Random Fact Sheet #123 – 40 Must-Know Tidbits

Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave away more than 90% of his wealth, with much of it going to found 2509 public libraries at an inflation-adjusted cost of more than $1.3 billion.

27. Each of Bethke brothers escaped from Soviet East Berlin. Ingo floated on a mattress across a river. Holger used a bow to fire a cable across the gap, then zip-lined to safety. Then Ingo and Holger built an aircraft and flew back over the wall to rescue their third brother, Egbert.

28. If you trace back the family tree of a drone bee, the number of parents in each generation follows the Fibonacci sequence.

29. The actor who played Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) in the original Star Wars is Ewan McGregor's uncle.

30. The case details of the horrific murder of Junko Furuta were so morbid that it caused a spectator in the gallery to faint. Furuta's mother also reportedly had a mental breakdown, which required psychiatric treatment.

The two largest air forces in the world both belong to the United States, which are the United States Air Force and the United States Navy.

32. The earliest Titanic-based movie (Saved from the Titanic) was released just 29 days after the sinking. It starred one of the survivors. No copies of this film remain.

33. In 1989, MLB broadcaster Jim Rooker said he'd walk back to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia if the Pirates blew a 10-run lead. When the Phillies came back and won 15-11, Rooker hosted a 300-plus-mile charity walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

34. In 1898, a group of Indian railroad workers were stalked by a pair of man-eating lions that killed at least 35 of the laborers and stopped construction before being shot to death.

35. A study found ripple effect between couples: when one makes an effort to lose weight, the chances are, the other will shed pounds too.

The 2009 movie 'The Last House on the Left' is a remake of the 1972 movie of the same name, which was based on the 1960 movie 'The Virgin Spring', which in turn was based on Töres döttrar i Wänge (1812), a Ballad, remake of a longer version from 1673, which is the backstory of why the church of Kärna (1100s) has been built.

37. There is an area in France (Zone Rouge) that people are still not allowed into over 100 years after the Battle of Verdun.

38. Giving regular blood donations can burn 650 calories each time leading to weight loss and reduce your risk of both heart disease and cancer.

39. When the NFL football team Seattle Seahawks invited a retired 4-star general (Peter Chiarelli) to their facility, Seattle's head coach Pete Carroll blitzed him with questions about whether the 9/11 attacks “had been planned or faked” by the government.

40. All the "ancient" crystal skulls of Central America were actually created in Europe during the 19th century. The Brazilian quartz deposit the skulls are made of was unknown during ancient times and likely crafted in the 19th-century German workshop renowned for crafting objects of Brazilian quartz.