36 Random Facts That’ll Help You Rule At Trivia Night – Part 96

In 1920, The New York Times ridiculed Robert H. Goddard and claimed that rockets could not function in space. On July 17, 1969, a day after the Apollo 11 launch, New York Times formally acknowledged their error.

2. Free services like Craigslist have decimated the classified advertising departments of newspapers, some of which depended on classifieds for 70% of their ad revenue. Research has shown that Craigslist cost the newspaper industry $5.4 billion between 2000-2007.

3. Despite his lady's man reputation, Elvis Presley avoided intercourse with most if not all of his early girlfriends, even Priscilla before they were married. One biographer suggested that The King developed an extreme fear of STDs during his military service.

4. Rhnull is the rarest blood type on Earth. In 49 years, Rhnull has only been found in about 43 people around the world.

5. Edward Dickinson Baker was serving as a U.S. Senator when the U.S. Civil War broke out. He therefore re-joined the Army as a colonel. He was killed in battle and remains the only sitting U.S. senator ever to have been killed in a military engagement.

Naturalist William Buckland spent much of his life trying to eat every animal possible to see how it tasted. He grew fond of eating mice on toast, while his least favorite meals were that of mole and bluebottle flies.

7. After being fatally shot in 1996, Tupac Shakur’s last and only words to assisting police were “f*ck you”. He refused to say anything else.

8. China/Taiwan renamed Guardians of the Galaxy as: "Interplanetary Unusual Attack Team".

9. Finland trains elite soldiers in Lapland in preparation for a future war with neighboring Russia. The two countries share an 833-mile border and were in conflict during World War 2.

10. The Rock band Sum41 named the album "Chuck" after the man who got them out of a hotel in the Congo near a war zone.

A critical mass of uranium assembled itself in what is now the Central African state of Gabon, forming the first and only natural nuclear reactor in history. It fissioned for hundreds of thousands of years before fizzling out.

12. An island was christened a warship by the British Navy during a French blockade. The HMS Diamond Rock was fortified with cannons and spent 17 months hammering any passing French ships, and to this day anyone in the British Navy is required to salute the rock when they pass it.

13. There are 33 Shakespeare gardens in the world that only cultivate plants which were mentioned in the works of the English poet William Shakespeare.

14. A 1948 survey found that, pregnant women in USA were not allowed to be teachers in 57% of public school districts because "the sight of pregnant women would unfavorably influence students" and because "pregnant teachers' minds would not be on their work."

15. In 1915, Closing and Opening times in pubs had to be implemented to stop factory workers from showing up to work drunk and harming the war effort.

The Vatican declared wearing bikinis a sin in the 1950s.

17. Cats have almost twice the amount of neurons as dogs and can be allergic to humans.

18. Every major space vehicle flown from Cape Canaveral has been wired with a remote explosive destruct system to be used if the vehicle should travel off course and towards populated areas.

19. The United States Air Force Pararescue (PJs) unit uses the sound bite of "Leeroy Jenkins" from World of Warcraft to notify themselves of an upcoming medevac mission.

20. In Minnesota, those involved in certain DWI and DUI incidents obtain special registration plates that always begin with the letter 'W'. These are called Whiskey Plates.

In 2016, Rock band Train released an album covering Led Zeppelin II in its entirety. New York Daily News called it "confusing and unnecessary".

22. Lion's roar from the Metro-Goldwyn logo is actually made from tiger vocalizations, as "lions don't make that kind of ferocious noise and the logo needed to be ferocious and majestic."

23. The British Veterinary Association is urging people to avoid pugs, bulldogs, and Shih-Tzus due to the health problems associated with the breeds.

24. In 1983, a USAF KC-135 tanker used its fuel boom to tow an F-4 Phantom to safety after the fighter lost engine power flying over the Atlantic.

25. The school lunch program was invented to help prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses.