1Spartan Schools
Ancient Spartan schools deliberately underfed boys to force them to steal food, but severely punished anyone who was caught. This was thought to toughen them up, especially since it accustomed them to hunger, which was common on the battlefield.
2. Josh Ryan Evans who played 8-year-old Grinch in ‘The Grinch’ (2000) was actually an 18-year-old boy with dwarfism. He passed away two years after the release of the film.
3. There are 328 people named “Abcde” in the United States.
4. The praetorian guard once held an auction for the Roman emperorship. Didius Julianus, drunk from the night before had to be dragged from bed by his wife and daughter. He arrived late and was not allowed entry to the building the auction was taking place so he yelled his offer from outside. He won.
5. Adidas is making shoes from recycled ocean plastic and in 2017 sold more than 1,000,000 pairs of these shoes. Each pair of shoes takes 11 plastic bottles to create.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Gregor Mendel
Modern genetics was discovered/invented in 1856-63 by an Austrian monk who overturned millennia of misunderstanding by simply running a scientific experiment (on 28,000 plants); yet his work was ignored for 40 years and nearly lost.
7. In 2004, a tour bus carrying the Dave Matthews band through Chicago drove over a bridge and dumped 800 lbs of human waste into the river below, splashing feces and urine onto tourists who were on a sightseeing cruise underneath the bridge.
8. The Statue of Liberty cost the French an estimated $250,000 (more than $5.5 million in today’s money). The money came from fundraising efforts such as auctions, a lottery, and boxing matches, both in Europe and the U.S.
9. There are enough saunas in Finland for the entire Finnish population to take a sauna at the same time.
10. In 1736, mathematician Leonhard Euler was trying to find a way to cross every single one of the seven bridges of Königsberg exactly once. He realized that this was, in fact, impossible and based on that created a new area of mathematics called Graph Theory.
11Magdalena Solis
In 1960s, a Mexican prostitute named Magdalena Solis was paid to imitate an Incan Goddess as part of a scam. She began to believe she was a Goddess so she took over the cult and began sacrificing her followers.
12. Oliver Stone admitted to being on ecstasy during a 1997 celebrity episode of Jeopardy. He won the game (and $15,000 for charity) and credits the drug with increasing his response time on the buzzer.
13. A cow is not a cow until it has had at least one calf. Until then it is called a heifer.
14. According to new research, memories can be passed down to later generations through genetic switches that allow offspring to inherit the experience of their ancestors. This may explain how phobias can develop.
15. High IQ is associated with various mental and immunological diseases like depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, ADHD as well as allergies, asthma, and immune disorders.
16Dagens Nyheter
In 2013, a prisoner named Dagens Nyheter in Sweden escaped “because he had a toothache and wanted to go to the dentist.” He broke out of prison, visited the dentist, and turned himself back in where he received an extra day to his month-long sentence as punishment.
17. On 1945, when American politician Bess Myerson became the first Jewish candidate to win the Miss America contest, organizers tried to get her to change her name, sponsors dropped her and country clubs refused her because she was Jewish. In response, she toured the USA with the Anti-Defamation League.
18. In 1995, NASA astronomer Bob Williams wanted to point the Hubble telescope at the darkest part of the sky for 100 hours. Critics said it was a waste of valuable time, and he'd have to resign if it came up blank. Instead, it revealed over 3,000 galaxies, in an area 1/30th as wide as a full moon.
19. Sam Houston, after whom the city of Houston is named, was deposed as governor of Texas by the legislature after refusing to support the Confederacy, saying “you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it.”
20. The "Jews are money hungry" stereotype can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when Jews were allowed to lend money with interest, but Christians were not as it was against their religion.
21Cruise ships
Cruise ships have morgues in them. On average, roughly 200 people die on cruise ships each year so most ships have the capacity to store up to 10 bodies at a time.
22. “Weird Al” Yankovic would take dates to see The Naked Gun without telling them he was in it. He would also wear the same Hawaiian shirt he wore in the movie.
23. The crew of Planet Earth II filmed the mass birth gathering of Saiga Antelope, only to witness a disease spread and wipe out more than 150,000 antelope within 3 days.
24. George Washington actually wanted to end slavery but never did because he feared it would divide the new nation.
25. Juan Catalan spent nearly 6 months in jail for the murder of a teenage girl until his lawyer found unused footage from HBO's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' that proved he had been at a Dodger's game with his 6 years old daughter.
