Random #346 – 50 Fascinating Random Facts

Saif ad-Din Qutuz was a child prince from the Khwarezmian Empire who was sold as a slave after the Mongols invaded their land and killed his family. He arrived in Egypt and rose among the ranks until he became Sultan. He then served the Mongols one of their first major defeats, which became a historical turning point for the Mongols.

27. In 1977, Jean-Bédel Bokassa declared himself as the emperor of Central Africa. He then orchestrated an opulent coronation ceremony, which was almost an exact copy of Napoleon's coronation. The ceremony cost nearly $20 million ($90 million today) and almost bankrupted the country. He was overthrown less than 2 years later.

28. Red pandas were the original pandas and giant pandas were named pandas due to similar habits to the red pandas.

29. The second Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died in mysterious circumstances in 1966. No autopsy was ever performed, the Indian Government released no information about his death, and the media was kept silent. His death is considered to be one of India's biggest unsolved mysteries.

30. Charles Darwin's Tree of Life sketch was anonymously returned to Cambridge University Library in a pink gift bag - two decades after being stolen.

Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) built a speaking machine out of bellows. It had leather lips that could generate sounds similar to 'ma' and 'pa.' He made it in a failed bid to win a bet with Matthew Boulton that he could build a machine that could speak the lord’s prayer.

32. Sebastianism was a cult that believes Portuguese King Sebastião I was never killed in battle and will return when Portugal needs him the most. The last Sebastianists are found on a Brazilian island where the locals say he's been reincarnated as a bull.

33. The little loops on the back of men's dress shirts have an official name and use. They're called 'locker loops' and were earlier tailored on sailors' shirts so that they could hang their shirts anywhere on hooks on their ship. Universities later followed this trend to keep their button-down uniforms wrinkle-free.

34. Although born vision impaired, singer Andrea Bocelli was officially made completely blind by a soccer ball at the age of 12 while playing goalie. Doctors even, "resorted to leeches in a last-ditch effort to save his sight, but they were unsuccessful and he remained blind."

35. The Romans published a daily gazette called the Acta Diurna. It contained major events, births, and deaths. It was either inscribed in stone or metal or painted in black on white walls called Albums. This practice was initiated by Julius Caesar and lasted from 59 B.C. to 222 A.D.

It was practically illegal to own gold in the US from 1933 to 1974. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order to force all citizens to turn in almost all gold for about $20 per ounce, then declared the value of $20 in gold to be worth $35 in paper currency, creating massive inflation.

37. During the American Revolutionary War, Henry Knox managed to transport 60 tons of artillery 300 miles in three months during the dead of winter. This stupendous feat of logistics was widely credited as the catalyst that broke the British siege of Boston and was known as the Noble Train of Artillery.

38. American multimillionaire LaVere Redfield was discovered to be hoarding a massive collection of around 270,000 silver Morgan dollars and postage stamps in his basement during a robbery in 1952. Following his death in 1974, his heirs uncovered even more coins hidden, which was sold for around $7.3 million.

39. In 1966, the United States Air Force lost 4 hydrogen bombs above Palomares in Spain, after a midair collision. Two of these bombs spread radioactive material, including plutonium-239, over a wide area. A large amount of contaminated Spanish soil was removed, packed up, and shipped to the US.

40. Grave Wax is formed by a chemical reaction that turns the fat in your thighs and butt into a soap-like substance after a decade in a coffin.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the heart recorded all of the good and bad deeds of a person's life, and was needed for judgment in the afterlife. They believed that after death, the heart was weighed against the feather of Maat and if a person had led an unjust life, their heart was deemed too heavy to enter paradise.

42. The warty comb jellyfish also known as the sea walnut is the only creature with a disappearing butt. Its anus is not visible until it is pooping.

43. The original Pennsylvania Station (1910-1963) in New York enabled direct rail access to New York City from the south for the first time. It was considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the great architectural works of NYC. Its loss galvanized the historic preservation movement.

44. Harvey Comics, the creators of Casper, sued Columbia Pictures, alleging their Ghostbusters logo was too similar to Fatso from the Ghostly Trio. Harvey sought $50m and the destruction of all copies of the film.

45. There is a town in Northern Canada called "Ragged Ass Road" named after prospectors who would come home from the goldfields "ragged ass broke."

Opa-Locka is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that has the largest collection of Moorish Revival architecture in the Western Hemisphere, and street names such as Sharazad Boulevard, Sinbad Avenue, and Sultan Avenue.

47. After the original Stars on the 'Hollywood Walk of Fame' were placed in 1962, no further were installed until 1968. This was largely because of the fact that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce that ran the program couldn't agree with the City of Los Angeles on a process for adding new Stars.

48. In the LG Mobile World Cup which was held in 2010, 13 international teams competed for prize money of $130,000 and the participants competed for having the best texting speed and accuracy.

49. A man named Peter Tripp was the former record holder for going the longest without sleep. He stayed awake for 201 hours and for the last 66 hours the observing scientists and doctors gave him drugs to help him stay awake. Following the stunt, Tripp's life went into a downward spiral resulting in scandals and multiple divorces. His record was broken 6 years later by a high-school student.

50. Some solid chemicals can absorb so much air moisture that they dissolve in it. This is called "Deliquescence."