Random Fact Sheet #162 – 35 Random and Intriguing Facts

The 2004 film “50 First Dates” was supposed to be set in Seattle, but Adam Sandler himself switched the story to Hawaii. According to him, “You don't see many movies [set] there....And it is such a spectacularly beautiful place for a romantic comedy.”

2. In 2014, original "Top Model" winner Adrianne Curry fended off an attacker with a bullwhip while dressed as Catwoman at San Diego Comic-Con.

3. Blimps use the same amount of fuel in 2 weeks that a 747 uses to taxi to the runway.

4. A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by Black Friday shoppers in 2008. While other employees attempted to help him, the shoppers were unconcerned with the victim's fate and refused to halt their stampede, complaining that they were not willing to wait in the cold any longer.

5. In 1935, the Nazis held a competition in which baby pictures were sent in and the "most beautiful Aryan baby" was chosen by Joseph Goebbels. The baby they picked and used in propaganda for years was actually Jewish; the photo had been sent in to make the Nazi party look ridiculous.

The famous car chase scene in "The French Connection" was shot illegally. The legendary stunt driver Bill Hickman drove for 22 blocks at 95 mph through Queens with no permits, coordination or planning.

7. Streets are almost always wet in movies. The wet pavement looks better on camera and the water diffuses reflections and helps eliminate shadows caused by filming equipment and multiple light sources.

8. Telling the truth when tempted to lie can significantly improve a person’s mental and physical health. Researchers found that participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday lies and that in turn was associated with significantly improved health.

9. When South African comedian Trevor Noah was growing up in Apartheid, his parents had to always walk on separate sides of the street, and whenever either parent was confronted about him, they had to deny that he was their child.

10. While Stan Lee was in the army, he never missed a deadline for Timely Comics (Marvel in the 40s). When he discovered that mail was being withheld from him, he broke into the mailroom, unhinged the mailbox with the screwdriver, and submitted the assignment, which he was nearly jailed for.

In 1962, a Cuban boxer named Benny Paret made fun of his opponent named Emile Griffith, for being homosexual. Paret died 10 days after the fight from a 29-punch combo by Griffith.

12. Bridges and tunnels for animals reduced wildlife-related car crashes by 90% in Colorado.

13. Utsuro-Bune was a Japanese legend about an unknown object washing ashore in Hitachi in 1803. Inside there was a young woman who spoke an unknown language and who was carrying a small box which she didn't let anyone touch.

14. Eduard Bloch, Hitler’s childhood doctor was a Jew. When Hitler’s mother couldn't afford cancer treatment, Bloch reduced his prices. Teenage Adolf declared undying gratitude, and when Austria was annexed, Hitler kept his word and granted the doctor special protection by the Gestapo.

15. The notoriously austere and disciplined Spartan King Agesilaus was once caught by a friend riding a stick horse while playing with his kids. The King begged his friend not to tell anyone, saying he'd understand once he had kids of his own.

Steven Spielberg wanted to make the (1999) Medal of Honor game to teach kids about World War 2, who couldn't see Saving Private Ryan because of its R-rating.

17. In 1971, Afeni Shakur was a pregnant member of the Black Panther Party who was accused with 20 others of conspiracy to carry out a bombing in New York. Facing a 300-year sentence, she decided to represent herself in court and after a lengthy trial was acquitted. A month later her son Tupac Shakur was born.

18. All 66 characters with speaking roles in the 1984 cartoon series ThunderCats were voiced by only 8 actors, with each actor voicing an average of 8.25 characters.

19. Approximately 1.6 million people of Japanese descent live in Brazil, making it the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

20. The first Rain Checks were given to baseball fans in the 1870s as they left games that had been stopped due to rain. They were slips that allowed the fans to come back and see another game for free.

The East India Company controlled its own army, which by 1800 comprised some 200,000 soldiers, more than twice the membership of the British Army at that time. The army was used to carry out officially sanctioned looting within the Indian States, along with forced over-taxation.

22. When it was revealed to German military leader Hermann Göring that his prized Vermeer painting was a forgery, it was said "[Göring] looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world."

23. Before the Mayflower, Squanto was kidnapped, sold into slavery in Spain, and escaped back to North America, only to find his entire tribe wiped out from a disease. The site he later helped the Pilgrims settle at was the summer village of his tribe, Plymouth Rock.

24. The Johnston Turkey is a Turkey located in Rhode Island who has evaded capture for months, terrorized and disrupted locals, and even got votes in the local mayoral election.

25. Human babies are helpless because we walk upright. Walking upright requires a narrow pelvis, in which our large head/brain would get stuck during birth, so babies are born with a smaller head/brain that develops more after birth, compared to other mammals.