26Chinese Food on Christmas
Jewish Americans have made it a tradition of eating Chinese food during the holiday season since the early 1900s.
27. Some monkeys, like the Japanese Macaque, have the necessary vocal anatomy to produce human-like speech, only inhibited by the fact that their brain lacks the capability to control the muscles responsible for speech.
28. In the 1950s, most American shoe stores used powerful x-ray machines as a sales gimmick that allowed customers to observe the fit of their feet inside shoes in real-time. The machines often lacked adequate shielding and were commonly used to fit children's shoes.
29. In 2009, a French free diver named Stéphane Mifsud held his breath underwater for 11 minutes and 35 seconds.
30. In 1997, Lottie Williams of Tulsa Oklahoma was struck harmlessly in the shoulder by a 15 cm piece of metallic material which was determined to be a piece of a Delta II rocket that had been launched eight months earlier. Williams is the only known person to have been struck by space debris.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31Smurfs UNICEF Ad
In 2005, the Smurfs were featured in a UNICEF ad in which their village was bombed by warplanes, and the Smurfs were shown burned and crushed to death under debris. It only aired after 9 PM to prevent children from seeing it.
32. In 1976, the band Queen had been booked to appear on Bill Grundy's Today show, but the group pulled out last second. EMI scrambled to find a last-minute replacement and settled with The Sex Pistols. The interview became a potty-mouthed confrontation and changed British broadcasting forever.
33. There is a local tradition in Akita Japan called Namahage where grown men dress up like demons to scare children into behaving for their parents. They go from house to house yelling things like "Are there any crybabies at home?" or "Are naughty kids around?"
34. Bulla Felix was a Roman bandit leader active around 205–207 A.D. Bulla is known for not killing his victims, stealing only some of their money, employing artists, disguising himself as an Roman official, and leading a 600 man regiment of runaway slaves and free men.
35. The US strategic petroleum reserves are stored in underground caverns carved out of salt. Salt does not react with the oil and is self-healing. The plastic behavior of salt will cause it to naturally close fractures or gaps and prevent any leakage.
36Controversial 'Project 100,000'
Project 100,000 was a controversial 1960s program where LBJ and Sec of Def Robert MacNamara decided to lower the mental and medical standards to recruit more soldiers to fight in Vietnam. These soldiers died at approximately 3 times the normal rate.
37. Saturday Night Live still uses cue cards instead of teleprompters, and Wally Feresten has been doing it for over 30 years.
38. The original Death Star model from 1977's A New Hope was used as a trash can in Missouri in the 1990s by a store owner who did not know its significance.
39. Drinking a beer in space is impossible because it's all foam.
40. A nurse named Caroline Hampton helped popularize surgical gloves. She almost quit her job as a surgical nurse at John Hopkins due to severe hand eczema caused by surgical disinfectant until her boss bought her custom rubber gloves. Other staff members copied this and found they made work easier.
