1Dr. Carlos Montezuma
Dr. Carlos Montezuma was a Native American who was stolen by another tribe and sold to an Italian photographer, who took him to Chicago to be educated. In 1889, Dr. Montezuma was one of the first Native Americans to receive a degree in medicine. Later he fought for Native American rights.
2. The Queen is the 43rd Great-Granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
3. Architect Antoni Gaudí wasn't able to finish the Sagrada Família (Unfinished Roman Catholic Church) because he died after being struck by a tram. He was left laying for hours and then only given rudimentary care because he was assumed to be a beggar due to his shabby clothes and lack of identity documents.
4. The third Monday in January is typically considered to be ‘Blue Monday’, allegedly the most depressing day of the year. Factors contributing to this theory include debt, miserable weather, post-Christmas blues, failing New Year’s resolutions and low motivation.
5. A Japanese Twitter user had his account permanently suspended for making a death threat against a mosquito.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Shaka Zulu
When the mother of Shaka Zulu (one of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu kingdom) died, he ordered that any woman who became pregnant in the year of mourning was to be executed, anyone not sufficiently sad was to be executed, and calves would have their mothers slaughtered so that they would know his pain.
7. When James Cameron was an unknown director, he sold the rights to "The Terminator" for $1 so that he would be allowed to direct the movie.
8. George H.W. Bush is the longest living president in US history.
9. Sarah Winchester, the widow of the founder the Winchester Company, built a confusing mansion to ward off the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. At its zenith, the house consisted of over 200 rooms, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces, 2,000 doors, several trapdoors, and multiple spy holes.
10. Lobster used to be considered low-quality food that was eaten by the poor, and was served in prisons to the inmates.
11Cattle ranches
Cattle ranches have been replacing 10 to 50% of cattle feed with the rejected gummy worms and fruit loops from manufacturers to save money, and they've been doing this for years.
12. Sue Finley (Engineer) who is 80 is the longest-serving female employee at NASA. She has a role in nearly every US unmanned space probe, and some missions of other nations.
13. In England and Wales, deaths caused by willingly taking "unreasonable" risks aren't called accidents, they're called "misadventures."
14. One of the first winners of the Miss USA pageant (Mary Leona Gage) was stripped of her title when it was revealed that she was married and had children as being a wife and mother were against contest rules.
15. The Indian government commissioned a 2-hour Bollywood feature film called "Toilet - Ek Prem Katha", designed to help eradicate the practice of public defecation.
16Mojave desert
There was once a phone booth in the middle of the Mojave desert that was demolished because it became famous on the internet.
17. Benjamin Franklin disliked the bald eagle as a symbol of America, calling it "a bird of bad moral character", and instead preferred the turkey, calling it "a Bird of Courage" who "would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards"
18. The producers of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' rejected Tim Curry's audition for Judge Doom because he was "too terrifying."
19. In 1969 Forrest Parry, an IBM engineer had the idea to affix magnetic tape to a plastic card. Every adhesive failed. He went home frustrated. His wife was ironing when he walked in. She suggested he fuse the tape onto the card with the iron. It was a success, and the magstripe card was born.
20. When the issue of witch trials arose at Charlemagne's Council of Frankfurt in 794 A.D., he had his bishops call the belief in witchcraft superstitious, ordering death penalties for anyone who burned witches. Incidentally, he had founded the first universities since the fall of Rome.
21MacArthur Maze interchange rebuilding
A contractor won a tender to rebuild part of the MacArthur Maze interchange in San Francisco with a bid of just over $876,000 - about a third of the projected cost. By completing the rebuild more than a month ahead of schedule, the contractor pocketed a $5 million bonus.
22. The 1992 Olympics US basketball team (the "Dream Team") won all of their games by an average of 44 points. They have been called "the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport."
23. After a group sued the CIA to release files related to El Salvadorian war crimes, its office was broken into and most of their data were stolen.
24. A 2016 study found that the Thunder Mountain roller coaster at Disney World reliably makes people pass kidney stones.
25. Matt LeBlanc dislocated his shoulder during the filming of an episode of Friends, where the audience was made up of Pepsi contest winners. The set was shut down meaning Warner Brothers had to fly the winners home and then back out for another episode.
