26 Lumet Planned 365 Jury-Room Shots
Before filming the 1957 courtroom drama 12 Angry Men, director Sidney Lumet and cinematographer Boris Kaufman rehearsed inside an actual New York City jury room. They blueprinted 365 separate shots from every angle of the confined set before production began. The planning helped the crew finish filming in just 17 days, although the opening shot through the blades of a ceiling fan consumed the entire first day.
27. In 1878, 19-year-old Burmese princess Supayalat and 20-year-old King Thibaw reached the throne after a bloody succession coup in Mandalay. During Thibaw’s planned wedding to her elder sister, Supayalat entered the ceremony and had herself anointed queen, breaking ancient custom. She then prevented Thibaw from maintaining the traditional royal harem, although he later also married her younger sister. When he secretly took a pregnant concubine, a woman named Daing Khin Khin, Supayalat had her executed.
28. During World War II, Poland’s government in exile formally declared war on only one country: Japan, on December 11, 1941. Germany, Slovakia, and the Soviet Union had already invaded Poland, making separate declarations unnecessary, while Polish prime minister Wladyslaw Sikorski joined Britain’s war against Japan reluctantly. Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo refused the declaration, stating, “We do not accept Poland’s challenge. The Poles, fighting for their freedom, only declared war on us under pressure from the United Kingdom.” Agents from both countries continued cooperating, and the theoretical state of war lasted until Japan and the Polish People’s Republic established official relations in 1957.
29. In 2017, Princeton University and MIT researchers reported that a “surprisingly popular” answer could overcome an incorrect majority. Their algorithm asks people for both their answer and a prediction of how popular each possible answer will be, then selects the response that exceeds expectations. In one test, most respondents incorrectly said Philadelphia was Pennsylvania’s capital, but more people rejected that answer than the crowd had predicted. Across several topics, the method reduced errors by 21.3 percent compared with simple majority voting and by 48 percent across 50 state-capital questions.
30. In July 2022, a 7-year-old boy named Liam Fisher, his brother Jessin, and their cousin Kaiden Madsen discovered a rare juvenile T. rex fossil while hiking in the North Dakota Badlands. Paleontologist Tyler Lyson identified the dinosaur from its teeth, then returned with the children and a Denver Museum of Nature and Science crew to excavate it in 2023. Nicknamed “Teen Rex,” the 12-to-14-year-old dinosaur is one of only four young T. rex fossils ever found, according to Lyson.
31 Descartes’ Dreams Inspired Analytic Geometry
According to biographer Adrien Baillet, French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, later famous for “I think, therefore I am,” experienced three dreams on November 10-11, 1619, inside a stove-heated room in Neuburg an der Donau. Descartes believed a divine spirit had revealed a new philosophy and concluded that pursuing science would lead him toward true wisdom. By the time he left the room, he had formulated analytic geometry and the idea of applying mathematical methods to philosophy.
32. Until 1933, crews at New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade released the giant balloons into the sky after the procession, leaving them to drift until they eventually burst. Macy’s ended the practice after a deflated balloon caused an airplane to crash, and parade balloons have remained tethered to handlers ever since.
33. On March 8, 1971, undefeated American boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the “Fight of the Century.” Frazier knocked Ali down in the final round and won by unanimous decision, handing Ali his first professional defeat. Ali publicly refused to admit defeat and sought to frame the result as a “White Man’s Decision.” Ali won their 1974 rematch and defeated Frazier again in their third and final bout, the “Thrilla in Manila,” in 1975.
34. In 2012, law professor Orin S. Kerr published “A Theory of Law,” a satirical, one-page article for legal scholars whose editors demand citations for every claim. Kerr noted that some statements are too obvious or obscure to have existing references, while others are simply invented or false. The article declares that any claim citing it must be correct, then cites itself as further support, giving writers a ready-made citation for almost anything.
