Random Fact Sheet #301 – 35 Striking Random Facts That Will Leave You Astounded

In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard hit 2 golf balls on the moon. He hit the first one into a crater, and claimed to have smashed the second one “miles and miles and miles”. However, recent research has shown that the first ball traveled 24 yards (22 meters), and the second ball only 40 yards (37 meters).

2. Michael Jackson is estimated to have donated over half a billion dollars over his lifetime, setting a record for any pop star.

3. Gerard Way, the lead singer of “My Chemical Romance” wrote the comic series “The Umbrella Academy.”

4. Although tomatoes are a staple of Italian cuisine, they originated in South America and were domesticated by the Aztecs in Mexico where Hernan Cortes found them and sent them to Europe.

5. Spike Milligan, a member of the comedy team The Goons, joked after fellow member Harry Secombe sang at Peter Sellers' funeral, "I hope you die before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral." 22 years later, at Milligan's memorial, Secombe's son played a recording of his late father singing.

British royal family members must pack a black outfit with them when they travel in the event of a death in the family

7. There are around 800 European Bisons living in Białowieża Forest, one of the largest and last remaining parts of the primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain.

8. The B-52's song "Rock Lobster" inspired John Lennon to start making music again in 1980, because it reminded him of his wife Yoko's work.

9. The first pilot to spot incoming Japanese fighters at Pearl Harbor was a woman. Her name was Cornelia Fort and she was a civilian flight instructor. 2 years later, she was killed in a mid-air collision and became the first female pilot to be killed on active military duty.

10. Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, earned his Ph.D. in 2 weeks immediately after being forced to flee Hamburg for debunking the mayor's fake taxidermied 7-headed hydra.

In Tongan mythology, the God Tafakula defeated his enemy Gods by straddling an island. He then bent over, to show his anus, which shone brightly like the sun, scaring off the other Gods.

12. The Speyer wine bottle, unearthed from a Roman tomb found near Speyer, Germany, is considered "the world's oldest existing bottle of wine". The bottle has been dated between 325 and 350 A.D.

13. In 1988, CIA paid $2 million to Chad to extract an advanced Soviet attack helicopter (Mi-25) from an abandoned Libyan air base using two MH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, flying a total of 500 miles under the cover of night.

14. Pickles the Dog found the FIFA World Cup in a bush after it had been stolen prior to the 1966 tournament. Pickles became famous - he earned a medal, opened a zoo, and even appeared in a film.

15. The first car ever to break a 100 kmh (62mph) barrier was an electric car. The 1899 speed record of La Jamais Contente held for three years until the reign of combustion engines started.

Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico, and contained whole lettuce leaves meant to be picked up and eaten with your hands.

17. While chicken is the most slaughtered animal in the world, the #2 spot is held by ducks. Rabbits are #4 and Cattle is all the way in ninth place.

18. The Amazon river was named by Spanish conquistador Francisco de Orellana. After skirmishes with a native tribe whose women fought alongside the men, Orellana derived the name from the Amazons described in Greek myth.

19. In the 17th century, Robert Boyle, the "Father of Modern Chemistry," compiled an improbable "wish list" he hoped science would one day accomplish. All but a few have come true.

20. The reason MLB (Major League Baseball) has not faced any competitor leagues unlike the NHL, NFL, and NBA is because of a 1922 Supreme Court case that granted them an exemption from the Sherman Antitrust Act, thus making them a legal monopoly.

Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire in the 380s, when Emperor Theodosius banned Pagan rituals and holidays, disbanded the Vestal virgins, extinguished the Sacred Fire, destroyed the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and put an end to the Ancient Olympic Games.

22. Wild blueberry bushes grow naturally in rocky terrain via a dense network of underground rhizomes that helps with nutrient extraction. A controlled field burn in the off-season, traditionally practiced by Native Americans on the Maine coast, enriches the soil and provides pest/weed control.

23. During the filming of the 1953 film Beat the Devil, Humphrey Bogart lost several of his teeth in a car accident. Comedy actor Peter Sellers, then not known internationally, but with a talent for imitating voices, was hired to dub some of Bogart's lines while Bogart was unable to speak.

24. Chronic cannabis users can develop Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which produces cyclical vomiting and abdominal pain (and in some cases, compulsive showering with hot water, which alleviates the symptoms). The condition was first discovered in 2004, and little is known about how it works.

25. There are native penguins in South Africa. The African penguin (also known as the jackass penguin cause of the species' loud, donkey-like bray) is the only wild penguin species that breeds in Africa.