1 Ted Danson’s Billboard Protest
When actor Ted Danson was 11 years old, he and his friends chopped down several billboards around Flagstaff, Arizona, because they obstructed the view of nature. He was caught after his father, a museum curator, noticed that the billboards for the Museum of Northern Arizona were mysteriously spared.
2. In 2023, two men sued Universal Studios for $5 million over false advertising after paying $3.99 each to watch the film Yesterday, only to discover that Ana de Armas, who appeared in the trailer, was not in the movie.
3. The Nazis allowed General Erwin Rommel to take cyanide after implicating him in a plot to kill Hitler. To maintain morale, they staged a state funeral and falsely claimed he had died from war injuries.
4. In Japan, people known as the Johatsu-which means “evaporated people”-deliberately abandon their lives due to family strain, work pressure, or personal reasons. Specialized “night-moving” companies assist these individuals in disappearing without a trace and reestablishing their lives elsewhere.
5. In 1813, Sequoyah, an illiterate Cherokee warrior, observed the “talking leaves” (writing) of white men and believed it provided a military advantage. In 1821, driven by his determination to establish a written system for his own people, he meticulously crafted a Cherokee syllabary. Within just nine years, Cherokee literacy exceeded 90%.
6 Teen Solves 1964 Murder Case
In 2022, 18-year-old college freshman Eric Schubert, who pursued genealogical research as a hobby, solved the 1964 murder of a 9-year-old girl in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Over 18 months, he constructed 50 complete family trees to trace a connection to Hazleton, ultimately identifying the culprit, James Forte.
7. Chess player and Twitch streamer Anna Cramling created her own opening, “The Cow,” in 2023. In 2024, for the first time, she faced an opponent who used it against her-and lost.
8. Ecologist Suzanne Simard set out to understand why forests became unhealthy whenever foresters removed birch trees, which were believed to harm fir trees. Her research revealed that birch trees actually transfer nutrients to fir trees through an underground fungal network, maintaining the ecosystem’s balance.
9. Warren Buffett accumulated over 99% of his net wealth after turning 56.
10. Four years after receiving a bone marrow transplant, a Nevada man named Chris Long discovered that the DNA in his blood and semen had been completely replaced by that of his donor.
11 Alan Turing’s Olympic-Level Running
Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, was an elite runner who nearly qualified for the Olympic marathon. He completed the race in 2 hours and 46 minutes, averaging an impressive 6 minutes and 20 seconds per mile.
12. In 2001, Army Major Charles Ingram cheated his way to winning £1,000,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? by relying on a fellow contestant to cough whenever he read the correct answer. For one question, the coughing even came from Ingram’s wife. All three were later convicted of fraud.
13. During the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Cairo to San Diego, the jet was forced to land in Algeria for refueling. When Algerian authorities demanded payment upfront, the lead flight attendant had to purchase 6,000 gallons of jet fuel using her personal credit card.
14. Just weeks before Marlon Brando’s death, three newcomers took control of his estate. They reclaimed assets promised to friends, sold his island, commercialized his image, and shut down fan-run pages. Under their management, Brando’s eldest son couldn’t even afford the funeral.
15. In 1997, Kathleen Caronna fell into a month-long coma after a Thanksgiving Day parade float knocked a lamppost onto her head. She later used the settlement money to buy a lovely apartment, but nine years later, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his plane into her high-rise, and the engine landed in her bedroom.
16 Can-Can Dance Once Scandalous
The Can-Can was once considered scandalous, prompting authorities to attempt to suppress it and arrest performers. The dance featured high kicks, and at the time, women’s underwear had an open crotch.
17. Thomas Gilbert Jr., a 30-year-old Princeton graduate who was unemployed, killed his wealthy father in 2015 after his weekly allowance dropped from $1,000 to $300. He was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
18. More than 55% of the world’s population aged 15 and older cannot swim.
19. After doctors removed a mass from a 47-year-old man’s lung, believing it to be a malignant tumor, they discovered it was actually a Playmobil toy traffic cone. He had swallowed it on his 7th birthday in 1974, but his airway had adapted, which likely prevented symptoms until he was 40.
20. In Lynchburg, Tennessee, home to the Jack Daniel’s distillery, it is illegal to buy Jack Daniel’s whiskey. The county, being “dry,” permits the distillation of alcohol but prohibits its sale.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Michael Jackson Buys Beatles Catalog
In 1985, Michael Jackson purchased the Lennon-McCartney song catalog for $47.5 million and later licensed the songs for various commercials, which saddened Paul McCartney. Reportedly frustrated by McCartney’s reaction, Jackson stated, “If he didn’t want to invest $47.5 million in his own songs, then he shouldn’t come crying to me now.”
22. Arnold Schwarzenegger became the first civilian in the United States to purchase a Humvee military vehicle. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved the Humvee so much that he persuaded the manufacturer to develop a street-legal civilian version, which became the Hummer H1 in 1992.
