40 Electrifying Random Facts To Recharge Your Brain – Part 70

The Kingsmen's famous "Louie Louie" had sold only 600 copies before it was played in a "worst album of the week" radio spot, eventually propelling it to a million sales and the Billboard #2 hit. The band had already broken up.

27. 9 out of the 18 songs on Eminem’s “Marshall Mathers LP” make references to killing women.

28. There are 5 times more former vegetarians/vegans than current ones.

29. Terminal patients may exhibit a burst of energy and lucidity near death. It is known as Terminal Lucidity.

30. When Coca-Cola created the modern image of Santa Claus in their advertisements, Santa was depicted without a wedding ring, causing fans to write to Coca-Cola asking whether he was still married to Mrs. Claus.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is traditionally performed in Japan at the end of the year, which was introduced in World War 1 by German prisoners. In December 2009, for example, there were 55 performances of the symphony throughout Japan.

32. Half of the 12 men who've walked on the moon still are alive, youngest is Charles Duke at 82, oldest is Buzz Aldrin at 87.

33. American politician and former vice president Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) argued against the idea of a standing army, comparing it to a standing penis: "An excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."

34. Gavrilo Princip, the man that assassinated Franz Ferdinand and started World War 1, was arrested and when in prison, contracted Skeletal Tuberculosis. It started eating his bones so badly that when his arm was amputated, he weighed 40 kilograms (88 pounds).

35. When German World War 2 U-boats would cruise below the surface with diesel engines running, waves swamping the snorkel tubes would cause the engines to suck air from the boat to keep running, producing a partial vacuum. Crews reported it was very painful, and eardrums were sometimes ruptured.

The singer of Peanut Butter Jelly Time died in an 11 hour police standoff during which time his brother-in-law Snoop Dogg attempted to calm him down and surrender.

37. Peter Jackson made a huge push to get Andy Serkis nominated for his role as Gollum in ‘Lord of the Rings.’ The Academy denied his request, stating that the motion-capture performance was ineligible as it “technically wasn’t the actor being nominated for the role, but rather the character.”

38. Christmas used to be illegal in Massachusetts and much of New England and remained taboo in that part of the country until at least ­1870 when the Feds declared it a national holiday

39. There's a family (Da Silva family) in Brazil where every member has 12 fingers.

40. All mammals, from mice to whales, have roughly the same number of heartbeats in a lifetime: 1 billion.