44 Distinct Random Facts You Never Knew Before | Random List #226

Nikola Tesla once spent over $2,000 on an injured white pigeon. The amount includes building a device that comfortably supported her so her bones could heal. “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life,” he said of her.

27. Dr. Seuss was childless, but he invented a whole clan of fictional offspring with bizarre talents that he could bring up whenever friends annoyed him by boasting about their own kids’ accomplishments. He even got a group of neighborhood kids into posing as them for a fake Christmas card photo.

28. After World War 2, Japanese insurance companies started putting in one-year exemption clauses in their policies, so that people who would sign in must wait one year before killing themselves to get the money. As a result, the suicide rate in Japan spiked on the thirteenth month of the contract.

29. The “Million Dollar Quartet” is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash on December 4th, 1956.

30. Mike Tyson’s Training Regiment included waking up at 4 am, jogging 5-miles. Then he would do 2000 sit-ups, 500 pushups, 500 dips, 500 shrugs and about 30 minutes of neck bridges daily. He repeated this 6 days a week.

Pierre Joubert (1701-1814), aged 113, was believed to have been the oldest person who ever lived. It was later discovered that Pierre died in 1766 at the age of 65 and his son by the same name died in 1814, causing the confusion.

32. While recording “I’m Coming Out,” Diana Ross had no idea “coming out” meant one revealing they’re gay. When Ross found out, she went back to the recording studio in tears, thinking songwriter Nile Rodgers tried to ruin her career.

33. Scatman John from ‘Scatman’ the popular song from the '90s had a really severe stutter and he discovered scat/piano to cope with his impediment, causing him to be a pop star at the age of 53.

34. Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave was thrown overboard when his ship was torpedoed and sunk in World War 1. He was picked up by another ship, which was also torpedoed and sunk. He then swam to a third ship, which was also torpedoed and sunk. He managed to survive the war.

35. The submarine resembling a Lotus Esprit, from the Bond film ‘The Spy who Loved Me’, went unclaimed for 10 years in a prepaid storage unit. When its lease ran out, a buyer bought the unit for less than $100, including the submarine. In 2013, the submarine was sold at auction for £550,000.

Project 100,000 was a controversial Vietnam War era program by the United States Department of Defense to draft 100,000 low-IQ men a year for the Vietnam War. It was dubbed, “Macnamara’s Morons.” More than 5,000 recruited under this program were killed in the war, 3 times the rate when compared to other soldiers.

37. Washington Irving, who created the first illustration of Santa on his sleigh, was also the creator of the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow.

38. Olaf was a complete and utter prick in the original script of Frozen, like a villain but not actually one, and screenwriter Jennifer Lee hated original Olaf so much that every time he appeared in the script she would write “kill the fu*king snowman.”

39. American distributor of the movie ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ shortened it to 139 minutes, without the director’s involvement. That version was a critical and commercial flop in the US. Meanwhile, the European Cut of 229 minutes has remained one of the best gangster movies ever by many critics.

40. In 2019, the city of Key West, Florida passed a law banning the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, which are believed to be detrimental to coral reefs.

WWE Wrestler John Cena is a fan of anime and noted that his favorite anime film is, “Fist of the Northstar.”

42. Henry Berry Lowrie was born to a mixed-race family during the civil war, and in 1865, saw his family executed for owning weapons. He led a gang of Indians, African-Americans, and white men, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. He disappeared at 27 and was never caught.

43. Over 10% of Canada’s population is descended from impoverished British children that were sent to work on Canadian farms between 1869 and 1939.

44. The entire surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan, can move several kilometers per month, suggesting that there is an ocean underneath the surface.