1 Canadian Teen Discovers Spy Parents
In 2010, a 16-year-old Canadian boy named Alexander Foley discovered that his parents were actually KGB spies living under the fake names Donald and Tracey.
2. Michael Phelps has won a record 23 Olympic gold medals; no other Olympian has won more than nine (as of August 2024). He has more gold medals than any other Olympian, has more total medals, and has more gold medals himself than approximately 60 countries.
3. In 1983, scientists created a machine that temporarily allowed people to see new colors outside the regular color space. It was an eye-tracker device with vertical stripes of red and green (or yellow and blue) that tracked involuntary eye movements, adjusted mirrors to keep the image stable on the retina, and caused the edges between the stripes to disappear, allowing the colors to flow into each other in the brain’s visual cortex and produce entirely new colors.
4. Usain Bolt’s world record in the 100-meter sprint has stood for 15 years, which is longer than anyone has held the record in history (as of August 2024). Harold Davis had it for a little over 15 years. Usain Bolt is still under 15 years but will likely eclipse it in a few months.
5. In the German town of Fuggerei, the rent has remained at 0.88 euros for an entire year without an increase in 500 years. Wealthy banker Jakob Fugger established this town as a historic social housing complex in 1521 to assist Augsburg’s impoverished residents. You might want to move here, but not everyone qualifies for residence here, as one must be Catholic, have lived in the city for at least 2 years, and be without debt.
6 Cigarette Smoke in Old Sports Photos
Old sports photos in the USA often have a blue haze to them because these sports arenas were filled with people smoking cigarettes. This is also why film sets now use hazers to recreate the same depth achieved by cigarette smoke in old pictures, which arguably enhances the lighting.
7. Punjabi men who immigrated to California in the early 20th century ended up marrying Mexican women because of shared cultural similarities and legal constraints on interracial marriage. Lawmakers did not allow Punjabi women to immigrate to the United States with their male counterparts because they did not want to “spread” the Punjabi population in California. This led to a unique Punjabi-Mexican American community where elements of both cultures blended.
8. Hugh Laurie shot his audition tape for House from a bathroom in Namibia, because it was the only room with enough light. While filming Flight of the Phoenix, he was in the country, and his scruffy appearance became associated with his character. Consequently, he maintained a similar scruffy look for nearly the next decade.
9. Benjamin Franklin was fond of dating older women and famously wrote eight reasons why they were better than their younger counterparts. Among these, he asserted that older women naturally provided birth control, were discreet, and were indistinguishable from younger women from the girdle downward.
10. Klaus Barbie, a Nazi war criminal hiding in Bolivia after World War II, was tricked into revealing his true identity during a fake interview by being asked a question in French, a language he wasn’t supposed to understand. The United States government directly facilitated Barbie’s escape from the law and protected him, despite France’s criminal charges against him. As a result, Barbie did not stand trial in France in 1950, spending 33 years as a free man and fugitive from justice.
11 Snowpiercer’s Fish Scene Deception
The distributor of the 2013 movie “Snowpiercer” requested that a fish scene be removed, but director Bong Joon-ho persuaded them to keep it in by falsely claiming his father was a fisherman and dedicating the scene to him. Bong’s father was never a fisherman.
12. In 1881, when Billy the Kid, an infamous outlaw of the American Old West, learned Joe Grant, a gunslinger seeking fame, was coming to kill him, he sabotaged Grant’s revolver. Grant attempted to shoot Billy in the face, and when the gun did not go off, Billy killed Grant.
13. There were experiments conducted in the 1950s where researchers gave their subjects manual control over the pleasure centers of their brains through the click of a button, wired to surgically implanted electrodes. One patient clocked up 1,500 doses in a three-hour period, but overall, they showed surprising restraint, unlike rats that underwent the same procedure, which self-administered to the point of exhaustion.
14. Between 1974 and 1990, North Korea tried to dig 4 tunnels under the Demilitarized Zone, and when South Korea discovered them, North Korea painted their walls black and pretended they were coal mines. One tunnel extended a mile through solid granite in a straight line to South Korea, despite the fact that coal does not occur in granite, making the claim particularly unconvincing.
15. In the 1980s, actress Alyssa Milano befriended Ryan White (a boy ostracized for having AIDS), who was a fan of her work. She appeared on The Phil Donahue Show alongside White and kissed him on the cheek to show that she could not contract the disease.
16 Tim Horton’s Employees Arrested for Drugs
In 2000, Tim Horton’s employees in Halifax were arrested for selling drugs after a store manager noticed some drive-thru customers were ordering “15 packs of doughnuts.” It was a code, since Tim Horton’s doesn’t sell 15 packs.
