Bokassa Forced Students to Buy His Uniforms
26. Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the former dictator of the Central African Republic, forced the nation’s school children to buy expensive uniforms from a company he owned. When the children protested, he had 100 of them executed as an example.
27. For 25 years, two brothers re-gifted each other the same pair of pants, each time hiding them in increasingly inventive and difficult packaging. The gifts included a 600lb safe, a double-glazed window, a 16-foot rocket ship, and a crushed car, along with a card that read “Merry Christmas, the pants are in the glove box”.
28. During WWII, Germans built fake airfields with fake wooden planes. The Allies knew they were fake and dropped wooden bombs on them.
29. The man who discovered the LED died of starvation. His discovery helped shape modern lighting, but his own life ended in tragedy.
30. During a 1957 Phillies game, Richie Ashburn hit a fan with a foul ball, breaking her nose. When play resumed, he hit her again with another foul ball as she was being taken out on a stretcher.
31. In 2010, a woman named Lori Ruff died by suicide. Her husband’s family later found a box among her possessions that contained name-change documents and the birth certificate of a long-dead two-year-old girl. Lori Ruff’s true identity still has not been discovered.
32. In 1988, Cosmopolitan magazine ran an article that stated women had no chance of contracting HIV from sex with a man because HIV could not be transmitted in the missionary position. The claim was wrong and reflected a serious misunderstanding of how the virus spreads.
33. Businessman Armand Hammer was asked so often whether he worked at Arm & Hammer that he bought enough stock in the company to earn a seat on its board of directors. The repeated question turned into a practical investment.
34. Robin Williams took a huge pay cut to voice the Genie in Aladdin, provided certain conditions were adhered to. Disney later reneged on the promise and apologized to him with the gift of a Picasso painting.
35. Helium (He) is the only element on the periodic table that was not discovered on Earth. Scientists found it by analyzing the sun’s spectrum, which is why its name comes from Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
Social Huntsman Spiders Live in Matriarchal Family Groups
36. Social huntsman spiders live in complex family groups of up to 150, led by a dominant matriarch. A single mother establishes the family, and her offspring from one to four clutches stay with her until they are almost one year old.
37. Bob Marley gave a credit on “No Woman, No Cry” to one of his friends, who ran a soup kitchen, to make sure the royalty checks would keep it open. The arrangement helped support the kitchen through the song’s earnings.
38. Under the ADA, service dogs must be leashed or tethered at all times unless the person’s disability prevents it. Emotional support dogs are not recognized as service dogs.
39. Cartoon Network banned Speedy Gonzales for being an offensive stereotype. After mass protest by the Hispanic-American community, the character was brought back.
40. A high-ranking, knighted British politician was a member of a pro-paedophila activist group. Despite this and other scandals, his knighthood was never revoked.
41. Theodore Roosevelt was a successful boxer at Harvard, and he got into a bar fight after a man called him “four eyes” in reference to his spectacles and suggested he pay for drinks. The man held two guns and told Roosevelt to “set up the drinks,” but Roosevelt knocked him out and took away his guns.
42. Stephen Hawking had a great sense of humor, and he addressed a rumor that he would deliberately run over the toes of people he didn’t like. He denied it by stating, “A false rumor” and “I’ll run over anyone who repeats it.”
43. At least four actors who played the Marlboro Man in ads have died of smoking-related diseases. The role became one of advertising’s most recognizable images, but it also carried a tragic real-world cost for several of the men who portrayed it.
44. A community of escaped slaves in colonial Brazil founded their own confederated kingdom that lasted for almost 90 years. At its peak, it had a population of around 11,000.
45. A Chicago high school played Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in the hallways between classes. As a fundraising technique, they made students pay to stop the song, and they raised $1,000 in three days.
Tata Group Puts Charity at the Center of Its Wealth
46. India’s Tata Group, which owns Jaguar Land Rover and has revenues of over $100b, is 66% controlled by charitable trusts. Those trusts invest the proceeds in nation-building efforts such as India’s hospitals, educational institutions, and programs promoting health, education, culture, and more.
47. There were thirty married astronauts during the Gemini and Apollo programs. All but seven of those marriages ended in divorce.
48. In the 2000’s, the people in charge of Sesame Street’s budget wanted the show to have 25 episodes per season. The show’s staff insisted on 26 episodes per season so that each letter of the alphabet would be the letter of the day for one episode.
49. In 1898, Nikola Tesla tricked an entire crowd into believing they could control a boat by shouting commands. In fact, he invented radio control and piloted the boat himself.
50. A dude in England stumbled on a buried Roman treasure worth $6,000,000 while metal-detectoring for a lost hammer. The discovery turned an ordinary search into an extraordinary find.
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