Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 542, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. British sailors on the HMS Dolphin in the 18th century discovered that native Tahitian women were eager to exchange sex for iron, and they began pulling nails out. The resulting trade became so extensive that the loss of nails started to threaten the ship’s structural integrity. – Source
2. The ashes of Stephen Hawking were buried between the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, in a section of Westminster Abbey known as the “Scientists Corner.” As a final tribute, during the burial, the European Space Agency beamed recordings of Hawking’s voice to the nearest black hole. – Source
3. America’s Most Wanted aired an episode on John List, a family annihilator who had evaded justice for 18 years. It featured an age-progressed clay bust, which was so accurate that a man in Denver recognized it as his own neighbor. The list had relocated, assumed a new identity, and remarried. – Source
4. Beyoncé assumed she would automatically get the title role of Princess Tiana – Disney’s first black princess – in the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog, so she refused to audition. The role went to Anika Noni Rose, who had co-starred with Beyoncé in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. – Source
5. The Italian city of Naples is entering pet dogs’ DNA into a city-wide registry. Samples from piles of poo left on the street will then be entered into the database and be used to identify the irresponsible owner behind the mess. The city will fine culprits around $685. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. The legendary Athenian herald Pheidippides ran 40 km from Marathon to Athens AFTER spending the previous two days running from Marathon to Sparta and back, a round-trip distance of 240 km! Arriving at Athens, he shouted “νικῶμεν!” (“We win!”) and died. – Source
7. The United States gave cherry tree cuttings back to Japan in 1952 because the parent stock was struggling from neglect during WWII. – Source
8. Raven the Chimpanzee became the 22nd most successful money manager on Wall Street after choosing her stocks by throwing darts at a list of 133 internet companies. – Source
9. A sufferer of Truman Show delusion (a condition in which a person believes their life is a staged reality show) traveled all the way to New York City to check whether the World Trade Center had fallen, believing the 9/11 attacks to be an elaborate plot twist in his personal storyline. – Source
10. The original manufacturing method for shotgun pellets was to pour molten lead through a sieve at the top of a tower. The falling lead would naturally form nearly-perfect spheres due to surface tension. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. The average man gets bored during a shopping trip with their wife or girlfriend after just 26 minutes, according to a UK study. – Source
12. At age 71 legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen discovered he was nearly broke after his long time manager and former lover stole $5M. The theft started after Cohen entered a Zen Buddhist retreat when he retired, believing he had enough money to live there for the rest of his life. – Source
13. Competitors of Gucci used to send Gucci handbags to Snooki of the Jersey Shore as a counter branding measure to avoid her being seen with their own brand’s merchandise. – Source
14. Alberta Jones was a pioneering black female attorney and a civil rights icon. She rose to national recognition as the legal representation for Cassius Clay’s first professional fighting contract. In 1965, Ms. Jones was assassinated at the age of 34, and the crime remains unsolved today. – Source
15. The 1999 film “The Iron Giant” is based on a 1968 science fiction novel by poet Ted Hughes, written to comfort his children after the suicide of their mother, fellow poet, and his wife Sylvia Plath. – Source
3. It was a mother and daughter that recognized him