1Ironclad Beetle’s Exoskeleton
The diabolical ironclad beetle (Nosoderma diabolicum) is a species of beetle that has one of the toughest exoskeletons in the insect world. Its exoskeleton lets it endure forces up to 39,000 times its body weight and this makes it impossible to put an insect pin through it without drilling a hole first.
2. Ancient tread wheel cranes looked like a giant wooden hamster wheel that used man power to help build some of the most impressive buildings in Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe. Blind people were hired to work inside these treadwheels on construction sites, as they would not be scared from the sheer drop sight below them. It is also considered one of the worst jobs in history, as the wheels often broke.
3. In 1932, George Patton led a sabers-drawn charge against U.S. World War 1 veterans and their families (nicknamed “Bonus Army”) who were seeking promised bonuses.
4. A Muslim scholar named Ismail al-Jazari wrote the “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices” in the 12th century where he described 50 mechanical devices along with instructions on creating them. He has been described as the father of robotics and modern-day engineering.
5. In 1937, in the Italian occupied Ethiopia, two men tried to kill Marquis of Negele, who was the Viceroy of Italian East Africa. In response, the Italian army and Italian civilians went on a killing spree, burning down houses, and killing an estimated 20% of the population of Addis Ababa including sympathetic Ethiopians. Italy still downplays the massacre.
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642,000-year-old Horse
Researchers in Siberia found a perfectly-preserved 42,000-year-old baby horse buried under the permafrost. It was in such good condition that its blood was still in a liquid state, allowing scientists to extract it.
7. The amount of sunlight that reaches Earth's surface within 1.5 hours has enough energy to satisfy the world's energy consumption for an entire year.
8. Archaeologist Alexander Peev was executed by firing squad in 1943 on suspicion of sending a coded message to the Soviet Union. It was actually an ancient inscription he wanted Russian archaeologists to help him interpret. The text remains undeciphered.
9. A Scottish politician named Alexander Hamilton had such a strong interest in Ancient Egyptian mummies that he arranged for his own body to be mummified and placed in a sarcophagus after his death in 1852.
10. The Great cheese riot of 1766 was a reaction to inflated cheese prices in Nottingham, England. The mayor tried to restore order but was knocked down by cheese. The military was called and shots were fired, killing one man. He’d been guarding his cheeses.
11Nike's Cortez Shoes Origin
Nike's Cortez shoes were going to be called Aztec, but Adidas threatened legal action because of their Azteca Gold shoes. In response, Nike decided to name the new model after Hernán Cortés, whose expedition led to the Aztec Empire's fall.
12. Big Bertha, the oldest known Earth rock was discovered in 2019 embedded in a boulder brought back from the moon by Apollo 14. It is the first discovered meteorite from Earth.
13. 15 years before the Columbia shuttle disaster, Atlantis (STS-27) experienced similar tile damage during lift-off, leading to the crew believing they were going to die on re-entry. Infuriated with mission control's lack of concern, pilot Gibson planned to let loose on MC in the remaining seconds of his life.
14. Daniel Day-Lewis listened to Eminem's 'The Way I Am' every morning at 5 am to prepare for his role 'Gangs of New York' in 2002. He is also a big fan of Snoop Dogg.
15. In 2021, Banksy's partly-shredded painting 'Love is in the Bin' was resold for $25.4 million. It originally sold in 2018, in un-shredded form, for $1.4 million.
16Walgreens' Growth
Walgreens grew dramatically (from 20 to 525 stores) during prohibition in the 1920s because they sold "prescription" alcohol (and milkshakes).
17. In Nazi Germany, men giving each other a 'lustful glance' was punishable by up to six months in prison.
18. Despite the popular depiction in films and television, Manhattan has almost no alleys. The Commissioners Plan of 1811 designed the city's grid layout without alleyways to maximize the limited space. The few alleys that remain mostly predate that plan.
19. The half-life of an isotope of Tellurium is 160 Trillion times greater than the Universe's Age (Approximately 13.8 billion). The very-long-lived radioisotope Tellurium-128 thus has the longest known half-life among all the Radionuclides of around 2,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.
20. A popular treatment for Asthma in the early 20th century was a special brand of cigarettes. Asthmador cigarettes contained no tobacco but instead contained Datura Stramonium, a hallucinogenic plant.
21Crazy Mike Airplane
Turkish Airlines had an Airbus A340-300 that was nicknamed "Deli Mike" ("Crazy Mike" in Turkish) due to its record of odd and harmless technical issues that persisted even after repairs, such as turning lights on randomly (and off again on its own, as if it knew when the pilots were intervening).
22. The Nazis believed strongly in the myth of Atlantis. Under the guidance of Heinrich Himmler, archeologists spread the idea that Germans were descended from a superior race of Atlanteans.
23. Corporations such as Wal-Mart, P&G, Hershey's all take what is called corporate-owned life insurance otherwise known as "dead peasant insurance" on their employees to hedge against the financial cost of losing key employees to unexpected death.
24. Dr. James Simpson first showed the effects of chloroform on humans in 1847. He sat with his assistants nightly trying chemicals. After they collapsed and came to after using chloroform, he recognized its anesthetic potential. He nicknamed the first baby delivered by chloroform "Anesthesia."
25. The Nazi Germany Parliament was derisively referred to by Germans as "the most expensive singing club in Germany", since it couldn't do much other than sing the National Anthem during its sessions.
