1Leap Year Correction by Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller, an enslaved African and mental calculator, was once asked how many seconds a man has lived in 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours. He replied with 2,210,500,800. When told he was wrong, Fuller said, "Massa, you forget de leap year," which was correct once the seconds of the leap years were added.
2. In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Michael Schumacher made the highest individual donation, contributing $10 million to the victims. The disaster claimed over 220,000 lives, and tragically, Schumacher's bodyguard, Burkhard Cramer, along with Cramer's two sons, lost their lives in the tsunami.
3. Jimmy Carter's secretary had turned his personal journal into over 5,000 pages before he left the White House. Carter, choosing to wait before publishing, held on to his unfiltered impressions. The release of "White House Diary" in 2010 included a quarter of everything he wrote.
4. When casting for Walter White in Breaking Bad, the role was initially offered to John Cusack and Matthew Broderick. It was only after their refusal that the executives saw Bryan Cranston's X-Files episode and decided to cast him for the role.
5. The famous line "I'll have what she's having" from the film "When Harry Met Sally" wasn't part of the original script. Billy Crystal suggested it after he and Meg Ryan improvised the entire orgasm scene. Originally, the two were supposed to discuss "faking it" without a practical demonstration.
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6Dahl's Disgust: The Twits' Inspiration
Roald Dahl wrote "The Twits" due to his profound disgust for beards.
7. In 1990, NASA directed the Galileo spacecraft towards Earth to search for signs of life. It did detect signs strongly suggestive of life on Earth. These included abundant gaseous oxygen, a widespread surface pigment with a sharp absorption edge (chlorophyll in vegetation), and atmospheric methane in extreme thermodynamic disequilibrium. Moreover, the spacecraft identified narrow-band, pulsed, amplitude-modulated radio transmissions-a unique marker of intelligence. These observations served as a vital control experiment for the search for extraterrestrial life by modern interplanetary spacecraft.
8. Confucius believed in the natural inclination of people to follow and support a virtuous ruler without the need for harsh laws. He spent 12 years traveling around China in search of a ruler who would listen to his ideas but never found one.
9. The 1998 film "You've Got Mail" was initially titled "You Have Mail." However, after a consultant hired by Warner Brothers discovered that AOL hadn't trademarked their iconic "You've Got Mail!" greeting, the film's title was changed to the one we know today.
10. In 2018, Utah became the first state in the Michelin Guides' 118-year history to receive three stars as a tourist destination. It's described as "essential, exceptional, and worth a journey in itself."
11Pantheon's Original Bronze Doors
The bronze doors of the Pantheon are the original doors from 2000 years ago.
12. In 2022, BMW introduced subscriptions for U.K. customers, allowing them to access their car's heated front seats (£15 per month) or heated steering wheel (£10 per month).
13. During WWII, Coca-Cola deployed technical observers, nicknamed Coca-Cola Colonels, to set up bottling plants on the frontlines, establishing 64 bottling lines to supply soldiers with soda.
14. When Dana White and the Fertittas purchased the UFC in 2001 for $2 million, they acquired only the brand name and an old octagon. Other assets, including the domain name UFC.com, had already been sold to a company named 'User Friendly Computers.'
15. To evade predators, glass frogs remove nearly 90% of their circulating blood cells while asleep, storing their entire circulatory system in one organ, making them almost transparent.
16Japanese Calendar's 72 Seasons
The Japanese calendar is divided into 72 seasons, reflecting nuances of weather and nature such as "bamboo shoots sprouting," "wheat ripening," and "swallows returning."
17. The production team of "Elf" (2003) approached Macy's to use their store for the film, but Macy's declined due to the presence of a fake Santa. Instead, department store scenes were shot in the cafeteria of a mental hospital in Vancouver.
18. Trench rats were such a nuisance during WWI that they are considered one of the worst aspects of living in the trenches. Only high-ranking individuals were provided with anti-rat beds, and there are even reports of rats injuring soldiers' foreheads, leading to visits to the infirmary.
19. After Zaire, now known as DR Congo, lost all their matches at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the players were forbidden to leave their home country to prevent them from playing for European clubs with offers that came in after the World Cup. The team, although genuinely quite skilled, was promised payments that their government failed to provide. In response to this unmet commitment, they deliberately underperformed during the tournament.
20. When the mistress of Roman Emperor Commodus discovered her name on a list of people Commodus wanted executed, she and others attempted to poison him. Failing that, they had his wrestling partner, who trained him for his gladiator appearances, strangle him while he was in the bath.
21Gettysburg's Sole Civilian Casualty
There was only one civilian casualty during the Battle of Gettysburg. After fleeing to her sister's house from the initial fighting, Mary Wade was hit by a stray bullet while baking bread for the retreating Union army.
22. Many of Canada's National Parks were constructed by suspected enemies of the state, conscientious objectors, and the unemployed. In 1943, 440 German POWs were brought to Riding Mountain National Park, where they captured a bear and adopted it as the camp mascot.
23. In January 1974, Nixon signed a law making Daylight Savings Time year-round for two years. However, by October 1974, Gerald Ford had reversed it due to its unpopularity during the winter months.
24. Limp mode, a car feature, can activate when the car's computer detects a potential engine or transmission issue. This results in the computer limiting throttle and RPM, putting the car into a fixed gear-usually second or third-to restrict its speed.
25. Feeding bread to birds on a regular basis or as their primary diet is discouraged. Bread provides little to no nutritional value and may contribute to conditions like angel wing disease, which affects the wings of birds.
