39 Serious Random Facts You May Want to Know | Random List #251

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1National Spelling Bee

National Spelling Bee

In 2019, the National Spelling Bee titled 8 co-champions after running out of words in a 3.5-hour final. Starting with 562 contestants, the final eight continued for 20 straight rounds of spelling words without any errors.


2. As a child, Jimi Hendrix carried an actual broom with him everywhere around the school for over a year, as a pretend guitar. The school's social worker tried to get funding for a real guitar, insisting that leaving him without one might result in psychological damage.


3. The South Korean government started massively subsidizing (1%+ of GDP) its entertainment industry in 1994 after realizing one Jurassic Park film made as much as the combined sales of 1.5 million Hyundai cars.


4. Donald Glover used to have the social media handle of @donglover. Unfortunately for him, many people wrongly read this username as Dong Lover instead of Don Glover. So, the actor later changed the name. He now sports the username @donaldglover on Twitter and @childishgambino on Instagram.


5. In 1908, William "Bigfoot" Anakin, a local champion was taken along by a publican to court to help demonstrate that darts were not gambling, it was a game of skill. Bigfoot showed that whatever number the court mentioned, he could hit on the board. The judge agreed darts was a game of skill.


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6Charles Bello

Charles Bello

Charles Bello bought 240 acres of redwoods for $45,000 in 1968 to protect them from logging and continues to live there today in a parabolic cabin powered by solar power.


7. Jelly Belly once tried to make a cheese-pizza flavored jelly bean. The taste was so bad that they used it as the vomit flavored Bertie Bott’s jelly bean instead.


8. Orion P. Howe was a 14-year-old drummer boy who received the Medal of Honor during the Civil War for volunteering to supply ammunition under heavy fire. He experienced 14 battles, and after the war, he joined the Naval Academy because he was still too young for West Point.


9. Your printer puts information in every sheet you print that will allow authorities to track any printed page back to your printer. This hidden information most likely survives scans and photos of your printed documents, allowing those to be tracked as well.


10. Cheetahs are native to Asia in addition to Africa. The Asiatic cheetah is a critically endangered subspecies whose range has shrunk to Iran's central plateau. It's believed that there were fewer than 50 individuals in the wild as of 2017.


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11Jack Phillips

Jack Phillips

Jack Phillips, a 25-year-old Godalming-born telegraphist was aboard the Titanic when it hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912. He stayed at his post until the ship sank, frantically contacting nearby ships, in an attempt to save hundreds of lives. His body was never found.


12. Phil Collins of Genesis band is the largest private collector of Alamo Memorabilia valued in the tens of millions. He donated the collection to the state-owned historical site. He is also considered a leading expert on the battle and wrote a book documenting the collection and history.


13. The days of the week come from the Norse names for the 7 Ptolemaic planets: Sun's day, Moon's day, Tiw's day, Woden's day, Thor's day, Freya's day, and Saturn's day.


14. Nikola Tesla, widely known as the inventor of the AC power system, also installed the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls in 1896. It was around this time that Tesla also disavowed coal and oil in favor of renewable energy sources.


15. The skin of a Honey Badger is tough enough to resist several machete blows and is almost impervious to arrows and spears.


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16McDonald's apples

McDonald's apples

McDonald's buys a lot of apples. As of 2016, McDonald's sold more than 10% of all sliced apples in the US. At its core, the apple industry resurgence over the last decade can be traced, at least in part, to McDonald's.


17. Movie ratings are decided by a board of up to 10 parents who are all anonymous and all live in Los Angeles.


18. American author Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian at the age of 26 and committed suicide at the age of 30. He didn't live to see Conan become successful and is considered to be the father of sword and sorcery.


19. The star of Columbo, Peter Falk, has legislation called "Peter Falk's Law" named after him. It prevents children of sick parents being prevented from access or information about their parents' physical and mental condition.


20. Theodore Roosevelt boxed regularly as New York governor and later as president. He stopped when he was struck so hard during a sparring session that he became blind in his left eye. His sparring partner didn't even learn this until he read about it years later.


21Dave Thomas

Dave Thomas

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas regretted using his daughter's name. Not long before he died he told his daughter: "I should've just named it after myself, because it put a lot of pressure on you."


22. Screech owls keep blind snakes as pets/housekeepers. The snakes are carried to the owl's nest. The snakes then burrow into it and eat bugs that would otherwise pose a threat to the owl's young.


23. A disgruntled game development student made a hilariously terrible animation of a dancing bear as a protest that he learned nothing from an animation class, by only utilizing techniques taught in the class. It became a meme after a friend uploaded it to youtube; he also got an A.


24. Iceland has a genealogy book containing details of every Icelander going back as far as the 9th century.


25. Two-time Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson quit acting in 1992 to join the British parliament. She became a junior minister in the Blair government and had aspirations to be Mayor of London. In 2015, at the age of 78, she quit politics, reverted to acting, and won a Tony Award.

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