50 Random Facts List #33

Jonah Hill had to be hospitalized while filming Wolf of Wall Street because he snorted so much fake cocaine.

2. During the production of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, the actor who played Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler) had to be directed by a red light from offstage, due to the fact that he had been nearly blinded by poison gas in World War I.

3. African-American physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard's first space flight by hand. When NASA used computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, officials called on Johnson to verify its numbers.

4. In 2015, a tiny Tokyo restaurant with only 9 seats became the first ramen restaurant in the world to obtain a Michelin star.

5. A rat can squeeze through holes or gaps the size of a quarter because its skull is not plated together, so it can change the shape of its head and squeeze through a very small opening. They are able to leap 4 feet laterally, can fall 5 floors without any injuries, and tread water for 3 days.

In Germany, you are not allowed to skip your break if you are working more than 6 hours a day.

7. Elvis Presley once flew from Graceland to Denver and back in one night just for a sandwich. 'The Fool's Gold Loaf' is a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with peanut butter, jelly, and a pound of bacon. It has an estimated 8,000 calories.

8. Usain Bolt got offered track scholarships from many American colleges, but turned them down to train in his homeland, Jamaica.

9. Ultra-pasteurized milk like Organic Horizon and Stonyfield do not need to be refrigerated. They are put into the cooling section at the store because people don't trust un-refrigerated milk, especially in the US.

10. Some sections of "Bohemian Rhapsody" have up to 180 separate tracks, which required the vocal parts to be sung 10-12 hours per day. Record studios of the era only offered 24-track recording, requiring constant overdubs. The same tapes were reused so much, they could be seen through.

JFK took numerous medications during his time in office prescribed by a doctor nicknamed "Dr. Feelgood" (Max Jacobson). He was forced to stop administering Kennedy drugs by White House officials, and JFK's leadership notably improved, leading to successes such as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

12. A sound produced on Earth sounds very different if produced on Mars. The composition and pressure of the Martian atmosphere distort sounds to a lower pitch, and planetary.org has samples for you to hear.

13. Eminem created Slim Shady when D12 (short for the dirty dozen) was formed. It included 6 rappers and their 6 alter egos.

14. Orville Wright lived until 1948, and his last flight was in a Lockheed Constellation. He witnessed the creation of the first rocket and jet propulsion.

15. While 71% of Americans believe in hell, only half of 1% think that they are likely to end up there.

There are only 6 people left on the planet who can still ‘speak’ the whistled language known as sfyria.

17. Poorly designed doors (doors that aren't obvious if you push, pull, turn a handle, etc to open) are called "Norman Doors" and are named after Don Norman who writes about how it should be obvious as to how everyday items function.

18. Hollywood father-son duo Sean Connery and Harrison Ford are only 12 years apart in age.

19. Edvard Grieg, the composer of "In the Hall of the Mountain King," hated the song. He intended it to be a parody of bad music from that time and it ended up becoming iconic.

20. Over 50 of the largest life insurance companies in the US are being sued for not paying claims on millions of policies. In many cases, the insurers knew the client was deceased and continued collected premiums via policy loans which would cause them to lapse over time.

A soldier named Major Hunter Reinburg posted on Peleliu in 1944 craved ice-cream so much that he together with aircraft engineers put a can filled with milk onto the underside of each wing tip of their planes, attaching a stirring shaft to a wind-driven propeller and then taking off. They made 100 portions of ice every day.

22. The biggest cashew tree in the world named Maior cajueiro do mundo covers an area of about 80,000 square feet and produces over 60,000 fruits each year. The tree gets its size from two genetic issues, which allow branches to grow outwards instead of upwards, taking new roots when touching the ground.

23. Across all the European countries fighting in World War 2, only three national capitals were never occupied: Moscow, London, and Helsinki.

24. MIT puts almost all of its course materials online for anyone to access for free.

25. Motorcyclists are almost 30 times more likely to die than other motorists.