Random Fact Sheet #67 – 35 Facts That You Won’t Find in a Textbook

The majority of North Korean clothes are made from Vinylon, a synthetic fiber made of coal and rocks. It is the only country in the world to do so.

2. Timothy Evans was a Welshman who was tried, convicted, and hung for the murder of his daughter. Throughout the trial, he blamed his downstairs neighbor for the murder. Three years later, his downstairs neighbor confessed.

3. David Bowie's real name was Davy Jones, which he changed due to the success of The Monkees (Rock Band). His next name was Tom Jones, which had to be changed again.

4. Physicist Leon Lederman wrote a book about the Higgs Boson, which he named "The Goddamn Particle" but his publisher didn't like it and shortened it to "The God Particle", and the nickname stuck.

5. Scientists were able to use a spinach leaf as scaffolding to build a mini working human heart.

The first speeding ticket for an automobile driver was given by a policeman in Dayton, Ohio, in 1904, to Harry Myers for going 12 miles per hour on West Third Street.

7. In 2016, a gang of five men were jailed for stealing £25,000 worth of Jammie Dodgers (British biscuit) from a factory in Torfaen, Wales. As they were being led away from the docks, one of the defendants called out "Does anyone want a biscuit?".

8. Issac Newton and Robert Hooke were bitter rivals, and Newton’s famous quote “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants”, was most likely a passive-aggressive attack on Hooke, who stood significantly shorter than Newton.

9. Throughout the 1970’s the Grateful Dead (American Rock band) used a 32 feet tall PA system that could deliver perfect sound 600ft away. It had to be hauled in caravans of semi trucks and took 4 hours to assemble. They called it “The Wall of Sound”.

10. Mehmed the Conqueror requested his father, who had abdicated earlier, to come back and claim the throne in the time of trouble by saying: "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies."

In 2014, after North Korea banned Choco pies, South Korea airlifted 10,000 of them across the DMZ with balloons.

12. In Brazil, it's so common to get robbed in the streets that a lot of people carry an extra cellphone (they call it the "thief's phone") so they can give it to the robber when the crime happens.

13. 'Tubular Bells' (famously used in, 'The Exorcist') is an album released in 1973 consisting of two complexes, twenty-plus minute instrumental compositions, both of which were written, played and recorded by a 19-year-old Mike Oldfield.

14. In 2004, Sega released the extremely well received NFL 2K5 for $19.99, beating EA’s Madden 2005 to the market by 3 weeks and at less than half the price. The success of 2K5 prompted EA to buy the exclusive right to make NFL video games which insured Madden would be the only console-based NFL game.

15. Smell hallucinations are called phantosmia and can be caused by infections, neurological damage, or epilepsy.

George Lucas hated the Star Wars Holiday Special so much he said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it."

17. Avocados must be picked to ripen, can stay on the plant for 7 months as "storage", and take 13 months to grow a mature avocado.

18. 1/3 of John F. Kennedy's secret service staff were hungover on the day of his assassination.

19. Over 14,000 high-resolution photos from Apollo missions 7 to 17 have been uploaded to Flickr by a group of enthusiasts, scanned from the original astronauts' camera film magazines.

20. Mary Jane Rathbun (also known as Brownie Mary) was an elderly hospital volunteer who became known for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to San Francisco AIDS patients in the 1980's.

George Lucas was one of the camera operators at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert where a fan was stabbed to death.

22. Out of the 101 oldest people who have lived/are still living, 95 of them are female.

23. People knocked on wood to request good luck from mystical creatures they believed lived in the trees or to distract spirits with evil intentions.

24. The typical brain comprises about 2% of the body’s total weight but uses 20% of its total energy and oxygen intake.

25. In 2004, David Bowie had a heart attack on stage, paused for a minute then continued the show.