Random #251 – 50 Random Facts You Need to Know

Movie ratings are decided by a board of up to 10 parents who are all anonymous and all live in Los Angeles.

27. American author Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian at the age of 26 and committed suicide at the age of 30. He didn't live to see Conan become successful and is considered to be the father of sword and sorcery.

28. The star of Columbo, Peter Falk, has legislation called "Peter Falk's Law" named after him. It prevents children of sick parents being prevented from access or information about their parents' physical and mental condition.

29. Theodore Roosevelt boxed regularly as New York governor and later as president. He stopped when he was struck so hard during a sparring session that he became blind in his left eye. His sparring partner didn't even learn this until he read about it years later.

30. Wendy's founder Dave Thomas regretted using his daughter's name. Not long before he died he told his daughter: "I should've just named it after myself, because it put a lot of pressure on you."

Screech owls keep blind snakes as pets/housekeepers. The snakes are carried to the owl's nest. The snakes then burrow into it and eat bugs that would otherwise pose a threat to the owl's young.

32. A disgruntled game development student made a hilariously terrible animation of a dancing bear as a protest that he learned nothing from an animation class, by only utilizing techniques taught in the class. It became a meme after a friend uploaded it to youtube; he also got an A.

33. Iceland has a genealogy book containing details of every Icelander going back as far as the 9th century.

34. Two-time Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson quit acting in 1992 to join the British parliament. She became a junior minister in the Blair government and had aspirations to be Mayor of London. In 2015, at the age of 78, she quit politics, reverted to acting, and won a Tony Award.

35. Some people don't like vegetables like cabbage and broccoli due to genes that make their taste buds super sensitive to having more of a protein that interlocks with phenylthiocarbamide, causing the sensation of bitterness. A very similar compound is found in brassicas, causing a similar reaction.

A Brazilian aviator named Santos Dumont believed that air travel would bring world peace. Therefore he offered his works for free. He was accused of espionage during World War 1 and he killed himself after witnessing planes being used in warfare.

37. Despite their fearsome reputation, Spartan warriors were no more effective in battle than any other Greek solider, Sparta lost as many battles as it won, and Spartans' brutal training resembled indoctrination of child soldiers and not combat training.

38. "Fart" is one of the oldest words in the English language, and can be traced back to its Proto-Indo-European roots through its cognates in other European languages and Sanskrit.

39. “Wild” horses are actually “feral” horses descended from domesticated horses and there might not be any “wild” horses left on earth.

40. Chuck Berry wrote 'Johnny B. Goode' as an autobiographical song about a poor boy who masters the guitar and becomes famous. Berry grew up on Goode Ave. in St. Louis.

Susan La Flesche Picotte is widely acknowledged as the first Native American to earn a medical degree. She campaigned for public health and for the formal, legal allotment of land to members of the Omaha tribe.

42. In Alaska, it is illegal to be drunk in a bar. Per state laws, a person who is already drunk may not “knowingly” enter a bar to drink more, or remain in the bar that got them drunk in the first place.

43. The French Marshal Michel Ney was a respected Marshall who served Napoleon. After Napoleon's second exile, he was charged with treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. Due to his status, he was allowed to face the soldiers unblindfolded and was permitted to give the final order to fire.

44. Tapatio hot sauce is actually American and is exported from the U.S. to Mexico.

45. Babylonians believed that eclipses were the Gods’ way of expressing anger, if the moon appeared in front of the sun, they would literally murder their king. In order to escape this, the king would crown a puppet king and queen days before the eclipse, and kill them instead.

After a paranoid letter from a fan, J. Edgar Hoover opened up an FBI file on Frank Sinatra that lasted 5 decades. In the file, Sinatra was accused of being a traveler who strived for racial tolerance and consorted with Communists and a mob associate. The file closed when Sinatra died in 1998.

47. The three crew members of Soyuz 11 became the world's first space station crew aboard Salyut 1 but died of asphyxiation because of an accidentally opened valve. They were the first and, as of 2020, the only humans to have died in space.

48. Grammy-winning reggae artist Shaggy served in the United States Marine Corps from 1988-1991 and was deployed to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. He reached the rank of Lance Corporal but was later demoted for returning to base late from a weekend trip to his music studio.

49. Mothers who wait till 25 to have their first kid, are 11% more likely to live to 90.

50. When on tour, Queen would play their own version of Scrabble they called "Death Scrabble". They would have intense games through the night till morning. The highest single word laid down was by Brian, with the word Lacquers, worth 168 points. Freddie never forgave him for that.