37 Hair-Raising Random Facts That Are Hard to Believe | Random List #20

Seattle has so few African Americans downtown due to racially restrictive covenants which lasted well into 1960 preventing minorities from owning homes in certain neighborhoods.

2. In 1959, nine ski hikers died mysteriously in the Ural mountains after fleeing their camp. Their deaths were never solved, and theories for the cause range from bear or yeti attacks to avalanches and military testing.

3. The first woman millionaire in the US was Sara Breedlove. In the 1890's she made her fortune by selling hair products designed and marketed for black women.

4. A man named George with severe OCD and a phobia of germs attempted to commit suicide at the age of 19 via a gunshot wound to the head. Instead of killing him, the bullet eliminated his mental illness without any other brain damage.

5. Gandhi often slept and bathed naked with other women including a grandniece and the wife of his grandnephew, who were both 18 when they started sleeping in the same bed as Gandhi, who was 77 years old at the time.

In 1860, 1 out of every 7 Americans were slaves to another American.

7. Scotland Yard was originally built upon the location where body parts of an unsolved murder of a woman were found, whose uterus was expertly removed, a particular trait of the depraved killer Jack the Ripper.

8. Popcorn kernels that don't pop are called "old maids" because they lack the necessary moisture to pop.

9. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not grow up speaking English. Instead, he spoke a creole language known as Gullah that began among coastal slave communities. Thomas has said the reason he rarely speaks publicly because he does not want any traces of it to come out in his speech.

10. Native Americans have Three Sisters Soup from their Three Sisters Agriculture from growing squash, climbing beans and corn together. The corn grows up, the climbing beans grow up the stalks, and the squash grows across the ground, covering all the roots and protecting them.

The allies used a ghost inflatable army to trick Hitler's forces.

12. Amish businesses have a 95% success rate at staying open at least five years.

13. Central Park's estimated real-estate value is over $500,000,000,000.

14. Apple made retailers buy iMacs in "five-packs, one in each color," so that Apple wouldn't get stuck with the unpopular colors.

15. Theodore Roosevelt, under threat of a bully at a bar and with a gun pointed at him, is told to make the man a drink, to this he stands up and says ‘Well, if I’ve got to, I’ve got to,’ and throws a right hook, knocking the man down. The bully later left town on a train.

Some tarantulas keep frogs as pets so they will eat insects that burrow into their nest.

17. During World War 2, a Polish Catholic social worker named Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children from death. That’s more than the 1,200 saved by Oscar Schindler. She was recognized by Yad Vashem in 1965 as one of the Righteous Among Nations (a non-Jew who saved Jews during the Holocaust).

18. Certain types of music can reduce anxiety in dogs, which can be useful during fireworks, thunderstorms, and separation. In a study when solo piano at 50-60 bpm was played, 85% became calmer, and over half of the dogs went to sleep.

19. In 2015, a dinosaur with bat-like wing membrane was discovered, becoming the closest thing to a dragon/wyvern currently discovered.

20. A Coastal Village In India has been making large boats for rich Arabs for over 1500 years. The boats are made from no written schematics.

Comedian Simon Brodkin spoofed Britain's Got Talent with a deliberately talent-less act that nonetheless pushed all the right emotional buttons to win "yes" votes from the judges.

22. Before becoming an actor, Jason Statham competed in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in diving and also sold fake jewelry to make ends meet early in his modeling career.

23. Nicotine is unusual compared to most drugs, as its profile changes from stimulant to sedative with increasing doses, a phenomenon known as "Nesbitt's paradox."

24. There is a large frozen mass under Antarctica that stretches almost 14 miles and we have no idea what it is.

25. Police stopped Rodney King on the 20th anniversary of his beating and cited him with driving with an expired license.