Mike
76. Bill Watterson
Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, refused to license his characters for toys or other products. He made an exception for a 1993 textbook, Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes, which is now so rare that only 7 libraries in the world have copies. A copy sold for $10,000 in 2009.
77. MRSA
Researchers successfully killed MRSA (the antibiotic resistant superbug) with a blue laser and peroxide. They found a blue light can “bleach” the protective layer of the MRSA membrane which then makes it more vulnerable. This weakened it enough for hydrogen peroxide to finish the job.
78. Titles of Nobility Amendment
The proposed Titles of Nobility Amendment to the US Constitution, which has been pending for 210 years. The Amendment would strip US citizenship from any citizen who accepts a title of nobility from a foreign country.
79. Longest Stare
The world record for longest stare (40 minutes, 59 seconds) was set in 2011 at an Australian staring competition. At 17 minutes, the crowd became angry. At 30 minutes, contestants said they were bored.
80. Weird Al
Weird Al wrote “The Saga Begins” before Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace came out. He gathered most of the information from online leaks, and was surprised at how accurate he was after seeing a charity pre-screen of the movie. He made minor alterations to the song after seeing it.
81. Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld is banned from the New York soup stall that he used for the basis of The Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld. Weeks after the episode aired, Seinfeld went in for lunch, and chef Al Yeganeh asked him to leave, unhappy with the moniker the show had given him.
82. Haiti Earthquake
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed 200.000 people, UN peacekeepers from Nepal were sent to the country. Sadly, the peacekeepers brought cholera with them leading to a massive outbreak which infected 800.000 people, and killing at least 9000.
83. Gorilla
The word “gorilla” comes from the Greek word meaning, “savage hairy women.”
84. Molière
Molière’s legendary death: collapsing on stage while performing in the last play he had written, insisting on completing his performance, collapsing again, died hours afterwards.
85. France and Spain
There was a caste in medieval France and Spain who had to use separate entrances to churches and were fed communion at the end of the spoon because they were thought to be contagious. We’re still unsure why they were persecuted, because they were not ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities.
86. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are able to fly across the Golf of Mexico, a distance of 500 miles, in one 20-hour non-stop flight. This requires more calories than the bird’s weight, so they prepare by doubling their fat mass. They expend the entire caloric reserve during the flight.
87. Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly asked his wife out on their first meeting and proposed to her on the second. His manager disapproved of the relationship saying it would upset his female fans, so during his tours she was presented as his secretary.
88. Crocodiles
Larger crocodiles can go for over a year without eating a meal. In extreme situations, crocodiles appear to be able to shut down and live off their own tissue for a long period of time.
89. Krzysztof Duda
A chess tournament in which a grandmaster by the name of Jan-Krzysztof Duda lost every single game he played against his opponents, until the very last one: a win against Magnus Carlsen, the current world chess champion, ending Magnus’ 2-year, 125-game winning streak.
90. Alex Zanardi
Alex Zanardi, who in 2001 crashed his racing car which ripped off his legs. Two years later he had recovered enough to complete his remaining 13 laps with the help of prosthetics and hand controls. Zanardi overcame his injuries and resumed full time racing again in 2004.
91. Pearl Harbor
Within 24 hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan successfully invaded the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), much of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Guam, and other strategic areas all over the western Pacific.
92. Auto-Brewery Syndrome
Gut fermentation syndrome (called auto-brewery syndrome) is a rare disorder in which intestines produce ethanol from carbohydrates. If you have this disease, you’re drunk all the time.
93. Stan Lee
Stan Lee, the co-creator of comic book characters including Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Daredevil and the X-Men which have populated a film series that has grossed more than $11bn worldwide, was a victim of elder abuse by his business manager Keya Morgan.
94. Emperor Commodus
In the film Gladiator (2000), Emperor Commodus was killed by Maximus in the Colosseum. In reality, Commodus was strangled to death in the bath by the wrestler Narcissus. In the film, Marcus Marcus Aurelius was murdered by Commodus. In reality he died from the Antonine Plague.
95. Frogs and Toads
There is no actual difference between frogs and toads, with the popular comparison being used only informally with no taxonomic or evolutionary history. All toads are frogs and toads are just species or families of bumpy frogs.
96. The Rolling Stones
When the Rolling Stones were forced to make another single to fulfill their contract, they recorded a vulgar song known as “C**ksucker Blues.” In retaliation, their former label released an album of the band’s greatest hits – despite the Stone’s renunciation, it hit top 10 on UK charts.
97. Steve Fossett
Although they failed to find missing pilot Steve Fossett for years, in the days following his disappearance, they DID find EIGHT other previously unidentified crash sites.
98. Senate Sergeant at Arms
The original job of the Senate Sergeant at Arms was not to protect the senators, but rather to make sure that the senators could not leave the chamber while business was being conducted.
99. Psycho
In the film Psycho (1960), an actress was flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up note paper) fully visible the first time. It was a concern, since no flushing toilet had appeared in mainstream film and television in the United States at that time.
100. Chernobyl
The story of the Chernobyl power plant didn’t end with the tragedy of 1986. There was actually a second fire that broke out on Reactor 2 in 1991, and it wasn’t until 2000 that the last operating reactor was fully shut down.