Random Fact Sheet #61 – 40 Strangest Facts You Never Knew About

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the best selling record in Australia for 27 years.

2. All the 360 kgs of lunar soil samples brought back from the Apollo missions have now rusted after corroding their vacuum bottle seals and being exposed to water and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.

3. In 1980, nuclear physicist Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold, but his work was close to the mythical Philosopher's Stone.

4. A 19-year old boy named Tom Lyle Williams created the mascara "Maybelline" in 1915, when his sister Maybel used a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to darken her eyelashes after a mishap.

5. In 2006, Michael Vick started a charity for at-risk youth. The charity spent $20,000 of its budget on programs for kids, paid $97,000 to a friend of Vick's who acted as the foundation's "fundraiser" and gave the remaining $50,000 in its bank account to Vick's financial adviser.

In 1968, Vermont banned billboards to preserve the state's natural beauty. It is one of 4 states in USA to do so.

7. Steve Martin has a ringing in his ear called tinnitus, which he received while filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film, Three Amigos in 1986. He was quoted saying, "You just get used to it, or you go insane.”

8. There is an island in Massachusetts named “No Mans Land”. The island is now an unstaffed animal refuge and is closed to public use due to safety risks from “unexploded ordnance”, as it was previously utilized by the U.S. Navy.

9. The "Mile Into The Wild" Walkway is an elevated walkway in The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado. The Sanctuary is a refuge for more than 450 Lions, Tigers, Bears, Wolves and other rescued carnivores. It's elevated because the animals do not consider sky as territory, allowing humans to observe them without causing a fight or flight response.

10. In November 2016, India gave its citizens less than 4 hour's notice that their two largest bills (worth about $8 and $16) would no longer be legal tender. They were only allowed to exchange a max of ₹2000-4500 ($31-70) per person per day, and ATMs were still running out of cash up to 5 months later.

Ice-T has never drunk liquor or done any drugs because being an orphan he felt if he ever got addicted or got into trouble with drugs or alcohol he wouldn't have any family to help him.

12. A vigilante in Bristol, England has been sneaking out at night for 10 years to fix grammar and punctuation errors on signs such as “Herberts the Bakery,” using stickers and an 8 foot long tool he calls the “Apostrophizer.”

13. Aaron Burr was still Vice President of the United States when he shot Alexander Hamilton and continued to perform his duties despite being wanted for murder in New Jersey and New York.

14. During Argentina's dictatorship, opponents to the regime were drugged, flown out over the Atlantic, and pushed out of planes alive with weights attached to their feet so no bodies would be found as evidence.

15. Not receiving adequate human touch can have emotional and physical consequences. This is called "Skin Hunger".

Drivers in New York City spend an average of 107 hours per year searching for parking at a cost of $2,243/driver in wasted time, fuel and emissions.

17. Matthew McConaughey's brother, Rooster McConaughey, named his son Miller Lyte and got free beer for a year.

18. American singer Kathleen Hanna accidentally coined the term '"Smells like Teen Spirit". Teen Spirit is a deodorant for young girls, which she thought Kurt Cobain smelled like.

19. In the 1950's, the Muslim Egyptians laughed at the idea of imposing the hijab on women.

20. According to Plutarch (Greek philosopher), the traitor Bessus was executed by having two trees forcibly bent towards each other, tied him to both, and then the trees released, causing an agonizing death in which the ligaments, tendons, muscles, and organs would slowly come apart as the trees straightened.

Plans for the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II have been extensively prepared by most British government and media organizations since the 1960s. The codename is Operation London Bridge.

22. In a 1988 episode of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" called "The Wall", the Chipmunks play a concert at the Berlin Wall and see it crumbling down, only to awaken from a dream and say, "It was just a dream, but it doesn't have to be." 11 months later, the Berlin Wall came down in real life.

23. There is a "boiling river" in Peru where over 6 km of the river can reach temperatures as high as 86°C/187°F. The river is considered extremely remarkable due to the nearest volcanic system being more than 700 km away.

24. In 2011, a fossil of a new genus species of Dinosaur called the Nodosaur was found in Canada with its body mostly intact and its skin still on.

25. Scottish-American actor John Barrowman, who is gay, auditioned to play Will on "Will & Grace" but was turned down for being "too straight". The role went instead to Eric McCormack, who actually is straight.