Weird Facts & More 27

Weird27Weird Facts 27 Strange But True

Dedicated to keeping you informed about all the interesting, strange and cool facts from around the world.

 

  1. In the ancient Persian Empire, men used to debate ideas twice, once sober and once drunk, because the idea had to sound good in both states in order to be considered a good idea. Source
  2. Hundreds of years ago most people would go to sleep early, wake up for about an hour in middle of night and do various things, and then go back to bed for a ‘second sleep’. Source
  3. The United Nations has formed a contingency plan in the event that aliens directly contact us. Source

  4. The British flag has a correct way up, and that knowledgeable people can tell when it’s being flown upside down. Source
  5. When the Pyramids at Giza were being built, there were still isolated populations of mammoths alive in Siberia. Source

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  6. On 15 April 1912 the RMS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan.
  7. After Rasputin was murdered, a group of people dug up his remains & burned them. As the body was being burned, Rasputin appeared to sit up in the flames, terrifying onlookers. This effect can be attributed to the heat, which caused his tendons to shrink, forcing the body to bend at the waist. Heat contraction could not, however, explain the death threats and screaming. Source
  8. An Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II, Hiroo Onoda, did not surrender in 1945. In 1974 his former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue orders relieving him from duty. Onoda had spent almost 30 years holding out in the Philippines.  Source
    1. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eyes."
    2. Dollar BillIn 1995, St. Jude’s Hospital received an anonymous letter with a $1 million winning McDonald’s Monopoly game piece. Although it was against the rules to transfer prizes, McDonald’s honored it even after learning that the piece was sent by an individual involved in an embezzlement scheme. Source
    3. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
    4. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.
    5. Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.
    6. Peanuts are used in the production of dynamite.
    7. The creator of Peter Pan gave the rights to a children’s hospital so they would always collect the royalties and fund the hospital. Source
    8. The Soviet Union under Lenin and Trotsky was the world’s first country that decriminalized homosexuality and abortion. Stalin, however, recriminalised homosexuality in 1933 and abortion in 1936.  Source
    9. If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the microorganisms on your body.
    10. Mosquitoes survive collisions with rain drops by clinging to the droplet and riding it for a while. Source
    11. A Belgian man who was being evicted from his home when he cheated with his wife, rigged his house up with over 20 firearm traps. He even made a riddle for the next home owners but accidentally shot himself with one of the traps. The Military anti-mining team took 3 weeks to disarm 19 traps. Source
    12. Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.
    13. "The number of licenses to operate cabs in New York [City] has actually shrunk since 1937." Read More
    14. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.)
    15. A Kansas woman sat on her boyfriends toilet seat for so long (two years) that her skin grew around it.
    16. rs generally cannot be silenced, due to all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel. Unless the revolver is gas sealed like the Nagant M1895 Revolver.
    17. The 18th century frenchman once ate a meal for 15 in one sitting, consumed live cats, puppies, and lizards; and swallowed an entire eel without chewing. He got kicked out of the hospital because they caught him trying to eat blood and corpses, they think he ate a baby.   Source

       

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