1Armand Hammer
Businessman Armand Hammer got asked so much if he worked at Arm & Hammer, he bought enough stock in the company to get on their board of directors.
2. The Wright brothers didn't like to fly together in fear of both of them dying in an accident. They wanted at least one of them to survive to carry on research.
3. The voice actress that played Snow White, Adriana Caselotti, was forbidden by her Disney contract from appearing in films or on radio or television because it would "spoil the illusion of Snow White."
4. The FBI kept files on Elvis Presley because they believed he raised the sexual passions of teenagers posing a "definite danger to the security of the United States".
5. Thomas Edison would give potential employees a bowl of soup during the interview. If they salted or peppered the soup before tasting it they wouldn't get the job. This was to test whether the employees had analytical minds and didn't make assumptions.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Aspergillus oryzae
Japan has a 'national fungus' named Aspergillus oryzae, or koji which is essential for brewing sake, and making miso, soy sauce, and other traditional Japanese foods.
7. Hot dogs are not sandwiches according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
8. Jimi Hendrix was inspired to write "The Wind Cries Mary" as an apology after having a heated argument with his girlfriend, Kathy Mary Etchingham, over her lumpy mashed potatoes.
9. Jellyfish, despite having no brain, still needs to sleep.
10. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto as a hobby guesses the measurements of an object and sees if he is right with a tape measure he always carries with him.
11Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth uses signals with her handbag to send secret messages to her staff.
12. Pillbugs, also known as rolly pollies, aren't insects, but are actually crustaceans and have gills.
13. In order to rescue Ethiopian Jews, the Mossad bought and ran a profitable scuba diving resort in Sudan between 1982 and 1984. 8,000 people were safely smuggled to Israel.
14. Pennsylvania is misspelled as Pensylvania on the Liberty Bell.
15. The creator of Bitcoin is still unknown. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the computer programmer who invented the digital currency is a pseudonym and could represent a man, a woman, or even a group of people.
16Kamikaze dolphins
Russia trained dolphins how to kill people with harpoons and to undertake kamikaze strikes against enemies. They then sold them to Iran after running out of dolphin food.
17. In 2007, a man named John Brandrick in London sued his doctor after being misdiagnosed with cancer. He was told he only had months to live. As a result, he spent his entire life savings only to find out his doctors misdiagnosed him.
18. The actor Richard Attenborough, the old guy naturalist from Jurassic Park, is the real-life brother of David Attenborough, old guy naturalist from the BBC.
19. Steve Wozniak was interrogated by the Secret Service for using $2 bills in Vegas.
20. During the early 1800's, the Mississippi and Ohio rivers were inhabited by sizeable populations of pirates.
21Oxford English Dictionary
The word with the most meanings in English is the verb 'set', with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words or 326,000 characters.
22. Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) received death threats after narrating a Wal-Mart commercial about investing in American manufacturing.
23. From 1814-1830, the French flag was just plain white.
24. The world has a net worth of over $280 Trillion. The US is the wealthiest country ($93.5 Trillion) followed by China ($29 Trillion).
25. India requires internet café owners to take pictures of all their customers, keep browsing history for one year, and forward all this data to the government.