Random Fact Sheet #94 – 45 Unbelievable Facts That Will Leave You Amazed

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1Ottawa International Airport

Ottawa International Airport

During the opening ceremony of Ottawa International Airport’s new terminal in 1959, a USAF F-104 Starfighter did a supersonic flypast. The resulting sonic boom shattered nearly all the glass in the airport and caused significant structural damage, delaying the opening for another year.


2. When the U.S. Half-Cent was discontinued in 1857 for not having enough buying power, it was worth about the same as a modern U.S. Dime.


3. The Cult Awareness Network (CAN), once a leading anti-cult hotline is now owned by the Church of Scientology.


4. A litter of kittens can have separate fathers due to multiple mates during the mother's heat.


5. Travelers with a Buddha tattoo will be immediately deported if seen in Sri Lanka.


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6Ken Warby

Ken Warby

The water speed record is one of the deadliest competitions with an 85% fatality rate. The current record of 317 mph was set in 1978 by an Australian, Ken Warby, using a vessel built in his backyard with an engine purchased for $69.


7. There were at least seven types of alcoholic beverages in America before European contact. One of them is made from pineapple, and another is made from the honey of a domesticated stingless bee.


8. Trillions of oysters once surrounded New York City, filtering bacteria and acting as a natural buffer against storm surges. But pollution and other environmental changes killed off that helpful oyster population. Now, forward-looking landscape architects are bringing them back.


9. In the 1950s, a Soviet geneticist began an experiment of fox domestication. He selectively bred foxes for 'friendliness'. After a few generations, the foxes had other surprising traits like better social skills, larger litter sizes, curlier tails, droopier ears and showed skeletal changes (making them look 'cuter', like dogs).


10. Swedes can find out each other's salaries with just one phone call to Swedish equivalent of the IRS. The person whose information is accessed is also informed who accessed it.


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11Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

The flag of Papua New Guinea was designed by a 15-year-old school girl named Susan Karike who won a nationwide competition to design the national flag.


12. The character of Austin Powers was created by Mike Myers as a persona for his faux 60s rock band Ming Tea. His then-wife loved the persona so much that she encouraged him to write a film about the character.


13. 52 Hertz is the loneliest whale on our planet. It roams the world's deepest oceans looking for a mate but it's unable to find one because no other whale is capable of understanding it's 52 Hertz call.


14. In 2002, Snoop Dogg officially announced that he was done with marijuana, however, by 2013 he admitted to smoking around 80 blunts every day.


15. Cellophane, the clear plastic used to wrap food, is biodegradable and produced from wood pulp.


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16Teletubbies

Teletubbies

The location of the Teletubbies set was so secret that visitors had to be blindfolded.


17. A woman named Taylor Muhl has Chimerism, a condition in which she's a fraternal twin who fused together with her sibling in the womb. Now she has 2 different immune systems and 2 different bloodstreams. Her immune system is constantly fighting off her twin sister’s cells, as it recognizes them as foreign, causing autoimmune issues.


18. A marathon runner named Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to finish the 1980 Boston marathon. After winning, reporters noticed she wasn't that sweaty and didn't seem that tired at all. It turned out she took the subway the majority of the route and simply snuck back into the race to win.


19. Jennifer Lawrence dropped out of middle school and holds neither a high school diploma nor a GED.


20. Marrie Currie's notebook is so radioactive that it has to be stored in a lead box and visitors have to sign a waiver before they can see it.


21Oliver Smoot

Oliver Smoot

The unit of measurement, "smoot", is named after an MIT prank on Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity pledge, Oliver Smoot, whose body was used to measure the Harvard Bridge in 1958. One smoot is 5 foot 7 inches and length of the Harvard Bridge is 364.4 smoots.


22. The largest wine cellar in the world is Moldova's Mileștii Mici. It has streets that carry the names of grape. Visitors drive cars or bikes in it, and traffic rules apply. The second largest wine cellar in the world is also in Moldova.


23. When Viggo Mortensen filmed his last scene in Lord Of The Rings, the stunt crew all gathered together to perform a Haka (Traditional war cry) as a farewell and sign of respect.


24. Denatured alcohol (sold in hardware stores) isn't chemically different from drinking alcohol. The only difference is it's purposely laced with poison and nausea-inducing additives so you can't drink it. These compromises allows it to be sold without alcohol tax and ensures people don't drink it.


25. Radio GTMO, the Armed Forces radio station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a vinyl collection of over 20,000 records, including some albums that exist nowhere else.

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