Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 594, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. Award winning chemist and lauded scientist Thomas Midgley Jr. actually had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history and is indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people through his inventions of leaded gasoline, freon and CFCs. – Source
2. Eight years after JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy avoided the public unveiling of their White House portraits, but the Nixons graciously agreed to a secret, private tour for her and her kids. It was her only return visit. – Source
3. An ancient Roman oracle once prophesied that “Caligula had no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae”. After becoming emperor, Caligula ordered ships to construct the largest pontoon bridge in history, and rode his horse across the Bay of Baiae. – Source
4. Despite selling 30 million albums and having 9 top ten hits, Creedence Clearwater Revival were only together for four years. – Source
5. When Don Cheadle was first offered the role of War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was told he only had an hour to decide on the 12-year commitment. When Cheadle responded that he was at his kid’s birthday party, the Marvel rep said, “Oh! Oh, take two hours.” – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. F1 teams don’t own their tires, and at the end of each race teams have to return the tires to Pirelli. Even used tires must be returned to prevent industrial espionage. – Source
7. James Derham was a black man who worked as an assistant under several doctors who owned him in the 1700s. He learned about medicine from them which lead him to open his own practice after he was freed. He was the first African-American to practice medicine in the U.S. – Source
8. The search to recover debris from the Challenger disaster in 1986 also resulted in the discovery of 13 shipwrecks, two lost airplanes, and 25 kilos of cocaine. – Source
9. The skeletons of medieval English archers were deformed from years of archery. The high poundage of war bows, coupled with years of training in their use from a young age, led to skeletons having over-developed shoulder and arm bones to compensate for the growth of muscle around those areas. – Source
10. In 1964, three physicists who just got their PhDs were tasked with developing a working design for a nuclear weapon using only unclassified information. The goal is to see if a country can develop a nuclear weapon without aid. They accomplished it within 2 and a half years. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. Beverly Hills, originally a Spanish lima bean ranch, was founded by a group of investors who failed to find oil and, upon finding water instead, founded the town. Black and Jewish people were forbidden from owning property. – Source
12. Modern Hollywood was started by a group of independent filmmakers who moved to California in the 1910s to get away from Thomas Edison’s total monopoly on all aspects (scripts, cameras, theaters, actors) of the early, east coast film industry. – Source
13. Fans of Mass Effect trolled Bioware by sending them 400 cupcakes with the message “The cakes are vanilla, and so is all the icing… no matter what choice you make, it’ll all have the same generic flavor.” – Source
14. Chickens used to be fitted with tiny glasses to prevent eye-pecking and cannibalism. Rose-colored glasses were especially popular as they were thought to prevent chickens from seeing blood and becoming enraged. – Source
15. In 2014, New York City had $16 Million in unpaid parking tickets from foreign diplomats. The largest offender was Egypt, with about $1.9 Million. Diplomatic immunity is the main reason that those tickets remained outstanding. – Source
