50 Random Facts List #165

In 1959, Richard Berry who wrote "Louie, Louie" sold the song's rights for $750 to pay for his wedding. In the mid-80s, he was living on welfare with his mom in South Central LA, when a lawyer convinced him to take action to get the rights back. He settled out of court and became a millionaire.

27. When meeting with Pele, Ronald Reagan said: "My name is Ronald Reagan, I'm the President of the United States of America, but you don't need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pele is."

28. Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was Marion Moon.

29. Actor John Cusack has trained in kickboxing for over 20 years and is a sixth-degree black belt.

30. Steve Jobs once argued that’s it completely unnatural to touch the screen on a PC. He reportedly said people's arms would fatigue and called the idea “ergonomically horrible.”

Years ago Hulk Hogan missed a call from his agent to sponsor a new indoor grill who then gave it to George Foreman, who was also his client. George Foreman earned nearly $500 million off marketing the grill.

32. In Italy, six scientists were charged with manslaughter because they didn't predict a 2009 earthquake which killed 309 people.

33. Originally Mr. T's gold chains came from customers at the nightclub where he worked. People had either lost them or left them behind after a fight.

34. In 2009, The Sun attacked Gordon Brown for misspelling the name of a soldier (Jamie Jones instead of Jamie Janes) killed in Afghanistan, but in doing so misspelled the name themselves.

35. Scientist Nikola Tesla drank whiskey every day because he thought it would make him live to 150.

Matthew McConaughey has a food fetish and sometimes has to stop eating because he gets too sexually aroused by the food.

37. The outspoken feminist and author Camille Paglia has actually been a strong critic against modern feminism, stating that "feminism has become a catch-all vegetable drawer where bunches of clingy sob sisters can store their moldy neuroses."

38. In 2008, after becoming fed up with people uploading their videos to YouTube, Monty Python started their own channel, uploading HQ versions of their most popular sketches. This move resulted in a 23,000% increase in their DVD sales.

39. The letter 'E' was used to designate a failing grade until it was phased out by the 1930s over the fear of students interpreting it to mean 'excellent'.

40. Over 800 people tried to accurately guess the weight of an ox at a fair in 1906. Although not a single person guessed the correct weight, the mean (average) of all the guesses was within 0.8% of the ox's actual weight.

A crevice and a crevasse are not the same thing. A crevice is a deep crack in the rock and a crevasse is a deep crack in the ice.

42. The Wright Brothers' first powered flight in 1903 "did not create public excitement. If people even knew about them, the news soon faded." In fact, they were largely mocked and disregarded until a demonstration in France nearly 5 years later.

43. British Physicist Alf Adams came up for the idea of the 'strained-layer quantum well laser' walking on the beach with his wife. He paused for a moment and asked her to stop talking for a moment to let him think. These lasers are now used in almost every household today in optical disc players.

44. In 1957, a terminal cancer patient named Mr. Wright was given a worthless drug that caused his tumors to "melt like snowballs on a hot stove." When he found out it was proven worthless, his cancer returned. He was given a placebo version and it went away again. He learned the truth, then died soon after from cancer.

45. In 1999, a Florida man auctioned his kidney on e-bay. The post read "You can choose either kidney. Buyer pays all transplant and medical costs. Of course, only one for sale, as I need the other one to live. Serious bids only." The bids reached $5.7 million before e-bay abruptly ended it.

The reason cats and dogs like to lie in the sun is so the oily cholesterol on their skin is converted to vitamin D3. Due to thick fur, they lick (while grooming) the oil off it rather than it being absorbed through the skin like in humans.

47. When Michael Bay was a kid, he used to put firecrackers on his toy trains and film the results.

48. During World War 2, a U.S. soldier named Dirk J. Vlug was ambushed by 5 Japanese tanks. He single-handedly destroyed all 5 and was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor.

49. In 1968, two boys playing in a deserted and rat-infested tenement found the body of a 31-year-old drug addict, surrounded by religious pamphlets and empty beer bottles. Not until 19 months later was the body identified as that of child actor Bobby Driscoll, Academy Award winner and the voice of Peter Pan.

50. The wood frog, commonly found in Canada lets itself completely freeze into a 'frogsicle' every winter. Its heart comes to a standstill, blood stops flowing, and eyes go white because its lenses freeze. In the summer it thaws and hops away, good as new.