1Calvin Coolidge
When a young girl was invited to meet President Calvin Coolidge, someone made a bet against her claiming that it was impossible for the president to say more than two words to her. When the girl told the president about the bet, President Coolidge responded, “You lose.”
2Dr. Donald Unger
Dr. Donald Unger cracked the knuckles of his left hand (but not his right hand) every day for more than 60 years to prove that it does not give you arthritis. Neither hand got arthritis and he won the bet with his mother.
3Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg makes money from Star Wars, even today, after a bet with George Lucas that Star Wars would be a flop.
4Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking had to purchase a one-year subscription to Penthouse for Kip Thorne after losing a bet pertaining to the existence of black holes.
5Lacrosse
Lacrosse was an incredibly violent game created by North American Natives. People were crippled or killed as it was used in place of warfare and diplomatic disputes, where players could even bet their families for slavery to the other team.
6Brian Zembic
A guy named Brian Zembic in 1996 had breasts implanted just to win a $100,000 bet. He never got them removed.
7Horatio Nelson Jackson
The first successful US trans-continental automobile trip in 1903 was done on a $50 wager by a man named Horatio Nelson Jackson who did not own a car, had practically no experience driving, and had no maps to follow. It took 63 days.
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8Thomas Fitzpatrick
In 1956, for a bet, while drunk, American pilot Thomas Fitzpatrick stole a small plane from New Jersey and then landed it perfectly on a narrow Manhattan street in front of the bar he had been drinking at. Then, two years later, he did it again after a man didn't believe he had done it the first time.
9Michael Burry
In 2000, a medical school student named Michael Burry quit school to start an investment firm with money borrowed from family, bet against subprime mortgages and walked away with $100 million in profit.
10Trinity nuclear test
Physicists bet on the Trinity nuclear tests; estimates ranged from a dud to the complete annihilation of the planet.
