37 Amazing Lesser Known Random Facts About Everything – Part 221

A Botswana monarch named Seretse Khama was exiled after marrying a white woman. After his return as a private citizen, he started an independence movement, became a president and led Botswana to prosperity.

2. A boat/barge has been trapped in the rapids above Niagara Falls for over 100 years. It moved for the first time in 100 years during a storm on the evening of October 31, 2019.

3. A French king named John the Posthumous ruled for the 5 days he lived in 1316. He was the youngest person to become King of France, the only one to be king from birth, and the only one to hold the title for his entire life. He has the shortest reign of any French king.

4. Ants have designated paramedics that are assigned to rescue their wounded soldiers, carry them back to their nest and help them heal by gently holding the hurt limb in place with their mandibles and front legs while intensely “licking” the wound for up to 4 minutes.

5. 800 years before the Black Death, the same bacteria caused a plague in the Byzantine Empire. At its peak, the plague killed 5,000 people per day in Constantinople.

Peter Mayhew has played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film other than Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but was still listed in the credits of that film as "Chewbacca consultant."

7. J. Edgar Hoover recommended that Einstein be kept out of America by the Alien Exclusion Act, but he was overruled by the U.S. State Department. FBI spied on Einstein for 22 years and kept a dossier with more than 1400 Pages on him.

8. In Japanese Folklore, Ijuu is a strange beast that lives in the forests. If you are hiking and run into Ijuu, don't be scared. Just offer to split your lunch with it and the beast will most likely repay you by carrying your heavy backpack.

9. Cats are known as both invasive species and superpredators due to their ability to rapidly wipe out entire species of small fauna, only surpassed by humans.

10. During the 1918 flu pandemic, John Martin Poyer, the Governor of American Samoa quarantined the territory. American Samoa was one of the few places in the world to not suffer any flu deaths.

In 1895, there were only two cars in the entire state of Ohio but they still managed to crash into each other.

12. The band ZZ Top has had the same members and has been performing for 50 consecutive years.

13. Politicians mocked John Adams, nicknaming him "His Rotundity" after he had suggested that the president should be titled like royalty, suggesting titles such as, "His Majesty the President" and “His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same."

14. Don LaFontaine, the movie trailer voice guy, offered to record an answering machine message for anyone that contacted him if he had the time. He received so many requests, he had to stop offering.

15. Among starfish that can regenerate their entire body from a single-arm, some can do so from just 1cm (0.4 inches) long and in some species of starfish, a large female can split in half, each half becoming male which changes back into female once they grow big enough.

Ancient Hawaii had no native pottery due to a lack of suitable clay.

17. As of 2015, Japan's pachinko market generates more gambling revenue than that of Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore combined.

18. In 2016, a male Gorilla named Shabani at a Japanese zoo received worldwide attention when women started flocking to see him as they thought him to be extremely handsome and manly. The crowds of women yelling his name made him so uncomfortable, zoo staff had to put up signs telling them to stop.

19. Bees don't poop in the hive. Over the winter, it builds up because they stay out of the cold. On warm winter days, they will all fly out at the same time on what are called "cleansing flights."

20. Amtrak trains that are running on time stop in their tracks during fall daylight savings time and wait an hour before resuming. For spring forward, the trains automatically fall behind schedule at 2 a.m. and just have to do their best to make up the time.

For over 100 years, Canada forced many indigenous children to attend residential schools away from their families years at a time. The quality of instruction was sub-par, many children were physically, sexually, and mentally abused, and at least 4000 children died in the school system.

22. In 2010, Papa John's was sued for $250 million for spam texting people in the middle of the night.

23. Dewey Beard was the last Native American veteran of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. In 1892, his family was killed by the US Army at the Wounded Knee Massacre, and he was shot. In 1942, the Department of War confiscated his land to form a firing range. He died in poverty in 1955.

24. In 1947, the Kiwanis Club of Ahoskie, North Carolina held a drawing for a New Cadillac. When a Black Navy Veteran named Harvey Jones won, they announced there had been a mistake, refunded the winner the $1 price of his ticket, and drew again for a white winner.

25. Joseph Stalin was hit by a horse-drawn carriage twice as a child, which led to permanent damage to his left arm. This injury exempted him from fighting in World War 1 where he would have likely died.