17. Around 40% of people have never had a nosebleed.
18. The only nonuplets (9 babies) to survive birth were born in 2021 in Morocco to parents from Mali. They are all healthy and thriving. They were reportedly naturally conceived and born in Morocco instead of Mali due to better chances of survival in Morocco.
19. In 2008, Chile minted tons of 50 peso coins that misspelled the name of their country as “Chiie.” The mistake went unnoticed until 2009, leading to the firing of the responsible individual.
20. The creator of RC Cola developed his own formula because a Coca-Cola salesman refused to give him a reduced price for buying the syrup in bulk.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Michelangelo’s Revenge in Last Judgement
While Michelangelo was painting The Last Judgement, Papal MC Biagio de Cesana spied on his work and complained that it was not worthy of the Sistine Chapel. In response, Michelangelo painted Biagio into the fresco as the depiction of Minos, the mythological judge of the dead in the underworld, being dragged to Hell with a snake biting his penis.
22. New York City didn’t use trash bins until they introduced them in 2023 to combat the notorious rat infestation and rancid smells.
23. Because the cement supporting the Yeti in Expedition Everest isn’t perfect, Disney’s largest and most expensive animatronic remains in stationary mode. Disney doesn’t want to risk the animatronic moving and falling on guests. (as of August 2024)
24. Despite the popular belief that women weren’t allowed to watch the ancient Olympics because the athletes competed naked, only married women couldn’t attend the competition. Unmarried women were welcome, and the priestess of Demeter even had a privileged spot.
25. Instead of using CGI, Tim Burton opted to use real squirrels in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The squirrels were trained for 10 months, and the filming was supervised by the American Humane Association to ensure none of them experienced distress.
RE: Fact #7 (Punjabi-Mexican Marriages in California) – That food looks so good!
RE: Fact #24 (Olympic Rules for Women Spectators) – Women caught sneaking into the games while married were in big trouble – they could even be thrown off Mount Typaeum!
Was this part of the event?
RE: Fact #32 (8,000 Different Kinds of Money Pre-Civil War) – It’s wild that banks can still print their own money in some places, like Hong Kong.
RE: Fact #32 (8,000 Different Kinds of Money Pre-Civil War) – Back then, the ferry was just a nickel. And those nickels had bumblebees on them, remember? You’d say, “Give me five bees for a quarter.”
RE: Fact #24 (Olympic Rules for Women Spectators) – Where else would a single girl look for a good guy?
RE: Fact #48 (Albert Kahn’s Prolific Architectural Legacy) – That’s a pretty impressive number for 1937. He designed almost one in five factories that year!
I wonder how many factories were in the works back in 1937. It’s a pretty good indicator of how fast the industry was growing, or maybe just how busy things were.
RE: Fact #44 (Bodybuilders Buying Breast Milk Online) – This friend of ours was making a ton of breast milk, way more than her baby could drink. She figured she might as well sell it, but it turned out most of the buyers were bodybuilders or had… weird interests. After a bit, she just started giving it away to moms who couldn’t make enough on their own.
My wife, she was a machine! We were freezing almost a gallon of milk a day. She pumped like it was her full-time job. She’s tiny, but she was eating huge meals, like six times a day, and still losing weight.
We heard people were selling it for crazy money online, so I checked it out.
Turns out, most of the buyers were guys.
We didn’t end up selling it though. My wife got mastitis and sepsis, almost died, so she had to stop breastfeeding and pumping.
She made enough milk in five weeks to last almost six months.
RE: Fact #47 (Submarines Referred to as Boats) – For pilots in the Navy, an aircraft carrier is just called “The Boat.” It’s kinda a way to mess with the guys who work on the ship itself, you know?
RE: Fact #41 (Canadian Native Boy Lynched by Mob) – It was all the kid’s fault, even though one guy wanted his wife and the other wanted his business.
RE: Fact #22 (NYC Introduces Trash Bins in 2023) – I moved across the country from New York a while back, and the place I landed has this really organized way of handling trash and recycling. People don’t believe me when I tell them that we just toss our trash on the sidewalk.
RE: Fact #21 (Michelangelo’s Revenge in Last Judgement) – Biagio didn’t like the naked people in the fresco, so Michelangelo made sure to cover up the MC’s bits. He also snuck in a self-portrait as the skin of Saint Bartholomew, which is kind of funny.
Another thing Michelangelo did was be a bit of a jerk with his color choices. He painted the Sistine Chapel in two parts. First the ceiling, with that famous Adam and God scene, and then later the wall with The Last Judgement.
