50 Random Facts List #87

Harry Glicken's was devastated when his mentor David Johnson died during the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980. Glicken met the same fate 11 year's later during the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan. Glicken and Johnson are the only American volcanologists to have died in volcanic eruptions.

27. Deinosuchus was a massive ancestor of the crocodile, measuring around 10 to 12 meters long. By studying teeth marks on other fossils, paleontologists have concluded the Deinosuchus killed and ate some of the most fearsome dinosaurs of its era, including the T-Rex.

28. Pangea was not the first supercontinent. That honor goes to the billion-year-old landmass known as Rodinia. The continents since then have routinely split apart and come back together in a process known as the supercontinent cycle.

29. Psychologists recognize "the need for drama" (NFD) as a personality trait. High NFD individuals agree with statements like, "Sometimes it’s fun to get people riled up”.

30. Panthers are not a species. Panther is just the name given to any melanistic (dark or black) big cat e.g. black jaguars.

Walt Disney had a secret apartment built in Disneyland so that he could watch the crowds in his theme park.

32. In the 1970s, city officials in Times Beach, Missouri, sprayed waste oil over unpaved roads to alleviate a dust problem, but the oil contained dioxin, a carcinogenic compound of Agent Orange, ultimately forcing the town to be abandoned.

33. In 2006, Katie Melua gave a concert at 303 meters below sea level in one of the legs of the "Troll A" oil rig, earning a Guinness record for "deepest underwater concert".

34. One of the greatest boxers of all time was a man of 5'7" in height called Sam Langford who other greats like Jack Dempsey refused to fight because of his power. He fought until the age of 43, at which point he was almost completely blind.

35. The last time the Olympics were in Korea (1988), North Korean agents tried to derail the games by blowing a passenger plane (Korean Air Flight 858) and killing 115 people.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds.

37. The original title of the first “Star Wars” film was “Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars”.

38. Madrid has the oldest running restaurant in the world named Sobrino de Botín which hasn't closed its doors once since its founding in 1725.

39. There is a hotel named Palacio de Sal in Bolivia made completely out of salt and licking the walls is strictly forbidden.

40. The English rock band Oasis was once so popular in Britain that a single was released consisting entirely of the Gallagher brothers arguing during an interview, and the single hit #52 on the UK charts.

A man named Beau Brummell is largely responsible for the modern suit becoming the standard formal dress of western men for the next 200 years, replacing stockings.

42. In 2006, Petra, a female black swan made headlines in Germany after falling in love with a swan-shaped pedal boat, following it around and sheltering next to it for two years. Petra then disappeared, causing a nationwide search, and was spotted several years after with a real swan this time.

43. Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, held for almost 10 years and freed in 2013, has a TV segment on the Cleveland news dedicated to finding missing people.

44. In order to graduate from Cornell University, you must pass a swim test.

45. A Canadian college named British Columbia Institute of Technology installed sleep pods for students to nap in the library. The units are not sound-proof at all and have been placed directly next to computer workstations which the school hopes will help prevent any bad behavior.

The home remedy of ginger for nausea actually has some science behind it. It turns out ginger contains a substance called gingerol which is converted into a substance that blocks nausea signals in the stomach. It works in a similar way prescription anti-nausea drugs do.

47. During Tool's concert at Garden Pavillion, owned by L. Ron Hubbard of the Church of Scientology, Maynard James Keenan "spent most of the show baa-ing like a sheep at the audience."

48. In Norway, to change your surname to one that 200 or fewer people have, you must ask for permission from everyone who has that name.

49. The world’s oldest pool of water was found 2 miles down a Canadian mineshaft and dated at approximately 2 billion years old. By observing the sulfate in the water, researchers were also able to confirm that single-celled organisms had inhabited the pool at some point.

50. In 2017, for a period of time, the #1 restaurant in London on Trip Advisor was a fake restaurant (The Shed at Dulwich) made by a guy named Oobah Butler as a joke. The listing featured photos of fake food and people tried desperately to get a table at the non-existent restaurant.