Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 646, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Outside the ring, Muhammad Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, where he received two Grammy nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy, and activism. – Source
2. “Psychogenic death” occurs when a person gives up on life mentally and dies usually within days. The phenomenon occurs when someone experiences a trauma they feel they cannot escape, and the person views death as their only option. – Source
3. 95-year-old d*ck Van Dyke uses LightWave 3D and has been doing computer animation since owning a Commodore Amiga in 1991. – Source
4. When the UN’s Nordic Battalion was sent to Bosnia in 1993 it disobeyed orders, broke rules of engagement, faked loss of communication to HQ, and became known as one the most trigger-happy peacekeeper units. This enabled them to achieve their mission objective: to protect civilians at all costs. – Source
5. In 1947, a woman with hives went to Johns Hopkins to cure her hives. She received an experimental drug Compound 1694 and not only her hives cleared up she reported that her trolly rides were free from nausea. Doctors immediately test the drug for motion sickness and Compound 1694 became Dramamine. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. The Blair Mountain Revolt was the largest armed uprising in the US post-Civil War. Thousands of workers upset at company town policies and poor conditions in the mines staged a mass strike in West Virginia, leading to the President ordering the army and airforce in. 133 died, over 900 jailed. – Source
7. In 2010, a woman was evicted from her £3,000,000 castle in Scotland after refusing to pay a £230 bill for a bridal-wear rental. – Source
8. Kellogg pioneered the 6hrs a day, (30hr) work week and by the very measure on both the employee and employer side, it produced positive results. They kept this going all the way to 1980. – Source
9. Forest fires in Germany can detonate unexploded bombs left from WWII, putting firefighters at risk. – Source
10. FDR’s White House served notoriously terrible meals. First Lady Eleanor wanted to set an example for the country during the Depression by serving economical meals made from scraps. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. Old country-western star Marty Robbins (famous for “Big Iron” and “El Paso”) bought his way into NASCAR. During his rookie season, he drove 15 MPH faster during the race than in qualifying. NASCAR offered him rookie of the year but he refused and admitted he had illegally modified his car. – Source
12. Carbon dating data for human bones can be thrown off by hundreds of years if the deceased ate a lot of seafood, because the carbon in fish could have been generated hundreds of years ago and then recycled among the fish and plants (and other food) before being caught and eaten by a human. – Source
13. The band The Vapors were so sure their song “Turning Japanese” would be a huge hit that they intentionally released a different single ahead of it, so they wouldn’t be thought of as a one-hit-wonder. – Source
14. The Room actor Greg Sestero took Tommy Wiseau to see The Talented Mr. Ripley because he saw similarities between Tommy and Tom Ripley. Instead, Tommy became infatuated with the film and named one of his characters Mark, misremembering Matt Damon’s name. – Source
15. Stephen Hawking’s computer voice was recorded and initially programmed by computer scientist Dennis Klatt in 1987. Klatt died in 1988 from cancer, and though Hawking was offered newer voices as time went on he chose to keep Klatt’s voice as his own. – Source
