1 Jingle Ownership Lessons
In 2003, rapper Pusha T wrote the McDonald’s jingle “I’m lovin’ it,” but he doesn’t own the publishing rights for it. Learning from this mistake, he owned 40% of the next jingle he wrote: Arby’s “We have the meats.”
2. During the atomic Trinity test, there was a girls’ dance camp nearby. The girls played in the falling white ash. Sadly, 10 out of the 12 girls died before reaching 40.
3. Craigslist generates over $600 million in revenue annually with only 50 employees.
4. In 1988, a U.S. Marine was abandoned and died in the Mojave Desert. Only when his weapon went missing did the search for him begin.
5. When former Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss was accused at his trial of murdering three and a half million people, he replied, “No. Only two and a half million-the rest died from disease and starvation.”
6 Mike Tyson’s Financial Rollercoaster
Mike Tyson went bankrupt in 2003. Despite having earned $400 million from boxing, examples of reckless spending included $6.3 million on luxury cars and $580,000 on his 30th birthday party. However, he has improved his financial situation and now receives $900,000 per month from his cannabis company (as of April 2024).
7. Robert Rayford, who is believed to have died from AIDS in 1969, checked himself into the hospital and was found to have an unusually severe form of chlamydia, as well as Kaposi’s sarcoma, an AIDS-defining illness, and a dysfunctional immune system. AIDS wasn’t identified until 1981.
8. In 1969, Ted Conrad embezzled $215,000 from a bank in Ohio and proceeded to evade capture for the remaining 51 years of his life. He became ‘Thomas Randele’ and settled in Massachusetts. Described by authorities as a deathbed confession, in 2021, he told his wife and daughter who he was and what he did.
9. The creator of Wonder Woman was in a throuple that involved his first wife and his student. They were heavily into bondage, which inspired the superheroine’s early iterations. The throuple lasted 22 years, all the way to his death.
10. The Monty Hall problem, where it is better for the contestant to switch from their initial choice to another, caused such controversy that 10,000 people, including 1,000 PhDs, wrote in, with most of them calling the theory wrong.
11 Presidential Eclipse Mishap
President John Quincy Adams partially blinded himself by looking directly at an eclipse in 1791.
12. A bartender in England told Jimi Hendrix and his band they weren’t welcome upon entering, saying, “Sorry, mates, we can’t serve your sort in here.” Hendrix thought it was because of his race, but in reality, the bartender mistook them for circus clowns.
13. White Hands, a Japanese organization, provides “ejaculation help” to males with disabilities who are unable to physically masturbate due to paralysis, muscle atrophy, incurable disease, or cerebral palsy.
14. George Washington had to borrow money to travel to New York City for his presidential inauguration. Despite owning 60,000 acres and 300 slaves, he had very little cash, and part of the reason he took the job was for the salary.
15. Roger Waters fired Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright from the band during the production of the album “The Wall,” but he continued to work as a salaried musician. Wright remained on salary for the album’s elaborate tour and was thus the only member of the band to profit from it, which lost about £400,000.
16 Red Sox Sham Tryout
In 1945, two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, the Boston Red Sox held a sham “tryout” for him and other black players. Red Sox management shouted racial slurs from the stands and humiliated the players. The Red Sox would eventually be the last MLB team to racially integrate.
17. In 2023, a 45-year-old Belgian man named David Baerten faked his own death but then showed up to his own funeral to teach his family a “life lesson.” He was reportedly dismayed that his family had grown apart.
18. South Korea trained a secret military unit, Unit 684, to assassinate North Korea’s leader. The unit recruited civilians to an island, where their harsh training resulted in the deaths of seven members. Desperate to escape, the unit revolted in 1971, killing 18 guards in the process of escaping to mainland South Korea.
19. The son of Warren Buffett, the sixth richest person in the world, thought that his dad’s job was checking security alarm systems as a kid. He had no idea what his dad did for a living, and he had no idea that he was really, really rich.
20. Henry Ford is the only American mentioned favorably in “Mein Kampf.” For his antisemitic writing, Ford also received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany bestowed upon foreigners.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Rocky V’s Original Tragic Ending
In the original script of Rocky V, Rocky is so beaten from his fight with Tommy that he rests his head on Adrian’s lap while on the way to the hospital and dies. Stallone apparently wept when he wrote that scene.
22. Armed with a knife, United States Army soldier Roy Benavidez went to assist a 12-man Special Forces team, surrounded by 1,000 NVA soldiers, and provided cover fire. Having sustained 37 bayonet, bullet, and shrapnel wounds, they evacuated him after the battle. They presumed him dead and placed him in a body bag, only to find him alive later.
23. In 1944, the CIA created a manual on sabotaging organizations. Among other things, it suggests “make speeches… at great length,” “refer all matters to committees,” “make committees as large as possible,” and “insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products.”
24. Larry Bird once played mostly with his left hand because he wanted to save his right for the next game against the Lakers.
25. Babe Ruth constantly cheated on his wives during his baseball career. One night in Chicago, a detective that the New York Yankees hired to follow him reported that Ruth had been with six women. Another player said that he was not Ruth’s roommate while traveling: “I room with his suitcase.”
