50 Random Facts List #130

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26Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

In 1969, upon request from Richard Nixon, NASA made 250 display plaques for the 50 US states, 135 countries, and the UN. Flags from all the countries and states were flown on board Apollo 11 to the moon and back and were gifted to each respective state along with fragments of the lunar surface.


27. German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine once wrote in a play from 1821, "Wherever they burn books, in the end, will also burn human beings." Over a century later, copies of Heine's books were among the many burned in Berlin's Opernplatz.


28. Larry Bird once got bored halfway through a game and decided to challenge himself by only shooting left handed. He scored 20 points using only his left hand.


29. Earth has had 5 mass extinctions, and we are currently in the 6th.


30. Researchers at IBM made a stop-motion movie from the world’s smallest characters with the canvas measuring just 45x25 nanometers. They achieved this by rearranging individual atoms to create images.


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31Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby

In the early days of film and television, filmmakers thought nothing about painting a white stuntman with black makeup to double for a black actor, until Bill Cosby refused to let a white man with black face double for him. His actions paved way for the Black Stuntmen's Association.


32. Britain incurred so much debt fighting World War 2 that it didn't make its final loan payment until 2006.


33. The arrow symbol (→) is a rather recent invention. The first arrow symbols were used sporadically in the 18th century and arrow symbols only became widely used in the late 19th century. Pointing hand symbols (☞) were used for centuries before the arrow symbol was invented.


34. When saturation divers are not diving to extreme depths, they can spend up to two months at a time living inside a tiny pressurized tank onboard a ship. Inside they can only breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen as normal air will kill them. They do this to stay acclimated to the intense pressures they work in.


35. After the Spanish Civil war, many Republicans fled to exile in France. During World War 2 more than 60,000 Spanish Republicans, experienced in guerrilla warfare, joined the French Resistance and Free French Forces. The first allied division to enter Paris was almost entirely Spanish.


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36Brewster's Millions

Brewster's Millions

The original Brewster's Millions (1945) was banned in Memphis, Tennessee because Brewster's African-American servant was "treated too well."


37. Horses are the only mammals other than humans that can produce large amounts of sweat. Most of it is produced in their armpits.


38. Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington has a specially constructed anechoic chamber, which holds the record for the quietest place on Earth. Inside it you can even hear yourself grind your bones.


39. There are 1.4 billion insects for every human on Earth. If all the humans in the world got on one scale, and all the bugs in the world got on another scale, the bugs would weigh more.


40. In the 1500s, a Greek Protestant adventurer named Iacob Heraclid went around Europe pretending to be royalty and managed to make himself Prince of Moldavia for two years before being killed.


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41Anglo-Saxon courts

Anglo-Saxon courts

Anglo-Saxon courts never attempted to unearth the facts in a case. It was up to each party to get as many people as possible to swear in their favor since it was assumed that any person of good standing would be able to find enough people to swear to their innocence to bolster their case.


42. Diamonds are used as conflict gemstones because they are much more common than other stones, not because of their value.


43. Of all the movies that have grossed a billion dollars (not adjusted for inflation), the movie with the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score is Transformers: Age of Extinction which is rated 15%. The next lowest rated film is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at 32%.


44. In 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great arrived in Egypt they did not put up a fight against him. Instead they saw him as a liberator from the Persian Empire. He was a pronounced the son of deity Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert.


45. The rarest credit card in the world, the American Express Centurion card, is invitation only. It has a $7,500 initiation fee, a $2500 annual fee, no credit limit, and is made of titanium.


46Tinder

Tinder

In the United Kingdom, there is a program where if a woman is on a Tinder date and she doesn't feel safe all she has to do is go to the bar and ask for "Angela". The bar staff will assist her in getting away from the guy and to a safe spot.


47. After his friend's eyes froze over from removing fogged goggles during a test flight, John Macready began working with Bausch & Lomb to create goggles better suited for flights into the upper atmosphere. Using his original shape, tint and fit, the design would become the Ray-Ban Aviators.


48. Spanish drink called "Kola Coca" was presented at a contest in Philadelphia in 1885, a year before the official birth of Coca-Cola. The rights to this Spanish drink were bought by Coca-Cola in 1953.


49. The inside of a tornado is filled with blue lightning and many little tornadoes. The air is smooth, not turbulent, but hard to breathe.


50. The white paint on the base of trees helps prevent cracking and splitting of new bark and highlights insect infestation.

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