Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 591, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, was an avid fisherman in his retirement. When President Eisenhower, who considered him the most instrumental Allied leader in Hitler’s defeat, learned this he had sent a set of fishing tackle. Zhukov used it exclusively, for the rest of his life. – Source
2. Larry Hillblom, the H of DHL, regularly took “sex safari” trips to Asia to prey on underage girls. When he died in a plane crash, 4 of the illegitimate children he fathered were able to claim $50 million each from his estate. – Source
3. Major Walter Reed, after whom Walter Reed Medical Center was named, led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes. – Source
4. There was a special GM program that allowed astronauts to lease up to two Chevys per year for $1 each. Six of the seven original Mercury astronauts took full advantage of the program by leasing both a family wagon and a Corvette. – Source
5. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in the southern states, then returned again and again to rescue 70 more enslaved people. Then later, after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada. During the American Civil War, she helped the Union Army. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. In 2017, a baby was born 4 years after his parents died in a car crash. The grandparents fought a legal battle to be allowed to use the couple’s embryos, which had been frozen in liquid nitrogen, and after the birth, all 4 grandparents took DNA tests to establish that the baby was their grandson. – Source
7. After Kanye West’s mother Donda West died, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the “Donda West Law”, legislation that makes it mandatory for patients to receive medical clearance through a physical examination before undergoing elective cosmetic surgery. – Source
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival has the most No.2 Billboard hits without ever hitting No. 1. – Source
9. Japanese Honeybees have adapted to kill Murder Hornets by vibrating together in a ball around the hornet and using their combined body heat to cook it alive. – Source
10. Some roads in Australia are so long that the Australian government counteracts the risk of fatigue by playing little trivia games on the side of the road. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. During the Edo period in Japan, some firefighters set fires intentionally so they could show off their firefighting skills in public or create more business for themselves since some firefighters had construction businesses. Some firefighters were executed for this. – Source
12. When the FBI went undercover to expose the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989-2001 they posed as a production company that interviewed supposed winners for TV commercials and named it Shamrock Productions with the byline “‘Cause you’re just lucky” printed on their van. – Source
13. In 1984, David Letterman introduced the world to “Velcro Jumping” by proving that with enough Velcro a man could stick to a wall. And by the 1990s, it had become a favorite pub activity in New Zealand. – Source
14. A shoelace knot gets untied while running due to the foot striking the ground at 7G. As the knot loosens, the swinging leg applies an inertial force on the free ends of the laces, which rapidly leads to a failure of the knot in as few as 2 strides after inertia acts on the laces. – Source
15. Terry Crews used to draw and sell paintings of his colleagues while playing for NFL to help with his finances and of his family. – Source
16-20 Kickass Random Facts
16. The star-shaped base of the Statue of Liberty was originally a fort built to defend against the British. – Source
17. The original Doctor Who theme music was composed without musicians, instruments, synthesizers, or even a two-track recorder. It was put together on one-inch pieces of 1/4inch tape and painstakingly stuck together by British digital music pioneer Delia Derbyshire and her assistant. – Source
18. Walt Disney was close friends with J. Edgar Hoover and was an FBI informant for 26 years. – Source
19. Historians have partnered with a retirement home to find those still able to read the civil-war era cursive script of the Seward family. – Source
20. Microsoft implemented an underwater datacenter, 117 deep into the seafloor. The datacenter was proven to be more reliable than the ones on land as it was isolated from humidity, temperature fluctuations, and human accidents. – Source
21-25 Kickass Random Facts
21. The Gruen transfer is a psychological phenomenon where a person feels lost in a shopping mall, due to its intentionally complex layout. This was done deliberately in order to make people buy more impulsively. This phenomenon is named after the Austrian architect, Victor Gruen. – Source
22. Mexican soccer player Jesús Corona was given the name “Tecatito” by his team, because they were sponsored by Tecate beer and they didn’t want to have his own name “Corona,” also the name of a competing beer, on his jersey. – Source
23. When songwriter John Loudermilk’s 1956 song “A Rose and a Baby Ruth” became a huge hit, the manufacturer sent him a custom 100 lb Baby Ruth candy bar, which he took to an orphanage and they cut it up with an ax to distribute to the children. – Source
24. Thousands of people of Jewish decent were conscripted or volunteered into the German army during WWII, some ending up in senior positions. Hitler personally signed off on the “declaration of German blood” for 77 high-ranking officers who had Jewish parents or were married to Jews. – Source
25. The tiles on the space shuttle dissipate heat so efficiently that you can pick them up straight out of a 2200 degree oven. – Source
