45 Impressive Random Facts You Never Knew | Random List #157

"Stagecoach Mary" was the first African-American woman mail carrier in the USA. She worked the route 8 years and never missed a day. She won the contract because she was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of 6 horses (she was 60 years old at the time).

2. In the 1970s, the U.S. Census Bureau removed Central and South American options as nationalities because people from the Midwest and the Southern USA would mistakenly pick them.

3. There is a new drug named Invega Trinzatm for treating schizophrenia that consists of being given a shot 4 times a year, making it the first successful medication of its kind that doesn’t require patients to take daily pills.

4. As a child, actor Michael Berryman would be teased because of his appearance (he was born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, leaving him with no sweat glands, hair, fingernails or teeth). He would go to the parents and say your children are brats and tell them they were bad parents.

5. The Statue of Liberty walks over a broken chain and shackle, half-hidden by her robes and difficult to see from the ground. They represent freedom and the end of servitude and oppression.

An artist named Dave Soldier was hired to create "The most unwanted song" which contains bagpipes, children singing about holidays, advertising jingles, accordions, and a soprano rap. It lasts 22 minutes.

7. Gladiators didn't normally fight to the death, as they were too expensive to prepare and maintain, making it too risky of a business to sustain. For there to be a fight to the death, a sponsor would have to pay extra and also compensate the lanista for the lost gladiator.

8. GTA V, the highest grossing video game of all time has made $6 billion whereas Avatar, the highest grossing movie, has made only $2.7 billion.

9. Guinness records are applied for and not sought out by Guinness (such as a 118-year-old Bolivian woman named Julia Flores Colque beats the current Guinness record holder by 6 years) meaning many Guinness record holders may not actually be world record holders.

10. Otto von Bismarck challenged a scientist named Rudolf Virchow to a duel but backed out after learning that his opponent chose to fight with two pork sausages, one infected with roundworm.

In the United States, if you are not found guilty of a crime by reason of insanity, you can be involuntarily confined in a mental institution indefinitely, regardless of what the maximum sentence would have been had you been found guilty.

12. In 2005, the Australian Government banned the use of the word 'Mate' in Parliament. However, the ban lasted all of 24 hours before it was repealed after being described 'absurd and ridiculous' by the Prime Minister.

13. In the 1st century A.D. in Rome, the lead actor in the play, 'Laureolus," would be switched out in the end with a condemned criminal and actually crucified on stage.

14. Mississippi didn't ratify the 13th Amendment until 2013 when a college professor decided to do some research after watching the film 'Lincoln' and noticed that Mississippi had never officially ratified it.

15. For free, the US Treasury Department provides blind US citizens with a machine that can read their currency for them. iBill is compact enough to slip into a side pocket. It can identify all US currency. They have also developed free apps to read currency with a smartphone.

When famed troll and philosopher Diogenes the Cynic was being sold as a slave, he listed his specialty as "ruling men." He subsequently pointed to Xeniades, a wealthy Corinthian and said, “Sell me to this man; he needs a master.” He was sold on the spot and became a tutor to Xeniades' sons.

17. Canadian musician Chad Kroeger took a $4000 loan from his stepfather so his band, Nickelback, could record their first EP. In truth, only half went towards recording the EP; the other half went to buying magic mushrooms.

18. The longest Filibuster in American History was a 24-hour speech by Senator Strom Thurmond, with the intention of stalling the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He successfully spoke from 8:54 pm to 9:12 pm the next day, but the bill was still passed.

19. An escaped slave of George Washington named Oney Judge lived her life as a fugitive in New Hampshire and provided historians with the most detailed account of slavery at Mount Vernon.

20. Campbell's Green Bean Casserole is so popular that Campbell's estimates 40% of their Cream of Mushroom Soup is used to make the dish.

A major tobacco company named Newport cigarette was sued for allegedly using company vans in the 1960s to make trips to housing projects where free Newport cigarettes were given to children. A jury ruled against the tobacco company, which was ordered to pay over $35 million in damages.

22. When you cool helium to about 2 Kelvin it will literally have zero viscosity and so will be able to flow through solid ceramics and up walls.

23. In 1920, during US Prohibition, a Johns Hopkins psychologist named John Watson conducted a study to see whether or not people are better at playing Darts while drunk. The government allowed him to purchase 34 gallons of whiskey, as scientific research was a valid exception to Prohibition.

24. An Antarctic explorer named Captain Oates died during the Terra Nova Expedition. Oates struggling with the journey back walked from his tent into a blizzard. He committed suicide in an act of self-sacrifice when his ill health was compromising his three companions’ chances of survival.

25. While recording the original Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror", James Earl Jones chewed on a cookie close to his microphone in order to get the alien drooling sounds just right for Alien Chief Serak.