Random Fact Sheet #284 – 40 Thrilling Random Facts That Will Leave You in Awe

Spaceballs creator Mel Brooks made a deal with George Lucas, that allowed him to spoof Star Wars in exchange for not selling any merchandise related to the film. The action figures Rick Moranis is seen playing within the movie are the only official Spaceballs merchandise ever made.

2. To train new operatives during the Cold War, the Soviets built fully functional replicas of American towns. Their residents consisted of retired deep cover operatives who taught the trainees everything they needed to know about blending into American life.

3. Danny DeVito played a huge part in getting Pulp Fiction made, including shopping the script around to dozens of studios after Tristar passed on it for being "too violent."

4. Michelangelo hid under the Medici Chapel in Florence for 3 months during a period of political turmoil, occupying his time by sketching on the walls with charcoal. His whereabouts were a secret for almost 500 years until the museum director stumbled upon the drawings in 1976.

5. Theodore Roosevelt's youngest son Quentin Roosevelt I was a pilot in World War 1 and was killed in France during combat. He is the only child of a US President to die in combat.

An Elmo cameo was written for the 2011 Muppets film but was stopped by Children's TV Workshop lawyers. Ironically, the scene featured the Muppets attempting to recruit Elmo but getting stopped by his lawyers.

7. In the 17th century, weavers in Nimes, France, accidentally made denim while trying to replicate the process of producing another popular fabric called serge. They called the new material “serge de Nimes” meaning literally “serge from Nimes.” Over time, merchants shortened the name to “denim.”

8. Landing humans on the Moon required the most sudden burst of technological creativity and the largest commitment of resources ever made by any nation in peacetime. At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.

9. In 1995, an inmаte named Robert L. Brock sued himself for $5 million, saying that he was drunk at the time of the crіme, which caused him to violate his religious beliefs and civil rights by getting arrеsted. He reasoned that as a ward of the state, and unable to work, the state should pay him the money on his account.

10. There is a demon named Tutivillus found in Catholic lore that collects all the mispronounced words said by priests and puts them in a sack. That sack is later carried by the offending priests in hell.

Strings and cables moving randomly will spontaneously knot themselves with a probability reaching 100%.

12. After Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob Squarepants graduated high school he worked as a fry cook during summers at a restaurant in Islesford, Maine known as Islesford Dock Restaurant. The restaurant would later be the inspiration for the Krusty Krab in the show.

13. Austria does not usually allow dual citizenship but they made a special exception for Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1983 when he became a U.S. citizen.

14. Professional basketball player Marvin Barnes once refused to board a plane from Louisville to St. Louis. Because the flight was scheduled to arrive (Central Time) before its departure time (Eastern Time), Barnes famously said, "I ain't getting in no damn time machine." He rented a car instead.

15. Dragonflies are older than dinosaurs and used to have a wingspan of 2.5 feet.

The show VeggieTales focused on retelling Old Testament Bible stories because the creator's mom did not want to see Jesus as a vegetable.

17. Boxing trainer Cus D'Amato was criticized for being a proponent for the peek-a-boo style of boxing; it was believed that an efficient attack could not be launched from it. He coached Mike Tyson later in his career in this exact style, who would become the youngest world heavyweight titleholder.

18. Snow globes were accidentally invented by a medical tool repairman. He was trying to make a brighter light bulb for operating rooms, so he tried using a water-filled glass with reflective particles to do this. The effect looked like snow to him which is how he got the idea for snow globes.

19. Dolphins sometimes play with Orcas, even though some Orcas eat Dolphins. Researchers believe this is because Orcas that eat red meat tend to avoid Orcas that only eat fish, so if they stay near the fish-eaters, they won't encounter the mammal-eaters.

20. Abraham Zapruder, the man who filmed Kennedy's assassination, was originally not even going to bring his camera because it had been raining that morning. Later, his assistant insisted he retrieves it from home before going to Dealey Plaza because the weather had cleared.

In 1944, three American B-29 bombers on missions over Japan were forced to land in the Soviet Union. The Soviets, who did not have a similar strategic bomber, decided to copy the B-29. Within three years, they had developed the Tupolev Tu-4, a nearly-perfect copy.

22. From 1777 to 1870, Vermont had a fourth branch of government called the Council of Censors. It consisted of 13 members, elected every 7 years, who had to check if "the legislative and executive branches have performed their duty as guardians of the people." They could also amend the constitution.

23. During the Christmas of 1819, King George III - who by then was completely blind, increasingly deaf, had dementia, was in pain from rheumatism and suffering from another bout of insanity - spoke nonsense for 58 hours.

24. An anonymous poster discovered a partial solution to a mathematical problem that hadn't been solved in over 25 years because they were trying to figure out the shortest way to watch every possible order of the first season of the anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."

25. The reason Yukon Cornelius keeps licking his ax in the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" special is because he's looking for peppermint. The scene explaining that was deleted.