35. Ovulation can cause one-sided lower abdominal or pelvic pain called mittelschmerz, which may range from a mild twinge to sudden, sharp pain that interferes with daily life. The name combines the German words for “middle” and “pain” because symptoms often occur around the middle of the menstrual cycle, usually about two weeks before the next period. The pain may result when a growing follicle stretches and ruptures to release an egg, and it can last from a few minutes to 48 hours. Most cases are harmless, but severe or persistent pain should be evaluated because other conditions can cause similar symptoms.
36 East Germany Rebuilt Hamhung Free
After the Korean War destroyed an estimated 80 to 90 percent of Hamhung and its industrial infrastructure, East Germany promised to help North Korea rebuild the city. In 1955, it formed the German Working Group Hamhung and sent planners, architects, geologists, and engineers to provide designs, materials, training, and project management. East German and North Korean teams built housing, industrial districts, roads, utilities, schools, hospitals, factories, cultural facilities, and a railway station. By the time the project ended in 1962, East Germany had invested an estimated 118 million to 218.4 million East German marks.
37. According to third-century AD biographer Diogenes Laertius, fourth-century BC Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope often masturbated in public, an act considered scandalous in ancient Greece. When confronted, he replied, “If only it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly.” He also jokingly credited the Greek god Hermes with inventing masturbation to relieve his son Pan’s unfulfilled desire for Echo.
38. Across North America’s Great Lakes region, the Old Copper complex began working copper around 6500 BCE, more than 8,500 years ago. Archaic peoples collected 99 percent pure copper from surface veins and gravel deposits near Lake Superior, including Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. They shaped it into spearpoints, tools, weapons, and ornaments, then traded copper goods for other materials. By about 1000 BCE, copper use had shifted largely from practical tools to jewelry and status objects.
39. When American writer Herman Melville published Moby-Dick in 1851, the ambitious novel became a commercial failure, selling only about 3,000 copies during his lifetime. Melville died in 1891, and his work remained largely forgotten until scholars and modernist writers rediscovered the novel in the 1920s. Its shifting styles, collage-like structure, complexity, and ambiguity suddenly appeared decades ahead of their time, helping establish Melville as one of the 19th century’s greatest writers.
40. Anosognosia prevents a person from recognizing a medical condition, even one-sided paralysis, even when confronted with evidence. It is not ordinary denial; damage to brain regions that update self-image prevents the person from processing or recognizing the condition. French neurologist Joseph Babinski coined the term in 1914 after describing someone who could not use or feel the left side of their body but remained unaware of the problem. This lack of awareness can lead people to resist treatment.
41 Scribblenauts Producer Became AEW Referee
Before becoming a professional wrestling referee, American video game developer Aubrey Edwards spent more than six years at 5th Cell working on the Scribblenauts videogame series. She started as a tool programmer on the original game and eventually became lead producer for the 2012 Wii U launch title Scribblenauts Unlimited. Edwards began refereeing in 2017, appeared at WWE events in 2018, and signed with All Elite Wrestling on September 1, 2019, as the promotion’s first full-time female referee.
42. In 1946, the fourth atomic bomb ever detonated carried a photograph of American actress Rita Hayworth cut from the June issue of Esquire. Its crew stenciled “Gilda” above the image in two-inch black letters, linking the bomb to Hayworth’s hit film before its test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Hayworth felt deeply offended, while Welles said he hoped their daughter could someday tell her own daughter that “grandmother’s picture was on the last atom bomb ever to explode.”
43. Blue jay feathers contain no blue pigment. Tiny air pockets inside their barbs scatter incoming light and produce their non-iridescent blue appearance. The feather’s structure reflects blue wavelengths, while an underlying layer of melanin absorbs the remaining colors.
44. During Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, civilians hid animals from Kuwait Zoo in their homes, including three llamas and two Malaysian sun bears. After about 250 Iraqi soldiers occupied the zoo, young Kuwaitis fed the animals and later slipped rare birds and mammals into private homes as restrictions eased. The sun bears went to separate houses, and after the war a woman called the zoo’s director, and said, “Please come get your bear.” The rescue network also saved a crowned crane and several peacocks, although soldiers killed or removed much of the collection during the seven-month occupation.