The wall is mostly blue, while the ceiling barely has any blue at all. This is because Michelangelo had to buy his own paint for the ceiling. But when it came to the wall, the Vatican paid for everything.
Back then, the only good blue paint came from lapis lazuli, which is a fancy rock mined in Afghanistan. It was really expensive, like as expensive as gold. So you could say Michelangelo was kind of a spendthrift with the Pope’s money.
That’s awesome trivia! Here’s the Last Judgement color scheme compared to the creation:
Both together
Last Judgement alone
Michelangelo as the flayed skin of Bartholomew
Here’s something else interesting from the wiki:
RE: Fact #2 (Michael Phelps’ Unmatched Olympic Legacy) – There’s also 3 silver and 2 bronze.
RE: Fact #42 (Plane Crash Sparks Yosemite Gold Rush) – The rest got smoked after the rangers caught on.
RE: Fact #50 (Obesity’s Broad Health Impact) – Some people say it’s all about genes or money, but Ozempic is working for people who have those things too. Why? Because it makes you less hungry. So, basically, eat less, lose weight. The results speak for themselves!
RE: Fact #49 (French Slang for Menstruation Period) – I’m French and I’ve never heard that saying before, haha. Maybe it was a thing way back when.
RE: Fact #34 (UK Bill of Rights Military Clause) – Yeah, but the story gets even weirder. Back in the day, the king was personally on the hook for defending the country. No standing army in peacetime, because everyone would rather be at a fancy dinner than in a boring barracks. But when Charles II took over, he was a little worried about getting his head chopped off, so he started his own army that swore loyalty directly to him. The sneaky guy made Parliament pay for it. This new bill is trying to even things out a bit, making it illegal to have an army without Parliament’s permission. Basically, the soldiers can stay, but Parliament gets to say “go home” if they want. The army still swears loyalty to the king, but it’s kind of like saying “we’re in control” without actually having to do anything.
RE: Fact #29 (GIF Stored in Bacteria’s DNA) – People back in the day thought everyone would be driving flying cars by now. Guess what? We’re still stuck with regular cars.
RE: Fact #31 (Captain Cook’s Maps Used Until 20th Century) – I swear I heard somewhere that Captain Bligh, the guy from the Bounty mutiny, was one of Cook’s mapmakers before he became a captain.
RE: Fact #18 (World’s Only Surviving Nonuplets Born) – Seriously, what was in that water?
RE: Fact #30 (Samoyeds: Poor Security Dogs) – I’ve only met a handful of Samoyeds in my life, but every single one was the chillest dog ever. They’re also good for people with allergies, which is pretty cool.
RE: Fact #22 (NYC Introduces Trash Bins in 2023) – It’s crazy that the city gave millions to a consulting firm, just to be told that trash bins are a good idea.
RE: Fact #26 (Couple Buys Washington Town Cheap) – Didn’t know that towns in the US can actually be bought and sold?
Never watched Schitt’s Creek?
RE: Fact #37 (Blood Doping Scandal in 1984 Olympics) – Turns out, in 1988, most of the guys in the 100m final were juicing. Even Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson! The only guy who was clean finished fourth.
RE: Fact #12 (Billy the Kid’s Deadly Sabotage) – A fair fight means you’re doing something wrong.
RE: Fact #47 (Submarines Referred to as Boats) – Das Boot is a great movie. You gotta see it if you haven’t already. I haven’t seen the remake though.
RE: Fact #15 (Alyssa Milano Supports Ryan White) – It’s like Princess Diana shaking hands with people with AIDS on TV, trying to show that you wouldn’t catch it just by touching them.
RE: Fact #21 (Michelangelo’s Revenge in Last Judgement) – When Biagio complained to Pope Paul III about the portrait, the pope joked that his jurisdiction didn’t extend to hell, so it had to stay. That’s when you know you’re in over your head.
RE: Fact #13 (Pleasure Control Experiments in 1950s) – It’s kinda hilarious that this factrepublic post links to an old article from 2014, which itself mentions another reddit post about a super old article from 2001.
Since that original article is from way back then, it’s probably safe to say that the Orgasmatron never really took off.
Maybe someone read it. Our entertainment has gotten way more instant, you know? Like, if Elon Musk is selling brain chips, how far is it until the Orgasmatron 2.0 update?
RE: Fact #49 (French Slang for Menstruation Period) – Because of their red coats?
RE: Fact #11 (Snowpiercer’s Fish Scene Deception) – From the source:
So the guy who wanted it cut was Harvey Weinstein.
RE: Fact #21 (Michelangelo’s Revenge in Last Judgement) – That’s been going on for like, five hundred years!😂