"In 2001, a 13-year-old Boy Scout named Cody Clawson went missing for over 18 hours near Yellowstone Park. Clawson resorted to using his belt buckle to signal to planes overhead. Eventually, he got a pilot’s attention - and that pilot was none other than Harrison Ford - who rescued Clawson."
"Despite not having played since 2018, MLB player Andrew Toles has remained under contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers so he can continue receiving mental health treatment for his schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
"In 2015, a woman's parachute failed to deploy while skydiving, surviving with life-threatening injuries. Days before, she survived a mysterious gas leak at her house. Both were later found to be intentional murder plots by her husband."
"In the 1960s, Washington D.C.'s poor areas were plagued by severe rat problems until Julius Hobson began catching them by trapping enormous rats, and attaching the cage to his car’s roof and drove to affluent districts where he warned of setting the rodents free, spurring rat control measures."
"Muhammad Ali's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is on a wall instead of on the ground. This is because Ali, a devout Muslim, did not want people stepping on the name "Muhammad"."
"On April 18 1930, the BBC's evening news report simply said "there is no news" and then played piano music for the entire segment."
"In 2018, a K***er whale named Tahlequah, known to researchers as J35, grieved over her dead calf by carrying it across the ocean for 17 days and over 1,000 miles, refusing to let it sink."
"Dr. Jessie Lazear, an American physician who studied yellow fever under the famous Dr. Walter Reed. He allowed himself to be bitten by an infected mosquito, and died of the disease himself 17 days later, confirming how the disease was spread. His sacrifice saved millions."
"Weather forecasters tend to exaggerate the chance of rain because if it rains when they said it wouldn't, people get angry, but if it doesn't rain when they said it would, they are happy. This is known as "wet bias.""
"Aldgate Pump, a historic water pump held as marking the start of London’s East End. Long famed for its “sparkling, agreeable” water, it was later found that this rich mineral taste came from the flesh and bones of nearby cemeteries leeching into the water. The tainted water killed hundreds."
"There was a girls dance camp nearby when the atomic Trinity test occurred. The girls played in the falling white ash. 10 of the 12 girls died before 40."
"The Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness: poor people buy cheap products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items."
"Octopuses deliberately throw shells at each other. Researchers found that 66% of throws were made by females, often in response to mating attempts. For a creature with no thumbs or rotator cuffs, they had a 17% hit rate."
"Chief Baker of the Titanic, Charles Joughin, survived by getting smashed on Brandy and calmly paddling around until dawn when he was rescued by a lifeboat. He was also one of the last people off the ship, riding the stern rail into the sea like an elevator."
"That 'Rocky' (1976) was inspired by the true story of Chuck Wepner, a local boxer from New Jersey who was set up for a dream fight with Muhammad Ali. Wepner quit his job to train full time, and against all odds, lasted 15 rounds with the champ. Stallone was in the audience."
"The reason why animal shelters are full of huskies, is because of the TV show Game of Thrones. Everyone wanted their own real life dire Wolf, but then abandoned them after they realize how much work they are."
"287 years is the longest a library book was overdue. While writing a biography on Colonel Robert Walpole in 1956, Prof. John Plumb returned a history book to the Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge after Walpole had checked it out around the year 1667."
"in 1915 tipping was so unpopular that 6 states made it illegal to do so."
"in 1915 tipping was so unpopular that 6 states made it illegal to do so."
"While dogs may not pass the traditional mirror test, they do pass a "smell mirror" test, suggesting they understand the concept of 'self'."
"War pigs were used by the Romans because the squeals would scare war elephants into fleeing, and cause them to trample their own armies."
"Korean serial killer Kim Sun-ja laced her friend's tea with cyanide, causing her to vomit. She told her friend that she would feel better if she drank more of the beverage, but her friend became suspicious and refused, becoming the only known survivor of 6 poisoning victims from 1986 to 1988."
"The directors of Tangled held a “hot man meeting” and had all the women from the studio critique Hollywood men to create the character of Flynn Rider."
"Child voice actors for Bluey are kept secret."
