40 Really Good Random Facts That’ll Inspire You | Random List #271

When the film "Yesterday" (about a world where the Beatles only existed in one musician's memory) was released, Paul McCartney and his wife crept into a theater, with Paul disguising himself with a hat and sunglasses, and watched it from the back row, trying not to laugh when he was mentioned.

2. Feral chickens began terrorizing an island in the UK in 2019. A few escaped chickens multiplied exponentially due to lack of predators, and 100-bird gangs began attacking joggers, destroying yards, blocking traffic, and waking residents at 4 am with their deafening crowing.

3. The city of Reykjavík, Iceland, uses hot water to maintain the temperature of a section of its downtown pond so that the birds living there always have a corner to swim in, even in winter.

4. Alberta Jones was a pioneering black female attorney and a civil rights icon. She rose to national recognition as the legal representation for Cassius Clay's first professional fighting contract. In 1965, Ms. Jones was assassinated at the age of 34, and the crime remains unsolved today.

5. An attempted assassination of Bob Marley occurred on Dec. 3, 1976, when seven armed men raided his house two days before a concert to quell violence. His wife was shot in the head in her car in the driveway. The gunmen shot Marley in the chest and arm. Astonishingly, there were no fatalities.

The 1999 film "The Iron Giant" is based on a 1968 science fiction novel by poet Ted Hughes, written to comfort his children after the suicide of their mother, fellow poet, and his wife Sylvia Plath.

7. The Nightman Cometh episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" was performed in front of an audience of background actors who weren't informed of what they were watching. "The audience didn't have any context, so I remember a lot of confused faces as we were performing," said Rob McElhenney

8. Pontiac's Rebellion was a Native American uprising against the British just after the close of the French and Indian Wars at Fort Michilimackinac. Native Americans played Lacrosse outside of the fort, and the British came outside to watch the games. Once the natives thought that enough soldiers were outside, they grabbed weapons and rushed the fort, killing every British soldier they saw.

9. Peter Tabichi is a science teacher from rural Kenya who has donated 80% of his salary to help poorer students, was crowned the world's best teacher of 2019, and was awarded with $1 million prizes, beating 10000 other nominees from 179 countries.

10. The biggest warning siren ever was made by Chrysler and powered by a V8 Hemi engine. It was 12 feet long, weighed 3 tons, was heard in a 2000 square mile area, condensed fog into rain, and sometimes knocked birds out of the sky.

Construction on the remote Galehead Hut in the White Mountains was once halted because the design was found to not be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The mountaintop hut, accessible only via a rugged hiking trail with 2,200' of vertical ascent, now features a wheelchair ramp.

12. In 2019, a British woman named Elizabeth Hoad married her dog Logan. She explained that after four failed engagements, 220 dates, and a range of unsatisfactory experiences in the search for love, she had given up on the male of her species - whereas with her dog, she felt that he had saved her and she had saved him

13. Los Angeles had the largest urban farm in the US until it was torn down for warehouse development. The farm had been established by the L.A. Regional Food Bank.

14. Around 25% of the world's population is infected with the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis, but around 90-95% of infections are asymptomatic.

15. Redwoods, despite their incredible height, have shallow root systems. Their stability is due to the roots extending over 100 feet from the base and that they intertwine with roots of other redwoods.

Orchestral Conductors used to keep time by pounding on the ground with a large staff until the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully stabbed himself in the foot, refused treatment, got gangrene, and died. This eventually led to conductors using their hands or a baton to conduct music.

17. Monty Python once produced a vinyl record with 2 parallel concentric tracks with different programs so you couldn’t control which program you heard when you dropped the needle.

18. Rice Christian is an actual term. Rice Christian is a stereotype term used to describe someone who has formally declared himself/herself a Christian for material benefits rather than for religious reasons.

19. The Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center has the world's largest doors. Each door is 139 meters (456 feet) high, and it takes 45 minutes to open them.

20. In his treatise on oceans, Aristotle wrote that many processes on Earth occurred "in periods of time which are so immense compared with the length of our life" that we can't observe them, and that "before their course can be recorded from beginning to end whole nations perish and are destroyed."

Almost all the royal families of Europe are related to each other and while family trees are complicated and there are many ways that Europe's royals are related to each other, they all share a common ancestor in King George II who was the King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1727 until 1760.

22. Applejack is the name of an apple brandy that was popular in Maine due to liquor laws. Apple orchards were plentiful and applejack is easy to make by freezing fermenting cider, draining the ice, and keeping the high concentration liquor that stayed liquid.

23. Categories for hurricanes as high as "Category 7" have been proposed but are "not necessary" as almost all human structures are obliterated at Category 5 anyway.

24. Physician-assisted suicide is a constitutionally-protected right in Canada since 2015. When a Supreme Court decision ruled that people with "grievous and irremediable medical conditions", and whose natural death is "reasonably foreseeable" or "incurable", are entitled to assisted suicide.

25. Prominent mathematician Leonhard Euler had a botched eye surgery which left him almost totally blind at 59. Despite this, he still used his mental calculation skills to contribute more work to mathematics, and he could recite epic poems from memory.