Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 431, click here.
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. In 1996, during a SAS training exercise 21-year-old, Bear Grylls broke his back after falling from 16,000 feet due to a torn parachute. His surgeon said it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. 2 years later he climbed Mt. Everest. – Source
2. In 1989, 96 people were killed at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England after they were crushed due to overcrowding. Although match attendees and hooliganism were first cited as the cause, a 2016 inquiry found the police to be at fault due to their mismanagement of the crowd. – Source
3. Dolly Parton has given away more than 100 million books to young children through her Imagination Library. This was inspired by her father, who couldn’t read, and she wanted to make sure all kids have early access to books. – Source
4. In 1951, Thelma Howard was hired as a maid for Walt & Lillian Disney. Walt would gift her shares of Disney stock every X-mas for the next 30 yrs. She died in 1994 that’s when it was discovered she still had all 192,000 shares valued at $9,000,000. It went to disadvantaged kids & her disabled son. – Source
5. The average British adult spends around 3 hours a week on the toilet, but only 1.5 hours a week exercising. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. BTS, a seven-member South Korean boy band, brings in more than $3.6 billion to South Korea’s economy each year and were the reason one in every 13 foreign tourists visited the country in 2018. – Source
7. In 2008, Jeremy Clarkson published his bank details in his Sun newspaper column to prove nobody could take money from his account. Somebody then donated £500 to a Diabetes charity from his account. – Source
8. Victor Hugo wrote the Hunchback of Norte-Dame to inform people of the value of Gothic architecture, which was being neglected and destroyed at the time. This explains the large descriptive sections of the book, which far exceed the requirements of the story. – Source
9. The desk in the Oval Office is called the Resolute Desk, named after the ship it was built out of in 1880. The HMS Resolute was found empty and adrift in pack ice, then salvaged by the US and gifted back to the UK, which helped narrowly avoid a war. FDR would add the front to hide his polio. – Source
10. George Orwell’s use of 2+2=5 as a catchphrase of the dystopian government in his book 1984 is based on Joseph Stalin’s use of that equation in propaganda. Soviet posters declared “2 + 2 plus the enthusiasm of the workers = 5” long before Orwell wrote his novel. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. Street dogs in Russia use trains to commute between various locations, obey traffic lights, and avoid defecating in high traffic areas. The leader of a pack is the most intelligent (not strongest) and the packs intuit human psychology in many ways (e.g. deploying cutest dogs to beg). – Source
12. Americans, who only had to pay for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, struggled to pull together funding. Joseph Pulitzer started a crowdfunding campaign and gathered $100,000 from more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than $1. – Source
13. If the Axis ever captured Gibraltar during WWII, the British planned to seal 6 men in a secret cave overlooking the harbor to secretly monitor and radio back enemy movements. The cave had enough provisions for the men to stay for up to 7 years. – Source
14. Romans weaved asbestos fibers into a cloth-like material that was then sewn into tablecloths and napkins. These clothes were cleaned by throwing them into a blistering fire, from which they came out unharmed and whiter than when they went in. – Source
15. In Halden prison in Norway, guards are encouraged to interact, play sports, and eat with the inmates. This is to prevent aggression and create a sense of family. Despite being a maximum security prison, every cell has a flatscreen TV, an en-suite shower and fluffy, white towels. – Source