"in 1969 Ted Conrad embezzled $215,000 from a bank in Ohio & proceeded to evade capture for the remaining 51 years of his life. He became 'Thomas Randele' & settled in Massachusetts. Described by authorities as a deathbed confession, in 2021 he told his wife & daughter who he was & what he did."
"In 1992 Annette Herfkens was the sole survivor of a plane crash that included her fiancé & 28 others. Despite having 12 fractures in her hip, 2 in her leg, a broken jaw & a collapsed lung, she survived 8 days in a Vietnamese jungle on rainwater until a local officer came by & got help."
"The largest unfinished church in the world, the Sagrada Família, began construction in 1886. It is expected to be completed in 2026, nearly 150 years after it began construction."
"Squirrels terminal velocity is so low they can fall from any height and survive."
"A mother named Kathleen Folbigg, who was imprisoned for 2 decades for murdering her 4 children. Later, she would be pardoned by the Governor after it was discovered that the deaths were instead due to an extremely rare genetic condition."
"2020 study found evidence that arrows fired from medieval longbows could cause injuries similar to modern gunshot wounds. One example is the analysis of a skull that revealed an arrow had left devastating entry and exit wounds that are similar to injuries caused by modern bullets."
"English scientist Henry Cavendish discovered physical laws like Ohm's, Dalton's, or Charles's law and few others as first but they were not named after him because he didn't publish his notes and didn't tell his fellow scientists, propably due to being asocial and shy."
"Archaeologists working in a 2,500 y.o. Chinese cemetery unearthed charred incense burners and burnt stones that tested high for cannabinol, which is released when THC is burned. "Unlike many wild varieties, the cannabis smoked at the site [...] was pretty potent stuff.""
"Creator of Wonder Woman was in a thruple that involved his first wife and his student. They were heavily into bondage which inspired early iterations of the super heroine. Thruple lasted 22 years all the way to his death"
"King Cobra is not a cobra. It is the sole species of its genus and happens to look a lot like a cobra."
"LaMarcus Thompson, the father of the American roller coaster, invented the first coasters on Coney Island because he thought the world was too sinful and needed more moral entertainment."
"Infants under one year old should not be fed honey."
"Mocha Dick (the real life inspiration for Moby Dick) was ki***d in 1838 after appearing to come to the aid of a distrought cow whose calf was just slaughtered by whalers. He was known to be friendly until attacked, he survived 100 skirmishes before being slain."
"in 1988 a U.S. Marine was abandoned and died in the Mojave Desert. Search only started when his weapon wasn't returned."
"Many English words and phrases are loaned from Chinese merchants interacting with British sailors like "chop chop," "long time no see," "no pain no gain," "no can do," and "look see""
"The final words of Terry Kath, founding guitarist for rock band Chicago, before dying from an accidental self inflicted gunshot wound were “What do you think I'm gonna do? Blow my brains out?""
"TIL the worst skydiving accident in US history took place over Lake Erie and resulted in 16 fatalities. Due to miscommunications, the skydivers jumped out over water rather than land, and subsequently drowned."
"The temperature on the moon at the Apollo 11 landing site was 200ºF (93ºC)."
"Spelling Bees (competitions where competitors must correctly spell words until one is left standing) don't really exist outside of English, and within English, they're pretty much only an American thing."
"Babe Ruth constantly cheated on his wives during his baseball career. A detective that the New York Yankees hired to follow him one night in Chicago reported that Ruth had been with six women. Another player said that he was not Ruth's roommate while traveling; "I room with his suitcase"."
"In 1671 a man attempted to steal the Crown Jewels, and when he was caught he was brought before King Charles II, who found him so amusing that not only did her pardon the man, but he also ended up giving him massive lands in Ireland and a pension of £500 a year (£92,000 today)."
"Super Bowl XXXIV (34) is known as the "Dot-Com Super Bowl" because it featured 14 ads from 14 different dot-com companies, each paying an average of $2.2 million per spot. Of these companies, four are still active, five were bought by other companies, and the remaining five are defunct."
"In 1944 the CIA created a manual on sabotaging organizations. Among other things, it suggests to "make speeches... at great length", "refer all matters to committees", "make committees as large as possible", "insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products""
"That Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Tom Hanks have colonoscopy parties together."
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