40 Impressive Random Facts That Made Us Seriously Curious – Part 277

Richard Rowland Kirkland was a Confederate soldier who risked his life to tend to wounded soldiers from both sides of the Civil War in the middle of the battle at Fredericksburg. Both sides held their fire as they watched him help every wounded soldier regardless of allegiance.

2. The secret formula for WD-40 is stored in a bank vault and has only left it twice; once was on its 50th birthday when the CEO of WD-40 rode through Times Square on a horse with a suit of armor on and the formula in hand.

3. 25% of Jamaican citizens claim Irish ancestry, the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica after African ancestry.

4. Basketball Hall of Famer George Raveling volunteered as security during MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Immediately after the speech, he asked MLK for the original typewritten manuscript, which he gave him. He still has it and has refused offers of more than $3,000,000 for it.

5. Octopuses have 2/3 of their neurons in their arms. When in captivity they regularly occupy their time with covert raids on other tanks, squirting water at people they don't like, shorting out bothersome lights, and escaping.

Ronald Reagan won 49 states and 525 electoral votes in the 1984 presidential election which is the most in history.

7. The 7-minute long shot in the Charlie Work episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" was entirely filmed by camera operator Adam Sklena, without dolly tracks or a rig. "This is a man holding a camera who had to walk backward—and we got it without screwing up on take 1," said Charlie Day.

8. Director/producer Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl) worked at Burger King to collect funny stories during a writer’s strike. He was given 1 of 12 known special Burger King Crown Cards that gives people like Robert Downey Jr., Hugh Laurie, Jennifer Hudson and Jay Leno unlimited free food for life.

9. YoungKio sold one of his beats to Lil Nas X for just $30. However, the agreement stated that he had 50% of the publishing rights to the finished song, and in this case, he became half-owner of the smash hit “Old Town Road.”

10. Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese-American pilot that supported the US Army during World War 2. One time, her aircraft made an emergency landing on a farm. The farmer saw her, grabbed a pitchfork, and chased her around the plane, shouting to neighbors that the Japanese had invaded Kansas.

Radium doesn't itself glow, it makes the medium around it glow due to its ionizing radiation, which is why it appears to glow.

12. On August 24, 2001, when Air Transat Flight 236 lost all of its fuel mid-air, the captain (who was an experienced a glider pilot) proceeded to glide the Airbus A330, with its 306 occupants, without any power, for 19 minutes, covering some 120 km, until landing hard at Lajes Air Base with 0 casualties.

13. Vulnerable Narcissist is someone who thinks that they are really important, really smart, or really special but people just don’t notice it.

14. Hyenas are not members of the dog or cat families. Instead, they are so unique that they have a family of their own, Hyaenidae.

15. In 17th century England, after English statesman Oliver Cromwell had been dead for 7 years, his body was dug up, put on trial, found guilty, then executed and burned.

In 1881, an Egyptian obelisk named Cleopatra's Needle was erected in NYC's Central Park. A capsule buried beneath holds the 1870 census, a Bible, a Webster’s Dictionary, the complete works of Shakespeare, a guide to Egypt, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

17. Wonderwall was a movie from 1968 about a lonely professor and his increasing obsession with his female neighbor, a fashion model whose life he spies on via a hole in the wall. George Harrison from the Beatles wrote the film’s music which in turn inspired the hit song “Wonderwall“ from Oasis.

18. The “queen” in chess used to be the “advisor” which could only move one square diagonally. It wasn't until chess was brought to Europe and the rise of female monarchs during the 15th century that the “advisor” replaced with the “queen.”

19. Horses identify photographs of their current keepers, and even of former keepers whom they had not seen in six months, at a rate much better than chance. Horses correctly identified their current keeper and ignored the stranger’s face about 75 percent of the time.

20. Dr. Albert Johnston went to medical school in 1920s and became a doctor by hiding his black heritage and passing as white for 20 years. He ousted himself by stating he was mixed-race on a Navy application during World War 2. The hospital he worked at fired him when they found out.

Spolia Opima was the rarest and the highest military prize given in Ancient Rome. It was only given to a general who had personally killed an enemy general in combat and stripped him of his armor. This happened only 3 times in the history of Rome.

22. The Wodaabe tribe from Chad has a courtship tradition called Gerewol. Men spend hours getting dressed to dance in front of the tribe's women in hopes of being judged the most beautiful. Women from the tribe can pick who they want to get married to.

23. Toyota argued that, when empty, the fuel tank of the GT-One could theoretically hold a standard suitcase and be considered a trunk as required by the Le Mans GT1 rules. It worked, as the rules only required the suitcase to fit and didn't take into account if the "trunk" was actually usable.

24. Paul Shuen was one of Canada’s most respected obstetricians and gynecologists for 30 years. His license to practice in Ontario was revoked after it was discovered that, he was drugging his patients without their knowledge to induce labor on Saturday, since deliveries paid more on weekends.

25. M&Ms were inspired by soldiers' rations during the Spanish Civil War. Forrest Mars Sr. of the Mars Company observed British volunteers eating chocolate beads encased in a hard sugar shell (Smarties), which prevented melting. By World War 2, M&Ms were produced and sold exclusively to the military.