41 Utterly Incredible Random Facts Even Teachers Aren’t Aware Of | Random List #25

The 'National Enquirer' was the most reliable news source during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. According to a Harvard law professor who gave the media an overall failing grade, the 'Enquirer' was the only publication that thoroughly followed every rumor and talked to every witness.

27. The drink called "Punch" has no relation to punching and instead comes from the Sanskrit for "Five", since it was made with five ingredients in India.

28. Long ago, people chewed on tree bark as a method of pain relief. Willow bark has a high amount of salicylic acid, an ingredient still used in aspirin today.

29. The selective admissions process at universities was originally designed during the early 20th century to discriminate against Jews.

30. The Fossa, a large carnivore and the top predator in Madagascar but it isn't a cat, being more closely related to the mongoose family. And it's scientific name is derived from the fact that it has a concealed anus

AIDS denial in South Africa resulted in an epidemic that resulted in an estimated 300,000 deaths.

32. Female dragonflies will fake their own death just to avoid mating.

33. Cashew nuts are actually seeds and not nuts but they're grown outside of the fruit which is called a cashew apple.

34. When IBM executives first met Bill Gates of Microsoft in 1980, he was so young-looking that they thought he was the office boy.

35. Wyoming's Devils Tower has no apostrophe in its name. It was accidentally left off when Teddy Roosevelt signed the document making it a National Landmark and has never been fixed.

The Nazis during World War 2 formed a plan called 'Operation Bernhard' in which they were to crash England's economy by counterfeiting £132 million and dropping it over England by planes. This would be worth £8.3 billion today.

37. In 2006, amateur German radio operators managed to receive radio signals from the Voyager 1 space probe, which at that time was 14.7 billion km away.

38. Saint Lawrence of Rome while being martyred by being placed on a gridiron with hot coals below it joked with his tormentors saying, "I'm well done. Turn me over!" He is now the patron saint of cooks, chefs & comedians.

39. Carrots do not actually help most people to see in the dark. This myth was propaganda used by the Royal Air Force to explain why their pilots had improved success during night air battles but were actually used to disguise advances in radar technology.

40. When Irish Banks went on strike for 6 months in the 1970s, people used pubs to cash their pay-cheques and to keep the economy running.

The viscous liquid that canned beans are preserved in is called "Aquafaba" and can be used as a substitute for eggs in vegan recipes.