23. According to a BBC report, men in the UAE used 80% of their personal loans to pay for wedding expenses. As a result, many Emirati men chose to marry “less demanding” foreign women. In response, the government created a fund that provided financial assistance to grooms who married Emirati brides.
24. After Ludwig van Beethoven became functionally deaf, his associates used notebooks to communicate with him. Historians have since reconstructed entire conversations based on the entries they left behind.
25. In 2006, thieves in Buenos Aires tunneled beneath a bank and broke into its vault. After a seven-hour standoff with 23 hostages, authorities entered the building only to find $20 million missing, a row of toy guns, and a note that read, “In a neighborhood of rich people, without weapons or grudges, it’s just money, not love.”
RE: Fact #20 (Jack Daniel’s Illegal in Hometown) – A buddy of mine who used to work there said the distillery’s got a museum and a shop. They’ll even fill an empty collector’s bottle with bourbon for free – a little something extra, if you know what I mean.
RE: Fact #31 (‘That’s What She Said’ Origin) –
I think stuff like that appeals to our inner goofballs, like David Brent or Michael Scott. It’s similar to the “title of your sex tape” bit from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
The phrase “that’s what she said” was around before the 70s, and Wayne’s World on SNL, and the movie, used it a ton. Wayne says it after Garth complains about holding a picture for too long.
It kinda bugged me when Tina Fey said Steve Carell “owns” “that’s what she said,” especially since other SNL people used it way back when. I bet they picked it for his character in *The Office* because it was so obviously a tired old joke.
RE: Fact #7 (Anna Cramling’s Chess Opening Loss) – Her opponent was a 2495 FIDE player, so it’s no wonder she lost, opening aside.
RE: Fact #49 (Eisenhower’s Stress Before D-Day) – He made it to 78, then died of congestive heart failure. I bet he wasn’t pounding the coffee and cigarettes as much when things were easier, but hey.
RE: Fact #41 (Saddam Hussein’s 100% Vote Win) – Saddam somehow missed voting in the last referendum.
RE: Fact #2 (Lawsuit Over Misleading Movie Trailer) – Remember that Robin Williams “Shake that rubber booty flubber” dance scene from the commercials? It was in every ad, but they totally left it out of the actual movie.
RE: Fact #10 (Bone Marrow Transplant Alters DNA) – This guy’s blood had female DNA, his kidneys had male DNA, and his spleen was a mix of both. Turns out, he got a bone marrow transplant from his daughter. Talk about a plot twist!
RE: Fact #44 (Portuguese Woman Disguised as Soldier) – Busted when she asked the king to marry her coworker. Rookie mistake.
RE: Fact #44 (Portuguese Woman Disguised as Soldier) – Wikipedia says it supposedly happened sometime between 1682 and 1700, but the first account didn’t show up until 1876—from someone who couldn’t have possibly known. Got any other proof?
RE: Fact #26 (Last Execution in Tower of London) – So, is he with that spy group I mentioned? The one where that couple got busted in Scotland for biking the wrong way – they had Nivea cream and German sausage! And another guy got caught because he was in a pub at 9 AM ordering cider, before they even served booze.
RE: Fact #31 (‘That’s What She Said’ Origin) – Steve Carell ripped it off from Wayne’s World, and Wayne’s World got it from me.
RE: Fact #24 (Beethoven’s Deafness & Conversation Notebooks) – I picked this up from the BBC Proms this year – they used his friends’ writings to paint a picture of his side of things in his conversations.
He was really protective of his nephew Karl, especially after becoming his guardian when Karl’s mom couldn’t cope.
RE: Fact #21 (Michael Jackson Buys Beatles Catalog) – Back in ’81, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney teamed up, writing and recording some tunes together. Jackson hung out at McCartney’s place while they worked, and they became buddies. One night at dinner, McCartney showed Jackson this huge notebook filled with all his songs. Jackson got really excited, asking about buying songs and how it all worked. McCartney explained that music publishing was big business. Jackson said he’d buy the Beatles’ songs someday. McCartney just laughed and said, “Right, funny joke.”
Later, in ’84…
…someone checked with McCartney’s lawyer to see if he was going to bid. The lawyer said no, it was too expensive. The guy who handled the ATV Music sale said McCartney had first dibs but passed. Yoko Ono was also approached but didn’t bid either.
…At the time, McCartney was super rich, worth a ton of money.
After Jackson died in 2009, McCartney talked about Jackson buying the Beatles’ songs on Letterman. He said it was cool that someone finally got them, and that he hoped Jackson would give Lennon-McCartney a fair deal, since they’d been ripped off early in their career. He tried to talk to Jackson about it, but Jackson just said it was business. They didn’t really resolve things, and their friendship faded after that, but McCartney still thought Jackson was a great guy.
