Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 825, click here
1-5 Kickass Random Fact
1. Legendary footballer Lionel Messi’s first contract was written on a restaurant napkin during a meeting with FC Barcelona executives. That napkin is now held in a safe in the Credit Andorra bank. – Source
2. Ant corpses release a chemical when they die, and other ants will dispose of the corpse. A scientist once recreated this chemical and put it on a live ant. Its ant friends kept bringing it to the graveyard no matter how much it struggled, cleaned itself, or tried to go back to work. – Source
3. Patrick Stewart, a theater actor, was hesitant to sign a 6-year contract to perform on Star Trek: TNG, but his agent reassured him that the show would probably fail after one season. Stewart expected to “make some money, get a suntan, and go home.” – Source
4. The genetic traits that helped people survive the Black Death in the 14th century are linked to autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease today, showing how a historical pandemic shaped the evolution of human immunity genes. – Source
5. King Charles & Prince William always travel in separate planes in case there is a crash, one needs to survive. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Fact
6. Marvin Gay Sr. abused and viciously beat his son throughout his childhood. Marvin II said that if it weren’t for his mother he would have committed suicide. He added the “e” to his name to differentiate himself from his father. Marvin Sr would murder Marvin II in 1984 during a family dispute. – Source
7. Johnny Tightlips from The Simpsons is a reference to Frank “Tight Lips” Gusenberg, who was shot down in the real life St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago and repeatedly replied, “Nobody shot me.”, before dying at a local Chicago hospital. – Source
8. In the 1930s, the only commercial airport serving New York City was in New Jersey. To protest this, NYC Mayor LaGuardia once refused to deplane in NJ because his ticket said “New York City,” so they flew him to NYC. – Source
9. Irene of Athens (750-803 CE) was the first sole-ruling empress in Roman history. Her husband the emperor had died, she had her son’s eyes gouged, and him imprisoned, becoming sole ruler for 5 years, when she was exiled to the island of Lesbos and forced to support herself by spinning wool. – Source
10. In 1987, a Boeing 747 was hijacked by a lone attacker armed with dynamite from a gold mine. After 6 hours, the flight engineer hit the attacker over the head with a whiskey bottle. He was given a suspended sentence and then became a member of the House of Representatives of Fiji. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Fact
11. Fifteen minutes of shivering from cold temperatures can be the metabolic equivalent of 1 hour of exercise. – Source
12. The Churchill family owns a palace larger than Buckingham Palace. It is also the birth place of Winston Churchill. – Source
13. Each driver in the Indy 500 has to fill out a ballot for what type of milk they want on the podium if they win, per tradition. Emerson Fittipaldi chose orange juice. – Source
14. In 1973, an unknown man strapped with explosives attempted to rob a bank in Kenora, Ontario. A police bullet accidentally hit the dynamite and exploded the man. He remains unknown to this day. – Source
15. In 1950s Britain, it was noted that the middle class used overly complex language in an attempt to be posher. However, the actual upper class themselves preferred the more straightforward language of the working class such as scent instead of perfume. – Source