45. Grapple was a brand of Fuji and Gala apples soaked in concentrated methyl anthranilate diluted with water, making their flesh taste like Concord grapes. The external flavoring added no sugar or calories and did not turn the apples into true apple-grape hybrids. The brand began selling the fruit in 2004 and introduced a more tart version in 2016. By 2024, its parent company had discontinued both varieties because of low sales, declining interest, and poor publicity.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Plunkett And Manning Remain Uninducted
NFL quarterbacks Jim Plunkett and Eli Manning each started and won two Super Bowls, yet the Pro Football Hall of Fame has not inducted either eligible player. Plunkett led the Raiders to victories in Super Bowls XV and XVIII, while Manning led the New York Giants to wins in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Both finished 2-0 as Super Bowl starters, with Plunkett earning one Super Bowl MVP award and Manning earning two.
47. In 2017, Australian former military sniper Damien Mander began recruiting women for Akashinga, Shona for “the brave ones,” an all-female anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe. Its 39 members included survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, widows, and single mothers from the Nyamakate area. They received military-style training in unarmed combat, camouflage, concealment, search and arrest, leadership, and conservation ethics before patrolling armed against elephant poachers. By October 2018, Akashinga had made 75 arrests while also working with authorities and local communities.
48. During the Great Depression, the Federal Art Project paid about 1,000 artists to create 18,257 watercolors of everyday objects for the Index of American Design. The artists documented American folk and decorative objects dating from the colonial period through 1900. The project aimed to identify and preserve a “national, ancestral aesthetic” for the United States.
49. The ancestors of New Zealand’s Maori people arrived from East Polynesia in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350, only about 300 years before Europeans made contact. During their isolation, they developed a distinct culture with its own language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman reached New Zealand in 1642, but an apparent misunderstanding led to a clash that killed four of his men and at least one Maori. Tasman left after only two days.
50. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first English-language book to top France’s Livres Hebdo bestseller list after impatient fans bought it while waiting months for the French translation. To prevent plot leaks, publishers did not allow translators to see British author J.K. Rowling’s books until their official English release. That policy delayed translations by several months, creating enough demand for the English edition to lead a French bestseller chart that had operated since 1999.
RE: Fact #23 (Twister Soundtrack Split Van Halen) – My dad was a professional musician and a bit of a tall-tale teller, you could never tell where the facts ended and the stories began. He always claimed he beat Van Halen in a battle of the bands, and we’d just roll our eyes. Then I saw his name on page 46 of the book ‘Van Halen Rising’, turns out he actually did it.
Was your dad in the band Uncle Sam? I did some digging since I didn’t know the history. Even as a big metal and hard rock fan, I never ranked Van Halen as high as everyone else does, and being from another country, I missed out on a lot of their early background. It’s wild how Uncle Sam and Van Halen’s early version, Mammoth, were such bitter rivals in the 70s Pasadena scene. The 1972 Battle of the Bands story is legendary, Uncle Sam supposedly rigged it by bringing in their own judges, which led to total chaos. It’s crazy to think that rivalry helped push them toward success, including recruiting David Lee Roth. I love how it turned out, though.
RE: Fact #2 (Eiffel Tower Hid Private Apartment) – Visitors can actually see this apartment through a window when they reach the top of the tower. It is pretty well known.
RE: Fact #21 (Peacemaker Inspired Watchmen’s Comedian Character) – “What happened to the American Dream? It came true. You’re looking at it.” One of my favorite lines from any book.
RE: Fact #41 (Scribblenauts Producer Became AEW Referee) – Scribblenauts was one of the first games I got hyped for. I had just started reading GameInformer and had my own money to spend. I wanted to pre-order it, but my mom told me there would be enough copies on launch day and I could just grab one after school.
RE: Fact #14 (Destroyer Nearly Torpedoed President Roosevelt) – I remember seeing a Sam O Nella video about this. The captain seemed incredibly incompetent.
RE: Fact #7 (Jodie Foster Records French Dubs) – She mentioned in an interview once that her mom just had this fascination with foreign countries, even though she didn’t travel much. That’s why she put her in the local French school, there wasn’t really a deeper reason.
