43 Random Facts You Won’t Find in Encyclopedia – Part 212

A slave rebellion broke out on slave ship La Amistad in 1839, resulting in two deaths. The slaves were captured and stood trial. It was ruled that they acted as free men, and were entitled to take any measures necessary to ensure freedom, including force. They were all returned to Africa.

27. Stan Lee used alliterative names like Peter Parker and Reed Richards because he had poor memory. Having first and last name start with the same letter made them easier for him to remember their names.

28. In 1931, a suspension bridge (Waldo-Hancock Bridge) was built in Maine. The construction was so far under budget that there was enough money left over to build a second bridge elsewhere.

29. After Minnie Cox, the first black female postmaster was pressured out of her post, President Theodore Roosevelt continued to pay her salary and punished the town by rerouting their mail 30 miles away. In the end, atmosphere in the town became so hostile that Mrs. Cox left for her own safety.

30. Armin T. Wegner resisted both the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. In 1915, he took hundreds of photos of the persecuted Armenians and was subsequently arrested. In 1933, he wrote a letter to Hitler denouncing the persecution of Jews and was then sent to a concentration camp.

Chiune Sugihara a.k.a. “Japanese Schindler” was a Japanese diplomat in Germany during the Holocaust, who went against orders to save 6000 Jewish lives by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory. He's the only Japanese honored Righteous Among the Nations by Israel.

32. Tolkien had Beren and Lúthien engraved on his and his wife's grave, Lúthien being the most beautiful being in all Arda and Beren the man she forsook her immortality for.

33. Robert Chesebrough, the man who invented Vaseline used to go city to city dipping his hand in acid and burning it, showing previous wounds that had healed using his product.

34. In 2015, Nathan Fielder became aware that his favorite jacket company Taiga had published a tribute to Holocaust denier Doug Collins in one of their winter catalogs. So he created his own company to raise awareness of The Holocaust. He also gives free exchanges for Taiga coats.

35. In Star Trek, Captain Kirk's phrase "You have the conn" has its origins in early battleships dating as far back as the 1860s. These ships were built with conning towers. A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine from which an officer in charge can issue commands.

A Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen suffered huge losses after a fire broke out in his woodworking shop that made furniture. He descended into bankruptcy and decided to start making small wood items, including toys. He even renamed his company to 'leg godt' ('play well') or Lego.

37. By default all Singaporeans over 21 years old are organ donors allowing for the kidneys, heart, liver, and corneas to be transplanted in the event of death from any cause. Individuals who do not wish to be donors must actively opt-out, and few do: 97% of its citizens are organ donors.

38. Tommy James and the Shondells declined an invitation to perform at the Woodstock festival, because James' secretary put it to him as "Yeah, listen, there's this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field."

39. Terence Kirk was an American soldier who was captured by the Japanese on the day they bombed Pearl Harbor. He spent the entire war at a brutal prison camp. While there, he built a camera out of scrap and took many pictures. After the war, he was put under a gag order, and only told his story 38 years later.

40. In the Middle Ages, the word "poop" meant to blast a horn. By the 1600s it was slang for farting.

William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son was the Governor of New Jersey when the Revolutionary War broke out. Will sided with the crown and the two never spoke again for the rest of their lives.

42. Eric Clapton is the only person that has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times. Once with the Yardbirds, once with Cream, and once as a solo artist.

43. There is a laser procedure which breaks up brown eye pigment (melanin) in the iris to effectively change one’s eye color from brown to blue, since blue eyes exist under all brown eyes.