1Ranch Dressing
Ranch dressing was invented in Alaska by a plumber trying to keep his employees satisfied with his cooking.
2. Spitting Cobras emerged in the fossil record around the same time as early humans. It is speculated that the reason these snakes spray venom is because of the pressure humans in particular put on them. The spraying of venom from a distance countered the humans' use of projectile weapons.
3. In 1997, many people from Kentucky developed CJD (aka human mad cow disease). It was discovered that every single one of them had consumed squirrel brains.
4. Prehistoric monkeys migrated from Africa to South America by traversing the Atlantic Ocean on natural rafts.
5. The first known species of millipede that actually has at least 1,000 legs was only discovered in 2020. Before that, the record-holder was a species with only about 750 legs.
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6Bundling Board
Between 16th and 17th century, in Europe and America, the concept of 'bundling' was widely used. This process allowed courting couples to share a bed, fully clothed with a 'bundling board' to separate them. This allowed a pair to talk and get to know each other in the safe confines of the girl's house.
7. More than 60% of global steel is manufactured through a process known as ‘basic oxygen steelmaking.’ This process was invented in 1948 by Swiss engineer Robert Durrer. Since the adoption of this technique by the steel industry, labor requirements to produce steel have decreased by a factor of 1,000.
8. Tiny Neolithic baby spoons indicate that new baby gruels were an important innovation in prehistoric baby care, freeing up women to have more babies & leading to unprecedented population growth.
9. The Sega Corporation was originally called Service Games with a focus on coin-operated amusement machines for service members and moved to Japan after the US government outlawed slot machines in 1952.
10. The first darknet and the network which is often cited as the beginning of the "dark web", the ‘Freenet,’ was originally a thesis project by Edinburgh University student Ian Clarke. It received a B.
11Kodak's Discovery of Atomic Testing
Back in 1945, a physicist employed at Kodak in Rochester, New York discovered that atomic bomb testing had taken place in New Mexico, the details of which weren’t yet public. He found that x-ray films they had delivered to customers were returned back due to black exposed spots, which rendered them unusable. Physicist Julian H. Webb discovered that the problem originated from the strawboard which was used to package the film which contained traces of Cerium-141. The straw was sourced from milling plants in Indiana and Iowa. Cerium-141 is one of the fission products of an atom bomb.
12. The average person produces 11,000 gallons (41600 L) of pee in their lifetime, enough to fill up two 16-foot above-ground pools two times.
13. Remora or the Sucker Fish were once used in the Indian Ocean to catch turtles. A rope was tied to the remora's tail and the fish was dropped into the water when a turtle was sighted. The remora would then swim towards the turtle to attach itself to it. The fisherman would then pull them both out.
14. The English town of Pendle Hill derives its name from the old Cumbric word 'pen' (meaning 'hill') and the Old English word 'hyll' (meaning 'hill'). A literal translation of the name could read 'Hill-hill Hill.'
15. There were more than 300,000 Christian converts in Japan around the year 1600. After the failed Shimabara Rebellion led by a Christian samurai, 37,000 Christian rebels and sympathizers were beheaded by the shogunate forces.
16Dr. Seuss
When Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla, California, the US postal service kept confusing him with a nuclear physicist named Dr. Hans Suess who also lived in La Jolla.
17. In 1944, a sci-fi writer wrote a short story describing nuclear bombs and their construction methods called "Deadline". It was so accurate that the Counter intelligence Corps feared a leak or spying on the Manhattan Project. In actuality, the info was always there in public scientific journals.
18. Elizabeth Jennings Graham was an African-American woman who, in 1854, successfully sued New York City’s Third Avenue Railway for denying her a seat on horsecar. This lawsuit helped slowly lead to desegregation of the city's public transportation.
19. The little red-haired girl, Charlie Brown's unattainable crush, was based on a woman that Charles Schulz courted who ultimately married a different suitor.
20. In 2012, the World Meteorological Organization concluded that the all-time heat record held for exactly 90 years by El Azizia in Libya was invalid because the temperature was recorded over asphalt by an inexperienced observer. Since then Death Valley National Park in California holds the title of the world's hottest place.
21Onna-Musha
Onna-Musha were Japanese female noble warriors who fought alongside Samurai men. Dozens of famous female warriors are known by this name, many of whom led their own units or even armies. Battlefield excavations have shown that in some battles in the 16th century as many as 30% of the combatants were likely women.
22. The modern Portuguese state was created through the 'Carnation Revolution.' It was a bloodless coup d'etat which took place in 1974 and it was all coordinated in sync with a radio broadcast of Portugal's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.
23. Between 2018 and 2021, FBI in collaboration with the intelligence agencies of other countries set up a fake "secure" messaging app to monitor criminal communication which led to multiple arrests globally.
24. The earliest known reference to French toast dates back to the 1st century C.E. in a Latin collection of recipes.
25. In 1948, Cathay Pacific's Miss Macao seaplane became the first commercial airliner to be hijacked. The lead hijacker, who aimed to rob the wealthy passengers on the plane was unsuccessful, causing the plane to crash, and killing everyone on board but the hijacker. The hijacker survived by jumping out of the emergency exit right before impact.
