Mike
26. Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the film series was allergic to his own glasses. He had a nickel allergy and suffered for weeks with mysterious bumps around his eyes, where the glasses touched his face. The nickel glasses were quickly replaced with hypoallergenic specs.
27. Loneliness
Harvard research showed that having no friends is as deadly as smoking. Researchers have discovered a link between loneliness and the levels of blood-protein which can cause heart attacks and strokes.
28. Life Expectancy
The life expectancy number we know for the midde ages includes the infant mortality, so 13th-century English nobles had 30 year life expectancy at birth, but when they reached the age of 21, they would normally have a expectancy of 64.
29. Germany
In 2012, a survey in eastern Germany (regions formerly part of East Germany/GDR) was unable to find a single person under the age of 28 who believed in God.
30. Turn a Blind Eye
The phrase “Turn a blind eye” (willfully ignore information) originated from Admiral Lord Nelson in 1801, who used his injured eye to see through his telescope during the Battle of Copenhagen when he wished to ignore his commander’s signals, which resulted in their victory.
31. Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring’s brother strongly opposed the Nazi party, and forged his brother’s signature so people could leave the country. Once, he joined Jews who had to scrub the streets, so the SS officer stopped the activity in order not to humiliate Hermann Göring.
32. Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt
In 1933, Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were at a White House event when they whimsically abandoned their guests for a joyride. Both took turns flying and Roosevelt later stated, “It does mark an epoch, doesn’t it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night.”
33. Squanto
Squanto was taken from his home village, transported to Europe, conscripted into slavery, escaped and made his way back to his homeland, only to find he was the last of his tribe.
34. Jesús García Corona
Jesús García Corona made the decision to sacrifice his own life to save the people of Nacozari by driving a dynamite laden train that had caught fire away from the town instead of jumping to safety, Mexico, November 7th, 1907.
35. Ferrets
The Latin name of a ferret is Mustelidae putorius furo, which translates to “stinky mouse thief”
36. Death by GPS
‘Death by GPS,’ or the deaths of people who follow their GPS systems off cliffs, into lakes, and deep into the desert. These deaths are mainly attributed to “uncritical acceptance of turn-by-turn commands and paying more attention to the navigation system than what is in front of them.”
37. Princess Diana
When Princess Diana died in 1997, the funeral’s broadcast attracted an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide. Which makes it one of the biggest televised event in history.
38. Mealworms
Stanford researchers showed that mealworms can safely consume various types of plastics including toxic additive-containing plastic such as polystyrene with no ill effects. The worms can then be used as a safe, protein-rich feed supplement.
39. Christopher Walken
A majority of the people Christopher Walken interacted with as a child were non-native English speakers, including his father. Walken attributes his unique halting speaking style to watching people hesitate to think of the right English word.
40. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother was also assassinated, and his brother was found dead in a swimming pool at age 38.
41. Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930 and further investigated it across his lifetime. He died in 1997 aged 90, less than a decade before the New Horizons launch to Pluto. To honour his wishes his ashes were launched inside the spacecraft, making it the longest post mortem fight ever recorded.
42. Subway
Subway Rolls Contain So Much Sugar They are Not Considered Bread In Ireland.
43. Marilyn Monroe
Years after her death, an archive of Marilyn Monroe’s poems, letters, notes, recipes, and diary entries surfaced. The archive included Monroe admitting that her first marriage, at the age of 16, was to keep her out of the orphanage when her caretaker was in the psychiatric hospital.
44. St. Marina the Monk
St. Marina the Monk was a crossdressing Catholic saint who joined her widowed father in the monastery. “Brother Marinos” was accused of impregnating a girl, and rather than reveal her sex to save face, humbly let herself be cast out and supported the child like a father.
45. Didier Lombard
French telecom CEO Didier Lombard, who was found guilty of moral harassment after 18 employees committed suicide under his leadership from 2008 to 2010, including an employee who stabbed himself in the stomach during a staff meeting and a woman who threw herself out of a window.
46. John Sedgwick
Civil War General John Sedgwick was killed when he stood up behind Union fortifications and proclaimed “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance!!” and was promptly shot by a Confederate sniper.
47. Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin wrote “Splish Splash” after a DJ bet him that he couldn’t make a hit song that started with “Splish Splash, I was takin’ a bath”
48. Anesthesia
In 2012 doctors around the world voted the 1846 paper describing anesthesia as the most important discovery in modern medicine, ahead of things like antibiotics and X-Rays.
49. Caffeinated Coffee & Tea
The idea caffeinated coffee & tea dehydrate you is misunderstood. It’s true that caffeine can be a weak diuretic – (stimulates urination) – but the loss is negated by the water in the drink itself. You’re ingesting more fluids than urinating when drinking a cup of caffeinated coffee or tea.
50. George Raveling
A man named George Raveling holds Martin Luther King, Jr.’s manuscript for the “I Have A Dream” speech. Raveling volunteered as a security guard at the event and asked for the document. King gave it to him, and Raveling, now 83, still has it today. He’s turned down $3 million for it.