Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 678, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Instead of taking their usual salaries for ”Twins”, Schwarzenegger and DeVito both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film’s box office returns which resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their film careers (movie made $216 million worldwide). – Source
2. Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1901 upon the assassination death of William McKinley. But he was at Mount Marcy in the High Peaks of New York State. He had to be found in the middle of nowhere and brought to civilization to be sworn in. It became known as Roosevelt’s midnight ride. – Source
3. The first car to break the 100km/h (60mph) barrier was an electric vehicle in 1899. – Source
4. The transformation of common metals into gold, a seemingly impossible goal attempted by alchemists for centuries, is now entirely possible using either a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. However, the process is so expensive that it is functionally useless. – Source
5. A 2019 study found human empathy towards other animal species decreased in line with the amount of time since our evolutionary paths diverged. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. In 1971, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Jeremy Spencer went AWOL before a gig at LA’s Whiskey A Go Go and couldn’t be found for weeks. The band eventually tracked him down and discovered that he joined the religious cult Children Of God and formed a band of his own with the members. – Source
7. Curly from “The Three Stooges” saved and rescued more than 5,000 dogs during his lifetime. He used to bring stray dogs home and sheltered them until he found a home for them. When the Stooges was on tour, he found at least one stray dog a new home in every town he visited. – Source
8. Hospitals can and do prescribe alcohol to patients in order to prevent delirium tremens and alcoholic withdrawal. – Source
9. A steamboat was found in a farmer’s field 130+ years after sinking, still packed with goods. It was excavated and fills a museum. – Source
10. Inventor of the Murphy-Bed, William Lawrence Murphy (1856-1957), created his first hideaway bed as means to convert his one-room apartment into a parlour, specifically to host the company of his future wife. It was considered inappropriate at the time for a woman to enter a man’s bedroom. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. City spiders are getting bigger, a study found that when spiders lived in urban areas they increased in size and had larger ovaries: Scientists have found increasing evidence that the selective pressures of city living are driving “physical and biological changes” in urban wildlife. – Source
12. In JFK’s 1946 congressional race, his campaign hired a janitor named Joe Russo to run against him and Boston City Councillor Joe Russo to confuse voters and split the “Russo” vote. – Source
13. The first Soviet dog to return from space alive “Strelka” later had puppies. Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev gifted one of the puppies to JFK’s daughter Caroline. – Source
14. The Rockefeller University lab developed an experimental mutant variety of mosquitoes called orco that causes the mosquitoes to no longer be repelled by the smell of DEET. – Source
15. In Ancient Greece, a poet/playwright named Phrynichus wrote a play that so moved the audience to tears that it led to him being fined, and his play being banned from ever being performed there again. Only one line of his play The Sack of Miletus survives today. – Source