RE: Fact #26 (Lumet Planned 365 Jury-Room Shots) – For me, “12 Angry Men” is the greatest movie ever made, even above “Casablanca” or “Citizen Kane.” It’s a masterpiece created because of its restrictions, not in spite of them, working in that tiny room with a small cast and no big soundtrack. It seems like every TV show has an episode that pays homage to it. It’s iconic, memorable, and needs no explanation.
RE: Fact #22 (John Randolph Never Reached Puberty) – ‘Tuberculosis which settled in the genital tract.’ Great, new fear unlocked. Thanks for that.
In the medical world, TB is called one of the ‘Great Imitators’ because it can show up anywhere and mimic any illness. Syphilis, lupus, and Lyme disease are on that list too, so you’ve got plenty of other things to worry about.
RE: Fact #29 (Crowd Predictions Exposed Wrong Majorities) – People are wonderful, but I really struggle with groups. Give a group a ‘common purpose’ and pretty soon they’re wearing matching armbands, singing fight songs, and making a list of people to target. I love individuals, though. If you really look at a person, you can see the whole universe in their eyes.
RE: Fact #5 (Cannonball Loop Walls Contained Teeth) – I was lucky enough to ride that during the brief time it was open. I definitely got scratched up and ended up with a serious concussion. The force as you enter the loop pulls your head back and it was bouncing like a basketball. Then you get launched into a deep pool of water, totally disoriented, while some bored 18-year-old stares off into space.
RE: Fact #38 (Copperworking Began Near Great Lakes) – It’s worth noting this involved cold-forging nuggets of 99% pure copper, and the practice faded out as those surface deposits became harder to find. Smelting didn’t actually happen in the Americas until about 6, 000 years later.
RE: Fact #25 (Lasers Cool Atoms Toward Absolute-Zero) – I understood maybe half of those words.
RE: Fact #28 (Japan Rejected Poland’s War Declaration) – A friend in high school tried to break up with his girlfriend, but she just said, “No, I don’t want to break up.” He didn’t realize you could just say no to that, so he ended up staying with her for another two weeks.
RE: Fact #36 (East Germany Rebuilt Hamhung Free) – East Germany also helped build up the Vietnamese coffee industry in return for a massive portion of the harvest for two decades. They had struggled to get enough coffee for their own citizens on the global market, so this was their strategy to guarantee a supply. Sadly, by the time the first harvest was ready, East Germany had dissolved, and those contracts were essentially gone. That is how Vietnam ended up becoming the world’s second-largest coffee producer essentially for free.
RE: Fact #11 (Blob Transfers Knowledge Without Brain) – 720 sexes and no brain? I feel like the Dean from Community was modeled after this.
RE: Fact #1 (Checkers Became An Unbeatable Draw) – That is honestly a really well-balanced game, especially considering the first-player advantage.
RE: Fact #22 (John Randolph Never Reached Puberty) – I love how the article phrases it as ‘He finally died of tuberculosis…’ It sounds like everyone was just waiting for him to kick the bucket.
RE: Fact #19 (Mushrooms And Crabs Share Chitin) – Whoa. I figured ‘chitin’ was just a linguistic overlap, not the actual same material. That is wild, it’s like discovering a flower that uses bone for support.
RE: Fact #26 (Lumet Planned 365 Jury-Room Shots) – This is one of my favorite movies. The cinematography, the acting, the whole staging of the play, it’s just fantastic.
RE: Fact #48 (Federal Watercolors Preserved American Design) – I’ll volunteer to do some watercolors if we hit another Great Depression.
RE: Fact #29 (Crowd Predictions Exposed Wrong Majorities) – I remember hearing about an experiment where people guessed the number of jelly beans in a jar. The group did well on their own, but once they were told to discuss it and come to a consensus, their accuracy plummeted. People debated why that happened, but a common theory is that the people who were the most wrong were also the loudest, while the people who were actually accurate were less confident and stayed quiet.
RE: Fact #28 (Japan Rejected Poland’s War Declaration) – Imagine finally declaring war on a country, only to have them send back a polite response saying, “No thanks, we know you didn’t mean it.”
