1AK-47 on Flags and Coats
The AK-47 is so iconic that it appears on the flags and coats of arms of many countries, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, East Timor, etc.
2. In the early 1900s, people rented Christmas lights because they were too expensive to buy. An electrically lit tree was a status symbol back then.
3. An inmate named Charles Justice was released early on parole for designing improvements to the electric chair, using metal instead of leather for the wrist restraints. Months later, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the same chair he had improved.
4. Originally, people used lignum vitae, a hard wood, to make propeller shaft bearings for ships and submarines.
5. In 1964, when Kia transitioned from making bicycles to cars, they changed their logo. The Kia logo, for 22 years, looked like an upside-down "Q."
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6Stylitism: Pillar Perseverance
Stylitism was a trend among early Christian monks who practiced asceticism by living atop a pillar. One stylite stayed atop his pillar for 54 years without ever coming down.
7. The law prohibits the CIA from collecting information on the U.S. government, U.S. citizens, resident aliens, legal immigrants, and U.S. corporations, regardless of their location.
8. In 2019, China experienced a severe pork shortage due to the African swine fever outbreak. As a result, some farmers bred giant pigs that weighed as much as an average adult male polar bear, or 1,100 pounds. These giant pigs were worth more than $1,400 each.
9. The Woodstock 1999 festival was so ill-prepared for the crowd size that portable toilets overflowed, and there was no shade from the heat. Unaware of the waste leaking from toilets, attendees played in the mud to cool off, resulting in many cases of trench mouth and trench foot.
10. Viewers can disable closed captions, but open captions are permanently displayed. Open captions are burned into the video, while closed captions can be toggled on or off.
11X-Ray Shoe Fitter's History
Shoe Fitting Fluoroscope or "X-Ray Shoe Fitter" existed in shoe stores up until the 1970s, which allowed customers (mostly children) to look through a viewer at a live X-ray of their feet to see the bones of their toes and how they lined up with the stitching of the shoe's sole.
12. During the 1950s, while fighting the Huks, a communist guerrilla movement in the Philippines, the CIA spread rumors that aswangs, or 'vampires', would attack evil men. As part of psychological warfare, they punctured holes in a dead body and drained it of blood for others to find.
13. During WWII, while arranging prisoner exchanges, the US government discovered that less than 10% of the individuals on Japan's list desired repatriation. It then forged an agreement with 15 Latin American countries to ship their ethnic Japanese to the USA to expand its hostage pool.
14. Sigmund Rascher, a scientist who performed inhumane medical experiments at Dachau, was himself imprisoned and executed by the Nazis at Dachau after it was revealed that he and his wife were committing fraud by kidnapping (German) babies.
15. As of right now, the identity of the host of the trivia game show Inquizition is still unknown due to stipulations in his contract.
16Diplomatic Immunity for Divorce
A Saudi billionaire named Walid Juffali once bought diplomatic immunity from the government of St. Lucia so he could divorce his wife (Christina Estrada) without paying alimony.
17. Plumbers in America refer to the day after Thanksgiving as "brown Friday" due to the clogging of pipes, drains, and toilets.
18. During the filming of the original Star Wars, R2-D2 often functioned poorly, leading, among other things, to an accidental visit to the set of "Jesus of Nazareth."
19. The Irish War of Independence received about three times more money in donations from Irish Americans than the amount raised by the people of Ireland through the "National Loan" program established by the new national government to finance the rebellion.
20. Blur's signature rock song, Song 2, that goes "WOOHOO," is exactly 2 minutes and 2 seconds long and also has 2 verses and 2 choruses. The band also decided to keep the song's name as its place in the tracklist rather than naming it something else.
21Charles Moore: Kentucky's Atheist
Atheist Charles Moore, known as "Kentucky's Most Hated Man," faced imprisonment in the late 1800s for his outspoken opposition to religion and the Bible, as well as for mailing obscene literature about "Free Love," a social movement that accepts all forms of love.
22. During World War 2, Soviet General Georgy Zhukov oversaw innovations on the Mongolian front, including replacing gasoline engines in tanks with diesel. These developments helped perfect the T-34 tank, which is now considered the war's most outstanding all-purpose tank.
23. Sierra Mixe corn is a crop that can grow in nitrogen-depleted soil due to its aerial roots secreting mucus to host symbiotic bacteria, which fertilizes the plant.
24. Donald Sutherland was so determined to play President Snow in the 'Hunger Games' movie that he wrote a lengthy letter to the film's director detailing his thoughts on the character's personality and role.
25. Leona Helmsley, dubbed "The Queen of Mean," came from an immigrant family and, in her late 40s, became a real estate mogul, going from a new millionaire to a billionaire in the next two decades. Known for being abusive, she left $5 billion to dog charities and more to her dogs than her kids.
