26E. D. Morel
In 1900 a young clerk named E. D. Morel at a British shipping company observed the massive amounts of rubber returning from the Congo while only guns and manacles were being sent in return. He correctly deduced that these resources were being extracted from the population by force and campaigned to expose the abuses.
27. The author of Forrest Gump had a deal to receive a lump sum and a cut of the film's net profits, but Paramount reported a loss and refused to pay him the cut. He settled with Paramount and they bought the rights to the sequel, which has been stuck in development for over a decade.
28. Plaid is not meant to describe a pattern. It was an article of clothing (blanket draped over shoulder). The pattern is named tartan.
29. The Flying Wedge was a popular football play in the early 1900's where the entire team would form a V and charge down the field, sweeping down the field like a tank. Teddy Roosevelt threatened to abolish the sport after 18 players died and 159 were badly injured during one season.
30. During the entire filming of Mary Poppins, nobody, not even Julie Andrews, let Dick Van Dyke know he had the “most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema.”
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Rain Moods
When it rains, people publish more negative posts on Facebook. Each negative post negatively affects one to two other people. The negative post spreads like a contagion, negatively affecting people's moods in cities without rainfall. In short, social networks magnify the synchronization of global moods.
32. In 2009, British PM Gordon Brown hand-wrote a letter of condolence to a mother whose son had died in Afghanistan, in which he misspelled the son's surname. The Sun (a tabloid) wrote a scathing article criticizing his mistake. In this article, the paper misspelled the same name.
33. Before 9/11 there were only 16 people on the no-fly list. As of 2013, there were over 47,000 people on the no-fly list.
34. Pink Floyd is inducted into the National Association of Brick Distributors' Hall of Fame for their services to the brick industry through their 1979 album, "The Wall".
35. Charlie Chaplin was criticized when he did not volunteer during the First World War. Although he registered for the U.S. draft, he received thousands of white feathers and angry letters. It was later revealed that he was rejected because he was undersized and underweight.
1 COMMENT
LEAVE A REPLY
RE: Fact #19 (Grietje Scott ) – I don’t think she kept the secret for 90 years if she was 90 when she revealed it; unless she joined the underground the day she was born.