RE: Fact #17 (Calf Muscles Reduce Post-Exercise Fainting) – This is critical after a long, hot run, and I learned that lesson the hard way. After a 12-mile run in 98-degree heat, I stopped at a fountain to refill my bottle. About 30 seconds later, my vision started fading and the world lost all color. I thought I was dying. I tried as hard as I could to stay upright, gripping a bench, but I felt like a machine losing all its hydraulic pressure. I was about to black out. Luckily, I collapsed into a pile, which saved me from any injuries, and I came to a few seconds later. I ended up crawling around before finally getting up and walking in circles while holding onto the bench. I never skip a cool-down walk now. I always walk at least a mile after every run. It might be overkill, but post-exercise syncope is no joke.
RE: Fact #35 (Mittelschmerz Causes Pain During Ovulation) – It was deep and agonizing. No painkillers ever helped me with it. The only thing that worked was having someone manually push on that area, usually my husband. I am not kidding.
RE: Fact #15 (Mark Twain Traveled With Guitar) – Also, Mark Twain retired in his later years, but he lost his entire fortune on a terrible typesetting machine. He ended up having to go on a lecture tour to make money, which actually made him even more famous. Something similar happened to Leonard Cohen.
RE: Fact #50 (Order Of Phoenix Topped France) – I remember walking through town as a kid the day this book was released. Phoenix posters were everywhere, shops were sold out, kids were dressed up, and people were just hanging out reading on the sidewalks. I don’t live in a big town, so I can’t imagine what it was like elsewhere. It was a bizarre phenomenon I don’t think I’ve seen since.
RE: Fact #39 (Moby-Dick Succeeded After Melville’s Death) – It’s one of those books that’s either life-changing or just a slog to finish, there doesn’t seem to be much in between for most readers. That said, “Call me Ishmael” is an iconic opening line.
RE: Fact #6 (Chinese Harry Potter Knockoffs Proliferated) – there are billions of pages of fan-written Harry Potter stories in English, too.
RE: Fact #35 (Mittelschmerz Causes Pain During Ovulation) – “..SOMETIMES SEVERE ENOUGH TO INTERFERE WITH DAILY LIFE.” DID YOU HEAR THAT, EVERYONE?!
RE: Fact #5 (Cannonball Loop Walls Contained Teeth) – >In 1983, [^]GAR built an enclosed water slide with a [complete vertical loop]) at the end, similar to that of a roller coaster.[^]The resulting slide, called the “Cannonball Loop”, was so intimidating that employees have reported they were offered $100to test it. Fergus, who described himself as “one of the idiots” who took the offer, said, “$100 did not buy enough booze to drown out that memory.”[^]I mean yeah, you’re basically being waterboarded in the middle there 👀
Haha, that thing looks ridiculous.
RE: Fact #28 (Japan Rejected Poland’s War Declaration) – Keep in mind this happened in 1941, by a government that didn’t even have control over Polish territory.
RE: Fact #39 (Moby-Dick Succeeded After Melville’s Death) – One of my favorite quotes is Moby Dick-related and comes from the basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, talking about Wilt Chamberlain: “One time I can remember like a photograph: His head was almost above the rim; there were players draped all around his neck, and it looked for all the world like the end of Moby Dick, with Gregory Peck lashed to his prey, beckoning his crew to join the quest. Wilt Chamberlain as the White Whale.”
RE: Fact #30 (Children Found Rare Teen Rex) – A kid finding a dinosaur fossil is a bit too perfect. That kind of symmetry usually only happens in movies, not in real life.
RE: Fact #22 (John Randolph Never Reached Puberty) – > “a habitual opium user [and] a bachelor who seems to have nurtured a crush on Andrew Jackson.” ‘Bachelor’ is such a funny term.
RE: Fact #18 (Roosevelt’s Polio Campaign Inspired Dime) – I hope I don’t get flak for this, but I’ve honestly lived my whole life without knowing that was FDR on the dime.
RE: Fact #31 (Descartes’ Dreams Inspired Analytic Geometry) – “Renee Descartes was a drunken fart. I drink, therefore I am.” – Monty Python