Random Fact Sheet #140 – 40 of the Most Unusual Facts

Actor Dick Van Dike didn't know his actual birthday until he was 18. His parents lied to him about his birth date to cover up the fact that he was conceived out of wedlock.

2. During the Depression, a banker convinced local residents of the small town of Quincy in Florida to buy Coca-Cola Stock. This decision resulted in the town becoming the richest town in America with more millionaires per capita than any other town in USA. A single share bought at $19 would be worth $10 million in 2013.

3. The United States is considered by many military experts to be entirely un-invadable due to country's large size, infrastructure, diverse geography and climate.

4. A 2011 study from UC Berkeley found that Mercedes and BMW drivers were nearly 5 times as likely to cut others off compared to drivers in non-luxury cars.

5. An anonymous biologist managed to get a fake scientific research paper accepted into four supposedly peer-reviewed science journals, to expose the problem of predatory journals. He based the paper on a notoriously bad Star Trek episode where characters turned into weird amphibian-people.

A woman named Elisabeth Anderson Sierra suffers from hyperlactation syndrome, i.e., an overproduction of breast milk. Instead of dumping her milk, she decided to donate it. She spends 4-5 hours each day pumping milk and in two years she has donated 609 gallons of breast milk, most of it going to feeding premature babies.

7. Elizabeth of Russia received little education, no one wanted to marry her because her mother was a peasant, and her fiancé was murdered. Regardless, when she became the Empress of Russia she built the University of Moscow, the Winter Palace, and would pay the dowry of future brides.

8. A man named Allan Savory had the African governments slaughter 40,000 elephants to reduce desertification and degradation of environment. He later found out it wasn’t actually related.

9. The longest known brooding period for any species on the planet goes to the Graneledone boreopacifica, an octopus that guards its eggs for an astounding 4.5 years.

10. The only member of Pink Floyd to comment on the rumor that Dark Side of the Moon was intended to be played over "The Wizard of Oz" was drummer Nick Mason, who said "It's absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with 'The Wizard Of Oz.' It was all based on 'The Sound Of Music.'"

Leslie Nielsen had essentially two acting careers. He spent two decades playing leading men and the occasional villain. After Airplane movie came out in 1980, he played almost exclusively comic roles.

12. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.

13. The motto of Spain was originally Non-Plus Ultra ("Nothing further beyond") but after the discovery of the New World it was reversed to be Plus Ultra ("Further beyond").

14. Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones hated Space Jam so much that when Warner Brothers asked him to give a speech at a dinner for the Space Jam producers, he tried to give his honest opinion in a polite manner, but got escorted off the lot by security.

15. Humans and other primates have evolved to have special neurons that can detect snakes faster than flowers.

American restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's founder Alan Stillman, despite having no restaurant business experience, opened the restaurant because the neighborhood he lived in had many young, single people and he wanted to meet women.

17. The average lifespan of an MLB baseball is 8 pitches and approximately 90 are used each game.

18. The smell of the air after a storm is caused by Geosmin, a chemical that is released by dead soil bacteria. Humans are hypersensitive to it and are capable of detecting it at a concentration of 5 parts per trillion. It is theorized in our evolutionary past this helped us seek out water.

19. In 2011, an Australian beer company gave people the option to pay whatever they wanted for a glass of beer from a certain keg. The kegs were called ‘The Karma Keg’ and they ended up making at least 35% more than what an average keg would make.

20. The first recorded child abuse case in the United States was of Mary Ellen Wilson. Her foster parents were prosecuted in 1874 under animal cruelty laws since there were no laws against child abuse at that time.

Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than they are to vegetables.

22. In 1982 Byron Preiss released the book “The Secret: A Treasure Hunt” that associates 12 riddles and 12 pictures to 12 real locations in the USA, where a ceramic bin buried in the ground houses an $1000 gem. As of 2018 only 2 have been solved.

23. A man named Walter Summerford was struck by lightning 3 times in his life. After his death, his gravestone was also struck.

24. Robert Wright and Kenneth Moore were two combat medics who parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day without weapons. For 3 days without sleep, they treated wounded soldiers from both sides and civilians.

25. Steve Carell had only seen about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned for The Office. He did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais' characterizations.