50 Random Facts List #21

On March 12 1981, two different comic strips, with the same name and same general idea were published on the same day, one in the USA and the other in the UK, created by two different artists, who had absolutely no knowledge of one another. The comic strip in question is Dennis the Menace.

27. Yisrael Kristal, due to being unable to do so at age 13 because of World War 1, celebrated his bar mitzvah one hundred years later at age 113 in 2016.

28. Ypsilanti, Michigan is home to the 'Brick D*ck', a water tower officially recognized as 'The most phallic building in the world.'

29. Jon Ronson wrote a book about the dangers of online shaming that took a sympathetic stance towards the victims, he was targeted and shamed by an online mob.

30. Canada has passed a law banning genetic discrimination when providing a service or signing a contract, among other things and which is now included within the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Lyndall Scott Russell, a military wife who invested $315 in 15 shares of an insurance company in 1950. The insurance company became Safeco, and after 9 stock splits and dividends reinvested, her $315 investment turned into over 33000 shares making her a multimillionaire.

32. A soccer ball that was on board Space Shuttle Challenger, was recovered and is now in orbit around Earth aboard the International Space Station.

33. Spiders can't chew or swallow, so they inject poison into their prey which turns the insides of insect to a watery goop and spider just suck it up.

34. Michael Jackson was the one to suggest to Queen that "Another one Bites The Dust" (written by Queen bassist John Deacon) should be released as a single. Even though Queen didn't think it would do that well.

35. A 1982 World Cup incident where Kuwait's Sheikh stormed onto the field from the stands and threatened to pull his players unless a goal he perceived to be unfair was reversed. The referee then disallowed the goal, marking the only time a World Cup decision was vetoed by a member of the crowd.

Scientists use cancer's drive to grow uncontrollably to trick it into producing vast amounts of antibodies to fight, among other diseases, cancer itself.

37. The Paul Hogan "Shrimp on the Barbie" TV commercials were very effective. Australia rose from #78 to #1 or #2 on Americans' list of "dream vacations" after the TV ads began running from 1984 to 1990. They made Hogan famous in the US before 'Crocodile Dundee' (1986) made him a film star.

38. Prince and Kendrick hit the studio to record a song but had no time to record anything because they talked too much.

39. The state of Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, but the Navajo Nation located within Arizona does observe daylight savings time, but the Hopi Nation located within the Navajo Nation located in Arizona does not observe daylight savings time.

40. The box-office mega-flop "Battlefield Earth" was co-produced by John Travolta (a Scientologist and the film's villain) and based on an L. Ron Hubbard book. Its production company was convicted of fraud and went bankrupt.

The Giant Squid has a doughnut-shaped brain with their esophagus running through the hole in the center. If it swallows anything too big, it could damage its brain.

42. In 2016, Amsterdam Police officers broke down a door to rescue a woman in lingerie standing listlessly at a window. Worried she may be hurt, they first tried to get her attention by ringing the doorbell and banging on the door. They then broke the door down to discover she was a blow-up sex doll.

43. Processed meat has been classified as a ‘definite’ cause of cancer (or Group 1 carcinogen) the same group that includes smoking and alcohol because the "IARC isn’t in the business of telling us how potent something is in causing cancer only whether it does so or not”.

44. Future President Rutherford B. Hayes quit his law practice and volunteered for service in the US Civil War in 1861 at almost 40 years old with no prior military experience. He fought at several major battles and was wounded five times.

45. Thor Heyerdahl traveled over 4000 miles across the Pacific Ocean in a wooden raft to demonstrate his theory that Polynesians came from South America.

Henry Ford published an anti-smoking book, circulated to youth in 1914, called The Case Against the Little White Slaver, which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many researchers and luminaries.

47. By the age of 13, legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, won the weekly amateur contest at the Apollo Theater so many times that he was eventually barred from entering.

48. Children who learn a musical instrument begin to hear and process sound that they couldn't otherwise hear. This helps them develop "Neurophysiological distinction" between certain sounds that can aid in literacy.

49. More than 80% of the gold in California is still in the ground.

50. A farmer in Chile tried to kill a pig by shooting at it after failing to kill it with an ax, but the bullet bounced and landed on the face of one of the farmer's employees. "The Immortal Pig" they call him nowadays.