Seemed like he could’ve gotten a better deal himself, but he just wanted Michael to hand over the cash for free.
RE: Fact #36 (Ancient Greeks Didn’t Consider 1 a Number) – Seriously, how did they do math back then? They were pretty smart, scientifically speaking.
So, the article says the Greeks thought of one as the “seed of numbers,” not an actual number itself. It wasn’t a multiple of anything, so they saw it as a unit.
RE: Fact #28 (Cardinal Became Portuguese King) – He could’ve just become Portugal’s top church guy like Henry VIII and ditched those annoying vows.
That’d get him kicked out of the church, giving Spain a perfect excuse to invade and take over. They’d win either way, and forget the mess it would cause back home. Getting England to leave the Catholic Church was tough enough; it’d be even harder in Portugal.
RE: Fact #14 (Marlon Brando’s Estate Takeover) – Thirteen days before Marlon Brando died (July 1st, 2004), a new addition was made to his will. Some think he might have had dementia then. This change put Mike Medavoy (a movie guy), his brother-in-law Larry Dressler (an accountant), and Avra Douglas (a friend of Rebecca Brando’s) in charge of his $21.6 million. They replaced Brando’s old choices: JoAnn Corrales (his business manager and Christian’s guardian) and Alice Marchak (his closest friend for over 50 years). The new executors’ lawyers say the change was legit—Brando had already let Corrales go and thought Marchak was too old for the legal mess his death would cause.
RE: Fact #24 (Beethoven’s Deafness & Conversation Notebooks) – Crazy how they can get his chats down pat, but we’re still guessing what he looked like.
RE: Fact #39 (Mozart Outsold Beyoncé in 2016) – I read somewhere that if Mozart got paid for all his music, he could’ve bought the whole country of Austria! Everything!
RE: Fact #37 (North Face Founder’s Fatal Kayaking) – The North Face founder died doing adventurous stuff outdoors. That makes me respect the brand even more.
RE: Fact #40 (Crazy Crab: Baseball’s Anti-Mascot) – Why do people at events always have so many batteries?
RE: Fact #11 (Alan Turing’s Olympic-Level Running) – Our elite runners are way faster now—like, ten minutes faster than the Boston Marathon qualifying time for guys aged 18-34.
RE: Fact #30 (Thomas Jefferson’s Stuffed Moose Shipment) – Were the French already pretty set up in America and Canada? Quebec City’s older than Lincoln by two centuries – lots of moose and bears back then too! It sounds like he was just bragging.
RE: Fact #42 (Subway Co-Founder Donates $5B Stake) – They’re the biggest fast food chain in the US, so that’s a ton of money for charity. Subway and Dollar General keep rural America fed.
RE: Fact #25 (Toy Guns, Tunnels, and $20M Heist) – Fernando Araujo, the mastermind, wanted to dodge the Ramallo disaster mess, so he hatched a crazy plan: tunnel under a bank and make a clean getaway.
Seven hours in, the police lost it and busted in. All the hostages were okay, surprisingly. But the robbers? Gone. A sealed basement hole, and $20 million from 140+ safety deposit boxes vanished.
The crew watched the police raid on TV – their heist was picture perfect. Almost. Five weeks later, Rubén Alberto de la Torre’s wife ratted him out because she found out about his affair. This led to the arrests of Araujo, Bolster, Vitette, and Zalloecheverría. But “Doc” and “Luis the Uruguayan” are still out there.
Bolster got off easy – just 25 months. Vitette got four years, then got kicked out of Argentina.
Even though they got caught, nobody did more than five years. Why? Toy guns, not real ones.
RE: Fact #47 (Gates of Arctic’s Extreme Remoteness) – Yeah, it’s bigger, but it’s way up in Alaska.
RE: Fact #50 (Britain’s Near-Bloodless Invasion of Iceland) – My Icelandic buddy said that when the British Navy showed up, they basically told Reykjavik’s folks, “Sorry for the invasion,” and then went and nabbed the German embassy staff and a local German teacher. Funny thing is, they let the teacher go back to proctor an exam before hauling him in.
The Icelanders got a bunch of good stuff from the British, like better trade deals, new infrastructure, and a promise the Brits would leave after the war.
That airport you fly into or out of in Reykjavik? That was a British Army base built during the occupation.
RE: Fact #3 (Rommel’s Forced Suicide & Funeral) – Wow, crazy story. His son was home when everything went down and wrote about it. They gave his dad a choice: a kangaroo court and death for the whole family, or a cyanide pill. If he took the pill, they’d say he died in battle, his family would be safe, and he’d get a state funeral. The officials showed up at his house, and he had, like, five minutes to decide. His son said his dad came from a meeting about a new assignment, looking completely freaked out. He went to talk to his wife, she started crying, and then he just left, without even saying anything to his son. They drove him away, and he took the pill in the car. That was it.