43 Majestic Facts About the Lone Star State – Texas

Two privacy researchers from the University of Texas were able to unmask Netflix users' political and sexual orientation by taking the "anonymized" movie ratings (released as part of Netflix Prize) and comparing them against non-anonymized movie ratings posted at IMDB.

27. Actor Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson) was held hostage at a Dallas Safeway when he was 25. A stranger stopped him and said "I see you have mangos, the most exotic of fruit" before putting a .45 to his head. Tobolowsky then gave the man his actual address and invited him over for dinner.

28. In 1983, an 11-year-old boy named Brian Zimmerman was elected mayor of Crabb, Texas on the platform that he would work to incorporate the town even though it meant he would lose his seat. He was quoted as saying that "the mayor isn't there to sit and worry about keeping his job. He's there to do what's best for the people."

29. A city in Texas renamed itself to "DISH, Texas" in order to receive free Dish Satellite service for 10 years.

30. In 2012, a Texas hospital named Mainland Medical Center billed a woman $4800 after she was in an accident. Once the hospital found out she received an insurance settlement, they sent her a new bill for $20,000+ and filed a lien against her property to get it.

A family in Texas in 1953 had a pet lion named Blondie. They never had any incidents with her and she died of old age, as a beloved member of the family.

32. Days after Hurricane Katrina, a 20-year-old man with extensive criminal history named Jabbar Gibson stole a school bus and picked up around 70 stranded people and drove 13 hours from New Orleans to Houston. This was the first bus to arrive at the Astrodome.

33. In 2010, Taco Bell secretly reduced the sodium content of its food at 150 Dallas area restaurants by 23%. Without telling anyone, they replaced the salt with "other spices and other ingredients.” Two months later, they had received exactly zero complaints about the changes.

34. A man named Drew Robert Nelson in Texas was still executed after someone else confessed committing the murder and the only eyewitness admitted he didn't actually see it.

35. In 2014, Texas minister Charles R. Moore set himself on fire and died in the hopes of inspiring social justice. The act drew little attention.

In 2011, a couple bought a box of old textbooks for $10. Inside, they found a 25-cent bill signed by the president of the Republic of Texas. It sold for over $63,250.

37. Houston, Texas is the only major city in the U.S. that has no zoning laws.

38. In 1993, during the 51-day siege by the FBI on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the FBI used sleep deprivation to try to force the suspects out. This included around the clock broadcasts of jet planes and screams from rabbits being slaughtered.

39. In Texas, it is legal to kill Bigfoot if you ever find it.

40. There is an evangelical church (Inspiring Body of Christ Church) in Dallas, Texas that spent $4.7 million on their privately-owned fish aquarium.

A 124,500 square foot abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas, has been turned into the largest single-floor public library in the United States.

42. A Texas school district Kerrville is so small that one person (Bill Bacon) "has been the superintendent, the principal, the third-to-sixth-grade teacher, the ESL instructor, the special-ed teacher, the repairman, the contractor". The Divide School uses white limousine as a school bus.

43. There is a Dr. Martin Jacobsen at West Texas A&M University that teaches Heavy Metal as a form of literature.