50 Random Facts List #162

Eduard Bloch, Hitler’s childhood doctor was a Jew. When Hitler’s mother couldn't afford cancer treatment, Bloch reduced his prices. Teenage Adolf declared undying gratitude, and when Austria was annexed, Hitler kept his word and granted the doctor special protection by the Gestapo.

27. The notoriously austere and disciplined Spartan King Agesilaus was once caught by a friend riding a stick horse while playing with his kids. The King begged his friend not to tell anyone, saying he'd understand once he had kids of his own.

28. Steven Spielberg wanted to make the (1999) Medal of Honor game to teach kids about World War 2, who couldn't see Saving Private Ryan because of its R-rating.

29. In 1971, Afeni Shakur was a pregnant member of the Black Panther Party who was accused with 20 others of conspiracy to carry out a bombing in New York. Facing a 300-year sentence, she decided to represent herself in court and after a lengthy trial was acquitted. A month later her son Tupac Shakur was born.

30. All 66 characters with speaking roles in the 1984 cartoon series ThunderCats were voiced by only 8 actors, with each actor voicing an average of 8.25 characters.

Approximately 1.6 million people of Japanese descent live in Brazil, making it the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

32. The first Rain Checks were given to baseball fans in the 1870s as they left games that had been stopped due to rain. They were slips that allowed the fans to come back and see another game for free.

33. The East India Company controlled its own army, which by 1800 comprised some 200,000 soldiers, more than twice the membership of the British Army at that time. The army was used to carry out officially sanctioned looting within the Indian States, along with forced over-taxation.

34. When it was revealed to German military leader Hermann Göring that his prized Vermeer painting was a forgery, it was said "[Göring] looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world."

35. Before the Mayflower, Squanto was kidnapped, sold into slavery in Spain, and escaped back to North America, only to find his entire tribe wiped out from a disease. The site he later helped the Pilgrims settle at was the summer village of his tribe, Plymouth Rock.

The Johnston Turkey is a Turkey located in Rhode Island who has evaded capture for months, terrorized and disrupted locals, and even got votes in the local mayoral election.

37. Human babies are helpless because we walk upright. Walking upright requires a narrow pelvis, in which our large head/brain would get stuck during birth, so babies are born with a smaller head/brain that develops more after birth, compared to other mammals.

38. A 'mirror box' can be used to alleviate phantom limb pain. The patient places both their good limb and residual limb into the box and the mirror shows the reflection of the good limb. This allows them to 'move' the phantom limb from painful positions.

39. The deep-sea snail known as the Scaly-Foot Gastropod, which was only recently discovered in 2001, has a shell so well constructed that the U.S. military is researching its design, hoping to incorporate its defensive layers to improve military armor.

40. Haru Urara is a Japanese racehorse who became a famous role model because she never gave up, despite losing over 100 races in a row. For her 106th race, Japan’s premier jockey was brought in to ride her and try to deliver that long sought-after victory. She came 10th out of 11.

The term "Regulatory Capture" was a form of government failure in which a regulatory agency, created to serve the public interest, instead advances the interests of the industry it is meant to regulate, resulting in a net loss for society.

42. After Speedo released the LZR Racer in 2008, 93 world records have been broken by swimmers wearing an LZR Racer and 33 of the first 36 2008 Olympic medals have been won wearing it as of 24 August 2009. Its “technological” advantage led it to be banned from further high-end competitive use.

43. In 1998, an 8-year-old boy named Robbie Middleton was tied to a tree and set on fire. Thanks to a deposition he gave on his deathbed, his family was awarded $150 billion in damages.

44. A 3-year-old girl named Emma Bazzard from Bristol was awarded for bravery after successfully calling and informing emergency services that her pregnant mother had an accident and was unconscious. Remaining calm through the whole affair she gave them the address, checked if she was breathing and where she got hurt.

45. Olivia Hooker was a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre who became the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945.

A man named Babani Sissoko used black magic to con the Islamic Dubai Bank of more than $240 million. He served half of his 43-day sentence and paid fines ($1.25 million) with the money defrauded from the bank.

47. On the island of Daphne Major in the Galapagos, scientists watched for the first time a new species form in the wild, it was a new bird species (Big Bird lineage) that evolved only within two generations.

48. During a 1989 Christmas television broadcast, a Santa Claus encouraged all children to hold the phone to the TV, tricking them into dialing a 1-900 number that automatically charged several dollars to their parents' phone bill.

49. Avshalom Feinberg was an Israeli spy who helped the British defeat the Ottomans. He was killed by Bedouins in the desert. His fate was unknown until after the 1967 Six-Day War when his remains were found under a palm tree that had grown from date seeds in his pocket to mark the spot where he lay.

50. A software developer named Patrick McKenzie once tested asking for donations vs. limiting trial version features. He randomly gave people either a version that asks for a donation or one that is feature-limited. The feature-limited version made 5 times as much money, and the experiment cost him $17,000 in sales.