25 Kickass Random Facts List #120
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. The creator of Cowboy Bebop was told to make a show to sell spaceship toys, with the instructions, “So long as there’s a spaceship in it, you can do whatever you want.” – Source
2.The Padres have signed the same handicapped ball player 20 years in row so that he doesn’t lose his health insurance. – Source
3. Planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker is the only human to have their ashes buried on the moon. – Source
4. In 2004, an Atlanta woman tried to use a fake million dollar bill to buy $1,675 worth of merchandise at Wal-Mart and expected $998,325 in change. – Source
5. In 2007 Leonardo DiCaprio/Warner Bros. won a bidding war against Brad Pitt/Paramount Pictures for the rights to Jordan Belfort’s memoir The Wolf of Wall Street. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. Car tires are black because one manufacturer wanted “more distinguished looking” tires and had carbon black added to the white rubber. The resulting product lasted 4-5 times longer than white tires. – Source
7. For over 20 years, Cuba has been aiding and treating more than 18,000 children affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, for free. – Source
8. The original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo DVD was designed to look like a pirated disc which convinced many purchasers that they bought an illegitimate copy. – Source
9. Iran has one of the largest rates of brain drain in the world. It is estimated that 150,000-180,000 specialists leave the country every year, costing the country at least $50 billion in human capital annually. – Source
10. The man who wrote the documents of surrender signed by Confederate general Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 was a Seneca Indian named Ely Parker( born Hasanoanda). Upon meeting him Lee extended his hand and said, “I am glad to see one real American here.” – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. In 1970 Jimmy Carter let a prisoner convicted of murder obtain a work release to serve as a maid at the governor’s mansion. He was so impressed by her that when he was elected president in 1976 he volunteered to be her parole officer and let her continue working at the White House. She was later exonerated. – Source
12. A polio victim in Tennessee was kept alive in a metal tube for nearly 60 years only to die when a power outage shut her iron lung down in 2008. – Source
13. In 1975, a physicist named J.H. Hetherington made his cat the co-author of his scientific paper to avoid replacing “we” with “I” throughout his paper. – Source
14. If an odd number of golfers make the cut at the Masters, they have a member named Jeff Knox fill in, who has bet against and beaten some of the best golfers in the world. – Source
15. A father in New Zealand was arrested and taken from his children for 8 months because people at a park mistook him kissing his daughter as indecent assault. – Source
16-20 Kickass Random Facts
16. Pope Paul VI spent the night of July 20 and 21 in 1969 watching the moon through a telescope of the Vatican Observatory during the first moon landing. Afterward, he praised the achievement by writing at length about the event. – Source
17. In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for President in USA. She did it almost 50 years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote. On Election Day, November 5, 1872, she couldn’t even vote for herself. – Source
18. After Rat-Packer Sammy Davis Jr. died in 1990, his Widow soon discovered that he was nearly broke and owed back taxes. She then had his body exhumed to strip him of the $70,000 worth of jewelry he had been buried with. – Source
19. Every resident of Alaska gets an annual “oil royalty check,” a payment representing their share of revenue from the Alaskan oil. In 2008 the payout reached a high of $2,069, or $8,276 for a family of four. – Source
20. A man once received a heart transplant from a suicide victim, married the donor’s widow, then killed himself four years later in the same manner as the donor. – Source
21-25 Kickass Random Facts
21. A 2013 study found that the artificial sweetener sucralose (a.k.a. Splenda) appears to trigger an insulin response, despite not having any calories. – Source
22. The first ever modern commercial refrigerator was built in Australia in 1856 to keep beer cold. – Source
23. In 1970 the Oregon Highway Division attempted to blow up a washed ashore dead sperm whale, using half a ton of dynamite, to dispose of its rotting carcass. The explosion threw whale flesh over 800 feet away, crushing cars and almost killing bystanders. – Source
24. The Dalai Lama eats meat, for health reasons and out of respect for his hosts on his travels. – Source
25. Katherine Switzer was the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon in 1967 despite race organizers physically trying to stop her during the race. – Source
