Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 816, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. The reason we see fewer fireflies nowadays is because there are genuinely fewer of them. 1 in 3 North American firefly species is at risk of extinction, with some species already being officially listed as ‘Critically Endangered’! – Source
2. When random people of varying physical attractiveness get placed into a room, the most physically attractive people tend to seek out each other and congregate with only each other. – Source
3. The First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, disliked the Kennedys. Mamie did not inform Jacqueline of a wheelchair available for her during a White House tour. Kennedy remained composed during the tour but collapsed once home. When questioned, Eisenhower’s reply was simply, “Because she never asked.” – Source
4. Ettore Majorana was an Italian theoretical physicist who predicted the existence of the neutron and neutrino before disappearing without a trace in 1938. – Source
5. Ohio has license plates reading “Birthplace of Aviation” and North Carolina reads “First in Flight” because the two states both claim the Wright Brothers as their own. The Wrights performed the first controlled, powered flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C. but built their plane in Ohio – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Fact
6. In 1903, Daniel Barringer gambled his entire fortune on a mineshaft believing geologists had misclassified a meteor creator as a volcano and a $1 billion iron ore deposit was to be found. He was correct that the site was a meteor creator, but didn’t realize the iron ore had vaporized on impact. – Source
7. Shortly after the Berlin Wall fell, Eugene Stoner, inventor of the AR-15, and Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47, met near Washington DC, and developed a friendship that lasted until Stoner’s death seven years later. – Source
8. 2 out of the 3 members of the boy band LFO have lost their lives to cancer. – Source
9. Just like in the Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Sharon Tate really did have a habit of going barefoot in Los Angeles. When she went to restaurants with a “No Shoes, No Service” rule, she would frequently put rubber bands around her ankles to pretend that she was wearing sandals. – Source
10. One of Hitler’s earliest allies and close friends, Ernst Röhm, was actually openly homosexual, despite the Nazis’ hatred for homosexuality. He was the leader of the SA until 1934 when he was killed during the Night of the Long Knives. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Fact
11. An estimated 50.000 Irish were made into indentured servants by Cromwell after he took Ireland in 1653. – Source
12. The ending of “The Bourne Supremacy” was reshot just two weeks before its release. Director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon came up with a new idea that would cost $200,000 and involve pulling Damon from the set of Ocean’s 12. The movie tested 10 points higher with the new ending and made $176m. – Source
13. A man suffering from fatal familial insomnia, a condition whereby you become biologically incapable of sleep, attempted vitamin therapy, sensory deprivation, narcoleptics, and anesthesia to sleep, which prolonged his life by 12 months. – Source
14. Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was a medicine used in the early 1900s to quiet infants and teething children. Popular in the US and UK it took twenty years of doctors’ complaints before it was withdrawn from the market for being a “baby killer.” The main ingredient was morphine. – Source
15. A 69-year-old woman took South Korea’s written driving test 960 times before she finally passed and was given her license. – Source
