50 Random Facts List #56

Hair salons in the UK have started to include a "quiet chair" for people who don't want to engage in small talk while getting their hair cut.

2. The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into three pieces with three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. When the other flavors became harder to come by during World War II, Mars (Food processing company) decided to go all chocolate.

3. After the release of 'The Hunger Games' and 'Brave' in 2012, women's participation in archery rose by 105%.

4. John Gotti (Italian-American Gangster) had his neighbor's body (John Favara) dissolved in a 55-gallon drum of acid for accidentally running over and killing Gottis' 12-year-old son (Frank Gotti).

5. The Polish government wrote a White Book with proof of the mass extermination of Jews in German-occupied Poland and gave it to the United Nations on December 10th, 1942.

Ian Anderson, the frontman for the rock band Jethro Tull, adopted the flute after he realized he would never be "as good as Eric Clapton" on the electric guitar.

7. Comedian Hannibal Buress found a lookalike on social media and sent him to the premiere of Spider-man: Homecoming in his place.

8. In 1901 Spain, a woman (Elisa Sanchez Loriga) adopted a male identity (Mario Sánchez) and married another woman (Marcela Gracia Ibeas). The couple was later discovered and had to escape to Argentina. Their marriage certificate was never annulled, so this is the first recorded same-sex marriage in Spain, 100 years before it was legal.

9. A live chicken was given to Alice Cooper during a concert. Thinking it could fly, he tossed it into the crowd who tore it apart. The next day headlines read: Alice Cooper bites head off chicken and drinks blood. Frank Zappa told him not to deny the story saying "You can't buy this type of publicity!"

10. Tokyo is the city with the most millionaires in the world but London has the most multi-millionaires and New York the most billionaires.

At the height of Pokémon Go, a number of players tried sneaking into a highly classified military explosives plant in Virginia because a Charizard was reportedly located inside the arsenal.

12. There is a mushroom (Armilaria ostoyae) in Oregon that is roughly 2,400 years old and has a root system that covers over 3 square miles of land.

13. Researchers found that skinks living below a mountain in warmer climates would lay eggs. At higher climates, the cold caused the skinks to hold their eggs inside for longer until they would hatch internally for live births.

14. Kit Harington is a direct descendant of Robert Catesby who is the mastermind behind the plot to blow up Parliament of United Kingdom. Kit also plays Catesby in the BBC drama Gunpowder, retelling the story behind the plot.

15. In 1260, a 10,000 man Mongol army was destroyed by Egyptian Mamluks after being fooled by a feigned retreat and getting surrounded, a tactic often used by the Mongol's themselves.

Breaking Bad's popularity coincided with a 51% increase in methamphetamine use in Germany and a 400% increase in meth smuggling attempts in Britain.

17. Instead of providing famine relief, most of Live Aid's money went to funding an Ethiopian Dictator (Mengistu).

18. Bill Murray attended the musical version of Groundhog Day twice in a row.

19. Loot Boxes in video games are regulated in some countries under gambling laws.

20. The Von Trapp family, made famous by The Sound of Music, lost their fortune in the Great Depression, and the children's singing careers were purely a way to earn a livelihood.

In 2009, a woman named Jammie Thomas Rasset was fined $1.9 million by Recording Industry Association of America for illegally downloading 24 songs, i.e., $80,000 per song.

22. Tom Waits won a lawsuit against Audi when Audi used a song similar to Waits's "Innocent When You Dream" sung by Waits' imitating singer. Waits had previously won a lawsuit against Frito-Lay for a similar commercial. Waits donated his settlement money to charity.

23. In 1982, The Misfits were arrested in New Orleans on charges of grave robbing while looking for Marie Laveau's grave. They bailed themselves out of jail, skipped their court date, and went to play their next show in Florida.

24. The ancient Romans built an artificial waterfall (Cascata delle Marmore) which to this day is the tallest man-made waterfall in the world.

25. Missouri was the first US state to amend wildlife conservation into its constitution in order to prevent it from being easily repealed, by a state-wide referendum. 81 years later, the model Missouri uses for wildlife conservation is still a transnational standard.