Here is 25 Kickass Random Facts List #284.
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. During prohibition, grape farmers would make semi-solid grape concentrates called wine bricks, which were then sold with the warning “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.” – Source
2. The Lululemon retail chain’s name came from the founder’s desire to watch Japanese people try to pronounce it. – Source
3. During Ellen Burstyn’s monologue in ‘Requiem of a Dream’ about how it feels to be old, Matthew Libatique accidentally let the camera drift off-target. The reason was because he had been crying during the take and fogged up the camera’s eyepiece. This was the take used in the final print. – Source
4. When Frank Sinatra died, Las Vegas casinos stopped spinning for 1 minute. – Source
5. 45% percent of couples in Hong Kong say they have given up on the idea of having children because of crowding and high housing costs. In another survey 38% of men and 31% of women simply said they didn’t like kids. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. Qatar, a desert state, is aiming to grow up to 70 percent of its own vegetables by 2023 thanks to the launch of a new farming system that needs no soil and which recycles irrigation water. The pilot project had been “a great success” and adapted well to Qatar’s harsh growing conditions – Source
7. In 1968, an astronomy student, a dental student and a bass player formed a band called ‘Smile.’ By 1970 the Smile faded, and in 1971 they renamed the band to Queen. – Source
8. Many of the actors who played the Nazis in Casablanca (1942) were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany. – Source
9. Singapore Airlines flight 21 which had the longest non-stop flight (18 hours), from Singapore to New Jersey, had special lockers on the plane to store corpses if people died en route since the flight path over the Pacific Ocean and North Pole meant the plane couldn’t land if someone died. – Source
10. Sheep were grazing in Central Park until 1934, when they were moved during the Great Depression for fear they would be eaten. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. Tonga, a nation consisting of over 1200 islands in the Pacific, has never been conquered or colonized ever and is ruled by a King who traces his ancestry back 1000 years. – Source
12. Thomas Jefferson built a clock on the outside wall of his house with only an hour hand, as he believed an hour hand would be accurate enough for his slaves. – Source
13. The production of Tabasco Sauce is a grueling 3 year process that begins with the company President hand picking the perfect plants for seed extraction. – Source
14. A queen ant can live up to 30 years and lay millions of eggs in her lifetime. – Source
15. Alan Freed, the man best known for coining the term “Rock and Roll” hosted a televised music show on ABC that was abruptly cancelled after the fourth episode, because it featured Frankie Lymon, a black singer, dancing with a white woman. – Source
16-20 Kickass Random Facts
16. The Burkitshi are nomadic hunters of Mongolia. They capture a golden eagle at the age of four, and train it to become a hunting partner. The Burkitshi live and sleep with the eagle for 10 years, and then it is released back into the wilderness before death. – Source
17. The Pope can appoint secret cardinals, and even the selected individual may not know he has cardinal status. The name can be made public at any time, but if the pope dies before revealing the name of a secret cardinal, the individual will no longer be a cardinal. – Source
18. Before 1995, scientists believed that rogue waves were nothing more than sailor myths. – Source
19. There is a 500-year-old Beer Purity Law still in effect in Germany. It was decreed on April 23, 1516, by Munich’s Duke Wilhelm, protecting the country’s beer drinkers from contaminants, chemicals and any other additives that unsavory merchants might have thought of adding. – Source
20. Before the invention of postage stamps, the recipient of a letter or package had to pay the postage when they received it, effectively buying their incoming mail from the postal service. – Source
21-25 Kickass Random Facts
21. In 1947 there was an explosion in Texas City so large, it instantly killed the entire fire department, knocked airplanes out of the sky and people 11 miles away fell down. – Source
22. Numerous people have been murdered singing the Frank Sinatra song “My Way” in karaoke bars in Philippines. The news media has recorded at least half a dozen “My Way Killings” in the last decade, and many bars have removed the song from their playbooks. – Source
23. Harold Fairweather, aged 96, is believed to be the oldest person to still have a living parent. His mother Violet Brown is 116 years old and her age is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records. – Source
24. For decades, the lead industry successfully blamed parents (specifically minorities) for child lead poisoning. – Source
25. The White House’s Press Briefing Room was originally a swimming pool. – Source
