50 Random Facts List #216

In 1974, Johnny Carson requested that NBC stop airing Tonight Show reruns on the weekend as he wanted to save those reruns for the extra vacation days he was planning to take. NBC wanted to fill those slots, so they hired Lorne Michaels to develop a show. That show became SNL.

27. If you don't eat sushi by the age of 35, there is a 95% chance you never will. As we get older, we are less open to "novelty."

28. In 2016, two alligators in Amsterdam were found guarding €500,000 worth of crystal meth, €300,000 in cash, and several firearms. The owner of the crocodiles was following the law and had the appropriate permits for the animals.

29. When Uranus was discovered it was called George for about 70 years.

30. Over 15 to 20 networks rejected the Duffer Brothers' "Stranger Things" series, saying no one would be interested in a Sci-Fi horror that revolves around kid protagonists. One executive said they need to make it kids show or have an adult character (Jim Hopper) be the main protagonist instead.

In 1946, a Nova Scotian black woman named Viola Desmond was charged with tax evasion of one cent for refusing to leave a whites-only section of a theatre. She is featured on the new $10 Canadian bill.

32. Killer whales go through menopause to avoid competition with daughters. This may shed light on why menopause exists at all.

33. If you feed a chicken a diet of spicy red peppers, its egg yolk will turn red. This is harmless for the chicken as all birds are immune to capsaicin (the substance that makes food taste spicy).

34. Erna Flegel, Hitler's personal nurse revealed in 2005 that the death of Blondi the German Shepherd affected people in the bunker more than Eva Braun's suicide.

35. Tim Macartney-Snape is one of the first mountaineers to climb Everest without oxygen. Afterward, someone said to him “You didn't climb Everest. You only climbed the top part.” So he went down to the beach in India and re-did the whole thing.

In 2000, the University of Wisconsin photoshopped a black man's face onto the cover of an admission booklet to make them seem more diverse. He sued and won $10 million for diversity initiatives.

37. Archaeologists have found slingshot balls in Greece engraved with “Take that!” or “Catch!” dating back to 4th century B.C.

38. Julius Caesar was mocked by his opponents as "the Queen of Bithynia" over an alleged homosexual relationship with King Nicomedes IV. The scandalous part wasn't that the relationship was homosexual, but rather that Caesar was supposedly the sub.

39. Neither the Spice Girls themselves nor their management came up with the Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger, Posh aliases. They were devised by Top of the Pops magazine in 1996 and later adopted by the group.

40. Buzz Aldrin's first words on the moon were "Beautiful view. Magnificent desolation."

Quokkas have a survival instinct which triggers when a mother is threatened by a predator. She will throw her baby at the predator, which will hiss at the predator while the mother makes her escape.

42. Dr. Clara Immerwahr was the first woman to get a Ph.D. in Chemistry in Germany in 1900. She assisted with the weaponization of Mustard gas, which was subsequently used on the frontlines in 1915. During a party to celebrate its successful use, she committed suicide by shooting herself.

43. There is a group in NASA that is legitimately researching warp drive technology called The Eagleworks Advanced Propulsion Laboratory whose purpose is to explore advanced and theoretical propulsion technologies that are intended to allow human exploration of the Galaxy within 100 years

44. Jim Shooter, a comic book writer started writing comics at the age of 13 and sent them into DC comics. The head of DC liked them so much that he immediately commissioned Shooter to write Superman stories. He got a regular position at the age of 14, working to support his struggling parents.

45. During the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, many businesses in the Boston area closed while the manhunt for the suspect was underway. Only Dunkin' Donuts kept its stores open in order to serve food and drinks to Police and Emergency Responders.

In Sesame Street, cookie monster ate painted rice cakes and not cookies because the oil from the cookie would damage the puppets.

47. “Denny” is the name given to a fossil from a “hybrid human” girl. She was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan. She lived approximately 90,000 years ago and scientists think she represents the oldest discovered individual whose parents belonged to two distinct human species.

48. Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned people and concluded that the bite of the asp was the least terrible way to die.

49. The film Homicidal (1961) features a 'fright break' before the climax. The break gave the audience a chance to leave and get a refund before it got too scary. People that left got their pictures taken and added to 'Coward's Corner' which was used to advertise how scary the film was.

50. Bayard Rustin was a gay civil rights leader and advisor to MLK who singlehandedly shaped his non-violent protest methods. He was forced to resign to protect the movement when a congressman threatened to fabricate a story of an affair between him and King to dissuade protests in his district.