92 Ambitious Facts About the Land of Liberty USA

The last man (James W. Rodgers ) to be executed by firing squad in the USA asked for a bulletproof vest as his last wish.

52. Most cheerleading apparel and equipment brands in the USA are owned by just one company (Varsity Brands), which also owns almost all of the regulatory bodies, and also runs the national competitions.

53. While the USA is the only average for racial diversity, it is one of the highest in the world in willingness to have other races as neighbors.

54. 8th January 1836 is the last day in history that the USA had no national debt.

55. The Hindenburg was originally designed to use non-flammable helium but the USA refused to export any resulting in the hydrogen-based construction.

Nearly 80% of people who die from drowning in the USA are male.

57. Russia (Big Diomede) and USA (Little Diomede) are only 3.8km apart at the nearest point.

58. Sliced bread was briefly banned in the USA in 1943 as a wartime conservation measure.

59. In 1967, protesters in the USA requested a permit to levitate the Pentagon 300 feet in the air, through songs and chants, to exorcise it of its evil and end the Vietnam War. Authorities agreed to only 3 feet.

60. A 400-year-old bonsai tree survived the nuclear blast of Hiroshima in 1945. Later the tree was presented to the USA as a gift and it is still flourishing in National Arboretum (Washington, D.C.) and past of the tree remained hidden till 2001.

In 1995, WHO study that stated “Occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems” was never published because USA threatened to withdraw US funding for all WHO research projects.

62. The USA recruited 1500 German scientists, technicians, and engineers from Nazi Germany and created false employment histories and expunged Nazi Party memberships and regime affiliations from the public record

63. Shirō Ishii was the head of Japan's Unit 731 during World War 2. His unit conducted physiological human experiments such as vivisections, forced abortions, and simulated strokes, heart attacks, frostbite, and hypothermia. Ishii and his team managed to negotiate with the USA and receive immunity in 1946 from war-crimes prosecution in exchange for their full disclosure of germ warfare data based on human experimentation.

64. There actually were chemical weapons found in Iraq during the first and second Gulf War which resulted in Saddam's execution. The USA government was too embarrassed to admit it at that time because it helped in the production of those chemical weapons.

65. One of the Founding Fathers of USA, Benjamin Franklin had a theory that caused him to believe that nudity was good for you. To avoid getting sick, Franklin came up with something he called an “air bath.” He would open the windows of his house to increase air circulation and then sit in front of the window in the nude, presumably to get the full effects of the increased airflow. He also used to take outdoor baths, where he would just walk around/spin around naked to use the air to clean himself.

The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is the only place in the USA where you can find naturally occurring diamonds. It is open to the public, and you can keep any diamond you find, regardless of the size.

67. When USA’s first space station Skylab crashed in Australia in 1979, Australia issued USA a fine of A$400 for littering, which remained unpaid for 30 years.

68. It is cheaper to fly to the USA from Australia to buy Adobe’s Creative Suite than to buy it within Australia.

69. 740 Park in Manhattan is currently home to the highest number of billionaires in the USA.

70. Brazil tops the list of countries which exports guns to the USA. In 2010, USA imported more than half a million handguns from Brazil.

In many states in the USA, you can be charged with a DUI even if the car is parked and you’re sleeping while drunk.

72. USA’s United Fruit Company's main rival was Guatemala, who exported lots of fruit. To eliminate them, United lied to the US government that Guatemala's government was Pro-Soviet. The US staged a coup, which led to the 36 years long Guatemalan Civil War.

73. In the USA, time zones as we know them were first established by the railroad industry during 1883. Before that, every town kept its own time based on the sunrise and using a central clock. This made scheduling trains nearly impossible, necessitating a standardized time.

74. There's a small town called Dinosaur, Colorado (USA). Some of its street names include Brontosaurus Blvd, Brontosaurus Bypass, Stegosaurus Freeway, and Tyrannosaurus Trail.

75. Colombian football player, Andres Escobar, who scored an 'own goal' in a 1994 World Cup match against the USA was subsequently murdered as the scapegoat for the team’s upset. One of the gunmen shouted “goal!” every time he fired a shot.