Random Fact Sheet #98 – 37 Fascinating Facts That Are Hard to Believe

When Candid Camera host Allen Funt's airplane was hijacked by Cubans, the passengers believed they were on a hidden camera tv show. He could not change their minds.

27. A well-mated and well-fed queen bee can lay about 1,500-2,000 eggs per day during the spring build-up. That’s about one egg every 20-30 seconds which is more than her own body weight in eggs every day.

28. During World War 2, the U.S. government urged Americans to save excess fat rendered from cooking and donate it to the army to produce explosives.

29. Groom of the Stool was the most intimate of an English monarch's courtiers. He was a servant that would assist a king during his visit to the toilet. The servants would often be involved in important decisions due to the intimate relationship they had with their employer.

30. Worcestershire Sauce is made, in part, from 18-month-old fermented anchovies (fish).

Russian Arctic explorer Dmitry Shparo, against Soviet Union’s will, skied to the North Pole twice in freezing weather and darkness. He also had a Ph.D. in Mathematics, skied across the Bering Strait, and established an organization that helps disabled athletes go on adventures.

32. Biologist Warwick E. Kerr crossbred European and African honeybees to make a hybrid that would produce more honey in tropical conditions. He accidentally created the killer bee, a deadly variant that has since become one of the most successful biologically invasive species of all time.

33. Bill Murray has eight siblings. Several of them are actors and screenwriters, one is a stockbroker, one of them is polio victim, and one is a nun.

34. The state of Indiana attempted to legally define pi as 3.2 in 1897. It is known as the "Indiana Pi Bill".

35. When Night of the Living Dead was released in 1968 it was given an afternoon matinee, which meant a large portion of its audience was children.

A "mini-Olympics" event is held every 2 years between various tiny non-sovereign island communities known as the "Island Games" or "Natwest Island Games."

37. The crab meat commonly found in the California Rolls is actually made out of fish paste and flavored like a crab.