37 Random Facts That’ll Make You Wiser | Random List #223

- Sponsored Links -

26Studio Theaters

Studio Theaters

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that film studios can't own movie theaters, thus breaking up their oligopoly. Before its ruling, Hollywood studios owned movie theaters to hold exclusive rights of showing their films, angering independent producers including Walt Disney and Charlie Chaplin.


27. “The Drinking Man’s Diet” was the 1960s ancestor to Atkins and paleo. It was based on the observation that alcoholics drank thousands of calories per day and actually lost weight. It became one of the most popular diets of the decade, selling 2.4 million copies. The author lived to 98 years.


28. Legendary pickpocket Apollo Robbins once stripped Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail of their watches, badges, keys, and the presidential itinerary. He once stole a man’s driver’s license and made it turn up inside a sealed bag of M&M’s in his wife’s purse.


29. The earliest form of smallpox immunization was used in China in the 1500s. Doctors would take ground-up scabs from people with mild cases of the disease, and blow the material into their nostrils. This lead to a mild version of the disease which had a mortality rate of ~2% (20-30% if untreated).


30. In 1932, a man who is now known as ‘The Mad Trapper of Canada’ opened fire on policemen, fled 85 miles in -50 degree weather in 3 days, climbed a 7,000-foot mountain during a blizzard, and was finally shot dead by a WWI ace. The only sound he ever made was laughter as he killed a policeman. His identity is still unknown.


Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


31Vanilla Capital

Vanilla Capital

Though Madagascar now produces 80% of the world’s vanilla, the vine is native to Mexico. Mayans were the first to cultivate it in the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula. They flavored their chocolate drink with vanilla.


32. A Polish man received a building permit for a single-family home in the Polish village of Lapalice in the 1980s. He then spent his fortune building a 52-room castle, with 365 windows and 12 turrets. Once the authorities found out, they put an end to construction. He’s still fighting with them now, 35 years later, to complete it.


33. About 26 states in the U.S. do not require employers to provide meal or rest breaks to their employees.


34. Due to a copyright issue, George Romero’s film Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free on the internet. It is currently the most downloaded film on the Internet Archive, with 3.1 million downloads.


35. In Kentucky, five million gallons of the “angel’s share” from bourbon evaporates every year, which is also covering the state in a black fungus called “Baudoinia” that feeds off the ethanol vapor released by liquor as it ages.


- Sponsored Links -

36WD-40

WD-40

WD-40's formula is a trade secret and has not changed. To avoid disclosing its composition, the product was not patented in 1953, and the window of opportunity for patenting it has long since closed.


37. During World War I, both sides used fake trees as spy posts. To make them, engineers would find a dead tree, then make sketches of it and make a detailed replica. At night, they would then tear out the original tree and replace it with the fake.

1
2
- Sponsored Links -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here