47 OMG Random Facts No One Knows What To Do With | Random List #265

Laos is the most heavily bombed nation in history, with the US secretly dropping an average of 8 bombs a minute for 9 years during the Vietnam war.

2. The Apostrophe Protection Society that was founded to enforce the proper use of the apostrophe in written English was brought to a "full stop" in 2019. The founder of the society stated that "the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!"

3. The Carolina Dog is a dog breed first discovered living wild in the southeast region of the United States, and after extensive DNA testing, it is believed they are descendants of the first animals to accompany humans across the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago.

4. Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is an extremely rare illness, which causes episodes of being mostly asleep for weeks at a time. If awake during an episode, sufferers are confused about what is real and what is a dream. The condition appears in adolescence and resolves itself 10-15 years later in its sufferers.

5. Samuel L. Gravely Jr. was the first African American in the U.S. Navy to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a Navy ship, the first fleet commander, and the first to become a flag officer, retiring as a vice admiral.

After the battle of Waterloo in 1815, scavengers removed the teeth from tens of thousands of dead soldiers for use in dentures. The so-called "Waterloo teeth" were in demand because they came from relatively healthy young men.

7. Guitarist Dave Mustaine was fired from his band for drug abuse, alcoholism, and aggressive behavior. He went on to form his own band, Megadeth, which would go on to sell 25 million albums worldwide. The band that fired him was Metallica.

8. People scored higher in a mental agility test while wearing a lab coat that they believed was a doctor's coat. The effect was not there when they believed the same white coat was a painter's coat. The study showed that we embody associations we have with particular clothes.

9. The ‘Attack of the Dead Men’ was a battle of World War I that took place at Osowiec Fortress, in Poland during World War 1. The incident got its name from the bloodied, zombie-like appearance of the Russian combatants after they were bombarded with a mixture of poison gasses, chlorine and bromine, by the Germans. Germans stationed at the Osowiec stronghold, effectively panicked at the sight of ‘dead men coughing blood’ attacking, causing them to flee.

10. USS William D. Porter was the only vessel in US Navy history to have its entire crew placed under arrest after they accidentally fired a live torpedo at a vessel carrying the President of the United States and the Secretary of State.

Former professional athlete Bo Jackson frequently refers to himself in the third person, a habit he developed as a child due to his severe stutter which made it difficult for him to say "I." 

12. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United Kingdom declared war on Japan nine hours before the United States, partially due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States.

13. In 1920, a young American woman named Bessie Coleman found a financial sponsor through a newspaper, traveled to France, and learned how to become a stunt pilot. She returned to the US as the first woman in the country to hold a pilot's license. She was of African and Native American descent.

14. In 1930, a group of Southern white women formed the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. By 1940, they had more than 100 chapters and 4 million members and helped elect anti-lynching candidates across the South. The association folded in 1942.

15. Generic SNES space shooter “Phalanx” had an old man playing banjo on the cover, not for any relation to the game itself, but purely as a marketing technique to differentiate itself in the crowded space shooter market. “Banjo man” does not appear in the game at any point.

On the set of “Big Fat Liar,” where John Cho played Hong Kong director Dusty Wang, he refused to do an accent because he did not want to do an accent in a children’s comedy where young people would be laughing inadvertently at an Asian stereotype.

17. In 2015, people who ate the Burger King Halloween Special had their poop turn bright green. This was due to the combination of food colorings in the burger's bun, which was black for the occasion.

18. The fridge in US president’s limo is always fully stocked with his blood type.

19. The “Chinese gooseberry” was rebranded as the “kiwi fruit” when New Zealand began exporting them to the USA during the Cold War.

20. KFC only became a success in Japan after a junior store manager made up a lie that Kentucky Fried Chicken was a staple during American Christmas.

It’s not a crime to escape prison in Germany and Belgium, because according to their constitution freedom is a basic human right.

22. The 'Expert Wizard Amendment' in New Mexico (1995) required psychiatrists and psychologists to dress up as wizards in court proceedings if they provided expert testimony. It was revealed to be satire before the vote, yet passed the New Mexico Senate unanimously. It was not signed into law.

23. Anti-Work Movement is a philosophy that sees work as the cause of unhappiness, and should, therefore, be avoided. Although associated with anarchists and communists today, its roots can be traced back to the Ancient Greek Cynics.

24. If you ever got shrunk down to the size of an ant, not only would everything look bigger to you, but the world would also appear almost a million times darker, the light would no longer appear straight meaning that the world around you would be covered in a haze of blurriness and shadow.

25. In 2013, a 31-year-old woman named Natasha Marie Harris in New Zealand died from cardiac arrhythmia which was ultimately linked to her unhealthy habit of drinking 6-10 liters a day of Coca-Cola.