Random Fact Sheet #244 – Unlocking 35 Facts That’ll Boggle Your Mind

Before 1954, stop signs used to be yellow with black lettering. This was because there was no red dye that would not fade over time. However, by 1954, sign makers began using a fade-resistant porcelain enamel, and it was declared that stop signs would be red with white lettering.

27. While filming the 2000 hit movie, Castaway, Tom Hanks received a skin cut and got a staph infection that nearly killed him. The cut gave him blood poisoning. He was in the hospital for 3 days and the production of the movie was shut down for 3 weeks.

28. There is a mass grave (Showmen's Rest) near Chicago containing about 60 circus performers. Some visitors report hearing ghostly elephant sounds at night.

29. Jack Nicholson's first job in Hollywood was an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. They offered him an entry-level job as an animator, but he declined, citing his desire to become an actor.

30. When a bald eagle loses a feather on one wing, it will lose a feather on the other in order to keep its balance.

Deaf parents use special vibrating baby monitors or smartwatch applications to alert them when babies are crying during the night.

32. Princess Diana and her brothers had such a bad relationship with their stepmother (Raine Spencer) that two days after their father died, they threw her out of their house.

33. Russian cosmonauts were provided with a multi-barrel gun to be taken with them on missions. Featuring two shotgun barrels, a lower rifle barrel, and a built-in machete, the TP-82 was intended to be used as a survival tool if the cosmonauts landed back on earth in the wilderness.

34. Aramaic, the language spoken historically by Jesus is still being spoken as a mother tongue in a small village in Syria.

35. Luxembourg's version of Superman is Superjhemp, who unlike the American version has a sizeable belly and draws his powers from eating cheese and drinking beer. He also flies around with his hands in his pockets, "because every real Luxembourger has his hands in his pockets."