1Autism Epidemic
The so-called 'Autism Epidemic' isn't an epidemic at all but rather an increase in reported incidents due to a growing awareness of autism and changes to the condition’s diagnostic criteria.
2. A woman named Mariya Oktyabrskaya whose husband died fighting the Nazis requested to be allowed to drive a tank to avenge her husband. She proved herself a skilled tank driver, died from injuries obtained in battle, and was posthumously named Hero of the Soviet Union.
3. In 1997, someone impaled a 60-pound pumpkin on the top of a spire at Cornell University in the middle of the night. It was over 170 feet off the ground. To this day, no one is really sure how this was accomplished without anyone noticing.
4. Jupiter's Giant Red Spot is expected to disappear within the next 10 to 20 years despite lasting for an estimated 400 years so far.
5. The Trevor Project, an LGTBQ youth charity, was started when HBO wanted to air a helpline number during a short film about a suicidal gay teen. Upon realizing that no such hotline existed, the filmmakers decided to create one themselves.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Great Depression
In the middle of the Great Depression, an anonymous man placed an offer in an Ohio newspaper, saying: “If you’re in trouble, write me.” Many people sent him desperate letters, needing things like shoes, a coat, mercy, food, and to save their family from despair. Many of them got back checks from someone who used a pseudonym.
7. In 2003, an F-16 patrolling in Iraq was called in to assist British special force troops ambushed by Iraqis. Because it was night-time, the pilot couldn’t drop his bombs without hitting the allied troops. So he dived and pulled his jet up, forming a sonic boom that hit the Iraqis, causing them to flee.
8. In 1965, Milton Olive III sacrificed his own life to save a group of soldiers by smothering a live grenade. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor award, becoming the first African American of the Vietnam War to do so.
9. Even though the Pied Piper of Hamelin is just a story/myth, the town of Hamelin's records state that many children disappeared from the town around the time of the story. The town chronicle even wrote in 1384 "It is 100 since our children left."
10. Singapore's crime rate is so low that many shops do not even bother to close the door when they close at night.
11Henry Ford
In 1938, Henry Ford was awarded Nazi Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle. That is the medal awarded to foreigners sympathetic to Nazism.
12. In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. made an impromptu stop at the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation to meet with tribal leaders with whom he was "fascinated" by. This visit would later lead Dr. King to speak out against the government's treatment, both past, and present, of Native Americans.
13. Wolf packs exist to prevent loss of killed meat to ravens and other birds. When one wolf kills a moose, 47% of it is lost to the birds while a pack of six loses only 17%. One research team witnessed a lone single wolf killing 11 moose, which weakened the notion that wolves hunt in packs because of difficulty.
14. The Tesla Model X has a “Bioweapon Defense Mode” that purifies the air within the vehicle and keeps all harmful particles out in the event of an apocalyptic event.
15. From at least the 14th century, belief in a flat Earth among the educated was almost nonexistent.
16Canaries
The canaries sent down into mines to detect gas weren't sacrificed but placed in a device to revive them when they succumbed to the dangerous gases.
17. When scientists injected mouse pups with human glial cells, within a year the human brain cells integrated and replaced over half of the natural cells. The mice developed supercharged intelligence- scoring much higher on cognitive and memory tests than their unaltered kin.
18. On his deathbed in 1936, King George V's doctor issued the final notice “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close" and then proceeded to inject him with 750mg of morphine and 1000mg of cocaine, enough to kill him twice over.
19. The U.S briefly banned sliced bread in 1943. During this time, a letter appeared in The New York Times from a distraught housewife saying, in part: "I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household."
20. Despite Octopi and Squid being colorblind, they can see color by changing the shape of their pupils to accept specific wavelengths.
21R Kelly and Aaliyah
In 1994, R&B singer R Kelly married fellow R&B singer Aaliyah when she was only 15 years old. The marriage was annulled later that year and they both agreed to never speak of it again.
22. Thomas Jefferson purchased a thermometer a few days before signing The Declaration of Independence. He noted that it was 76 degrees on Signing Day in Philadelphia.
23. The first sitting member of Congress to be assassinated was an Arkansas Congressman named James M. Hinds who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1868. Despite identifying his killer by name before his death, the assassin was never arrested or charged with a crime.
24. Punch and Judy was a popular puppet show from the 1600s. In the show, Punch usually ends up killing his baby, his wife, a policeman, the devil and a variety of other characters by beating them with his ‘slapstick’. The phrase “pleased as punch” comes from Punch’s gleeful self-satisfaction.
25. Since Dunkaroos were discontinued in the United States in 2012, they are being smuggled into the country by Canadians who have been nicknamed ‘Smugglaroos.’
