42 Startling Random Facts That Impressed Us – Part 174

- Sponsored Links -

26Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick

During the space race, Stanley Kubrick was so worried that humans would soon make the first contact with aliens that he tried to buy an insurance policy for 2001: A Space Odyssey in case audiences found his depiction of aliens ridiculous.


27. One of Steven Spielberg's first movies (Firelight (1964)) cost $500 to make and was shown at a local cinema. 500 people came to the movie and it is thought that one accidentally paid $2 (tickets cost $1), gaining Spielberg a total profit of $1 from the film.


28. The star-shaped base of the Statue of Liberty was originally a fort built to defend against the British.


29. Taller people have an increased risk of getting cancer, with the risk increasing by about 10% for every 4 inches in height. This is because taller people have more cells, and therefore there are more chances for something to go wrong.


30. The word "National" in the "National Hockey League" refers to Canada, since for the first 7 years of play, all of the teams in the NHL were located in Canada.


Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History


31Dorothy

Dorothy

In the 1980s, the Naval Investigative Service misunderstood the euphemism "a friend of Dorothy" and believed there was actually a woman named Dorothy at the center of a massive ring of gay military personnel. They searched for her in the hopes she would reveal names of gay military members.


32. North-Korea has its own operating system called "Red Star OS" based on Linux. The administrator user is disabled, media files copied from the OS are watermarked with the hard drive's serial number and the "virus scanner" automatically deletes censored files.


33. Drivers in the UK who cause death while using their phones, speeding or are drunk face life in prison.


34. When King Louis XVI of France was executed via guillotine, it did not sever his neck. The blade went through the back of his skull and into his jaw.


35. If "Jedi" was accepted as a religion by New Zealand's 2001 census, it would have been the second-largest religion behind Christianity in New Zealand.


- Sponsored Links -

36Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill spent Christmas of 1941 in Washington as a guest of President Roosevelt. After electrifying Congress with a speech, he stayed up Christmas Eve watching a movie with Roosevelt and the Canadian prime minister. Then he had a heart attack and shrugged it off.


37. Dr. Seuss was humiliated by Theodore Roosevelt when he was a kid during an award ceremony, resulting in Dr. Seuss fearing large crowds for the rest of his life.


38. Looks are so important in elections that children have a great success rate of picking victors just from photos of the candidate's faces.


39. Puppies instinctively pile together into a heap and become distressed if separated from physical contact with their litter-mates, by even a short distance.


40. The split gill mushroom has over 23,328 distinct sexes, but they can't all successfully mate with one another. Each sex can only be fertile with 22,960 other sexes.


- Sponsored Links -

4111/22/63

11/22/63

For his book 11/22/63, Stephen King conducted considerable research and extensively studied various conspiracy theories regarding the JFK assassination. He ultimately dismissed them and came to the conclusion that Oswald acted alone.


42. A Nazi party member that directed experiments on prisoners in Auschwitz became president of Bayer after his release from prison.

1
2
- Sponsored Links -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here