1Tour De France Team
Tour de France has a dedicated team whose sole purpose is to drive each day’s route and turn genitals graffitied on the road into owls and butterflies.
2. The last words of French aristocrat Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras; were “I see that you have made three spelling mistakes”, upon reading his death sentence warrant.
3. The founder of Texas Roadhouse Restaurants, W. Kent Taylor, has no ties at all to the state of Texas. Originally he had dreams of opening a Colorado-themed eatery.
4. When Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album achieved commercial success, one of the group’s members, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was filmed cashing in a welfare check. This was because ODB had not yet filed his taxes, so the then-recent income did not impact his eligibility.
5. A British man was surprised at being urgently contacted by the NHS about his health when they calculated his BMI as being 28,000. They’d written his 6’2” height as being 6.2cm tall.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6The Emperor’s New Groove
In the original ending of the Inca-inspired animated film “The Emperor’s New Groove”, the titular Emperor demolishes a rainforest to create a theme park. Sting – who spent 20 years defending the rights of indigenous people – threatened to leave the project unless the ending was changed.
7. Helen Keller was accepted to Harvard in 1900. Mark Twain introduced her to Standard Oil magnate, Henry Rogers, who paid for her education. In 1904, she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
8. In east Africa, movies are often watched with a “VJ” or “video joker” who provides live narration over the movie for translation, contextualization, or comedy purposes.
9. Muammar Gaddafi had a burning hatred of Switzerland. Following the brief detention of his family in Geneva, Gadaffi declared a jihad against the country and used all of his speaking time at the 2008 G8 Summit to propose the country’s abolition.
10. Having resulted in 77 human deaths in 9 years, Australia’s horses and cows are deadlier than its snakes and spiders. Kangaroos killed 60 in that time, while snakes and lizards have only killed 23. Spiders haven’t killed anyone since 1979.
11Vatsala the Elephant
The oldest living elephant, Vatsala, lives at an Elephant camp in a Tiger Reserve (as of July 2021). At 105, she has lived for more than double the age of an average Asian Elephant. Despite losing her vision to cataract, she has been able to navigate using her trunk and support from her herd members.
12. In 2016, two thieves in New Zealand accidently stole a box full of extremely smelly “stoat anal gland oil”, mistaking it for drug-making materials.
13. Early puberty is a hereditary genetic condition. In one writer’s case, it meant growing pubic hair when he was only 2. According to him, “I Was a 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body.”
14. When the Miami Marlins built their new stadium, they consulted NASA to make sure no one could hit a home run of more than 500 feet. Aaron Judge hit one 513 feet at the Home Run Derby in 2017.
15. In 1299, Florence banned the use of Arabic numerals in banking, and in 1348 Padua outlawed zero. The bankers switched to having two sets of books: one with Roman numerals to show authorities, and another with Arabic, to do calculations.
16Saddam’s Punishment
Saddam Hussein once burned his son Uday’s car collection, consisting of hundreds of rare, luxury cars, as punishment for Uday’s shooting at a dinner party, which killed several people and injured Saddam's half-brother.
17. There is a religion in Vietnam called Caodaism. Its followers believe in a single god who sent many prophets. Some of these prophets include Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muḥammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, and Sun Yat-sen. It even has a Holy See and Pope figure.
18. Ford Motor Company paid for an uncensored, commercial free airing of Schindler’s List in Primetime on NBC in 1997. It included two short intermissions with countdown clocks.
19. The California condor louse exclusively parasitizes the California condor. During efforts to save the condor from extinction, it became extinct itself due to all condors being deloused. This led to major debates about the ethics of saving one species from extinction by killing another.
20. While Austria derives its name from the Germanic for East, Australia gets its name from the Latin for South.
21PEZ Candy
PEZ Candy was invented in Vienna, Austria by Eduard Haas III as an alternative to smoking.
22. While many states in the USA have an official food or state fruit, Oklahoma is the only state with an official meal. The full meal is upwards of 2000 calories. A bill to repeal the official meal due to health concerns failed to pass.
23. In 1938, the Chinese caused an intentional flood in an attempt to stop the advance of Japanese troops. It is estimated that 400,000-900,000 people died due to the flood.
24. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream was invented by Ben and Jerry’s in 1984 after a fan anonymously listed it as an idea on their ‘flavor board.’
25. In 1991, a plane crashed after an inspector from the afternoon shift started repair by unscrewing 30 screws, but failed to pass the information when changing shifts. The plane then fell from 3 km height, killing everyone on board.
