest sailing ship with five masts that are rigged fully.
2. A Chinese billionaire named Jon Jiang produced ‘Empires of the Deep,’ a $130 million fantasy film with his girlfriend as the main character. The movie had a chaotic production involving 5 successive directors and 10 writers. It was completed in 2010 but failed to find distribution, and remains unreleased.
3. During the 1896 Olympics, nobody knew how to throw a discus because it was the first international discus competition ever. Greek competitors tried to imitate Myron's ancient Greek discobolus statue, but imitation was not required.
4. Canadian hero, Isaac Brock defeated American forces by using scam tactics, such as having his forces wear cast-off uniforms to make the Americans believe that they were the feared British redcoats.
5. The set of the film "Good Burger" frequently stank because the meat they used would spoil.
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6Salton Sea Asthma Crisis
The air quality around the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley, California is so bad that schools use green, yellow, and red flags to indicate whether children with asthma can go outside and play with their classmates.
7. Honopu Valley in Hawaii is the most secluded beach on Kauai. Beaching anything on it is a $10000 fine per day. The only way to access it legally is to swim from a boat offshore.
8. Indonesia has a cultural stereotype where street vendors selling meatballs are presumed to be undercover cops.
9. Khazar is a Turkic language from Central Asia which became extinct by the 13th century and has the smallest known body of literature of any language. Only one written Khazar word, meaning "I have read", has been found.
10. Gastroliths are rocks that are swallowed by some animals to aid in digestion and these remain in their digestion tract throughout their life.
11Lego V-22 Osprey Cancellation
In July 2020, about 10 days before its release, LEGO canceled their upcoming officially licensed Lego Technic V-22 Boeing Osprey model aircraft due to their long-standing policy not to feature real military vehicles.
12. The tallest building in Yukon, Canada is only 20 meters tall. Whitehorse, the largest city in Yukon, originally had a law that buildings could not exceed 20 meters, and no building has yet surpassed it.
13. In 1972, a traveling circus was set up in the village of Uquakwa, Illinois. Their elephant which was tethered to a tree in the park was killed by a lightning strike overnight. The panicked circus owners packed up all of their gear, and scurried out of town, leaving the 6500 pounds dead elephant behind.
14. Lady Juliana, which was launched in 1777, was a ship which was chartered to transport a load of all-female prisoners to Australia. It quickly developed a reputation as a floating brothel. Its steward John Nicol, recalled that “when we were fairly out to sea, every man on board took a wife from among the convicts, they nothing loath."
15. Gene Roddenberry's original script for the first "Star Trek" movie contained a scene in which James T. Kirk has a fistfight with an alien who had assumed the image of Jesus Christ. Certain elements of this script did eventually show up in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" but most did not.
16Manuka Honey
Manuka honey mainly comes from a small area of New Zealand. Due to the cost of honey going up 20-fold in the last few decades, there are now turf wars with thefts, poisoning of hives, and vandalism on the increase.
17. Toilet paper isn’t bleached to make it white. It is in fact bleached to make it softer and extend its life. The whiteness of toilet paper is just a positive by-product.
18. In 1934, a German man named Gerhard Zucker attempted to deliver mail by loading it onto a rocket and firing it at a Scottish island. Both times he attempted this, the rocket exploded and much of the mail was destroyed.
19. Humans have the highest daytime visual acuity of any mammal, and among the highest of any animal (some birds of prey have much better). However, we have relatively poor night vision.
20. During the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, soldiers had to rely on tourist maps with grid lines hand-drawn on them, and use copies of 'The Economist' magazine for intelligence as the invasion was ordered on such short notice.
21The Lilliput Effect
The Lilliput effect refers to the hypothesis that the body size of an animal species decreases after it survives a major extinction.
22. More than 250 houses in England have roofs which have base coats of thatch that were applied over 500 years ago. Almost all of these roofs are thatched with wheat or rye, which produced durable straw for the roof and grain for baking bread.
23. During the Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt started construction of tidal dams in Passamaquoddy and Cobscook bays, on Maine’s border with New Brunswick, to generate electricity using the gigantic tides from the Bay of Fundy called the Quoddy Tidal Power Project. It was supposed to produce enough electricity to power much of Maine. After the initial funding dried up, the project was abandoned.
24. Andrew Johnson and his wife Eliza were married by Mordecai Lincoln. Mordecai Lincoln was first cousins with Thomas Lincoln, the father of future President Abraham Lincoln. Johnson went on to become Abraham Lincoln's Vice President, succeeding him as President after his assassination.
25. "True History" is a short satirical novel which was written in the 2nd century A.D. by Greek author Lucian of Samosata and it is considered by some to be the oldest Sci-fi novel in history. It features Lucian traveling to the moon, getting embroiled in a war between the moon and sun, and meeting the heroes of the Illiad.
