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Facts — the bricks in the knowledge wall

29 Vital Bits of Trivia to Etch Into a Gold Record and Launch Into Space

December 20, 2023

Facts are the steps on the knowledge marathon. The mile markers on the expertise highway. The bicep pulls up Wisdom mountain. If you don’t catch our drift by now, you need a lot more facts than we thought. Here, these should help…

29

CRACKED.COM THE CURRENT U.S. FLAG WAS DESIGNED BY A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. 17-year-old Robert G. Heft made a 50-star flag for a school assignment when Alaska and Hawaii were given statehood. Не got a B-, which was changed to an A when the government adopted his flag. — Source

28

CRACKED.COM THE GOVERNMENT IS STILL PAYING CIVIL WAR PENSIONS. A veteran's daughter, born in 1930 when her father was in his 80s, still gets her paycheck every month. The last Civil War widow died in 2008. — Source

27

CRACKED.COM THE PONY EXPRESS WAS VERY SHORT-LIVED. Despite the huge role it plays PONY EXPRESS in the lore of the Old West, the Pony Express operated for only a year and a half, from DOLLAR, March 1860 to October 1861. WELLSFARCO & CO — Source

26

CRACKED.COM WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE LEWIS AND CLARK CRAPPED. The Lewis and Clark expedition carried mercury pills that were used to treat pretty much everything (including, ahem, syphilis). The location of the latrines in their Lolo, Montana campsite is known because of the mercury in the soil. — Source

25

THE ROMAN EMPIRE DIDN'T JUST FALL OVERNIGHT. Yes, Rome was taken by Germanic invaders in 479-which had happened other times, SO not much changed that day. The Eastern Roman Empire-which was more important by then- lasted another 1,000 years. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CRACKED.COM WE DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING IN NIXON'S TAPES. Nixon's White House tapes contain over 3,500 hours of recordings. About 200 make reference to Watergate. By the time of Nixon's death in 1994, only 63 hours had been made public. — Source

23

29 Vital Bits of Trivia to Etch Into a Gold Record and Launch Into Space — Source

22

WEIRD WORLD Boris Johnson said no-one told him lockdown parties were a no-no. That was his defense against criticism for holding garden parties during lockdown, apparently. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

WEIRD WORLD To show patriorism, police in Hong Kong are now going to be goose-stepping. Apparently, it's a switch from the marching drills they used to do, and which dates back to British colonial times. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

WEIRD WORLD Lay's is now making chips from potatoes grown in NFL stadium dirt. The new, limited-edition Golden Grounds chips are literally grown in soil that was taken from NFL stadiums and fields. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

WEIRD WORLD The Holy Father left the Vatican to visit a record shop and buy a CD. Не went to a shop in Rome, in full Papal robes and all, and came out holding a CD. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

WEIRD WORLD A company can't figure out how it spent 460 million dollars. A 390 6556960 - DOLLA THE RESERVE VISTE TEEK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA D adidas IK1758282A Mode 05471231 4 DERAL RESERVE NOTE NOTE B EU 50 SHL FirstEnergy was supposed to spend that money on modernizing its electric grid, CRACKED.COM happened. but there's zero evidence that that actually — Source

17

WEIRD WORLD A moose got trapped in a basement in Colorado, somehow. Apparently, it was grazing nearby, and managed to fall into a basement. Не wouldn't climb up the stairs (unsurprisingly), and wildlife officers had to get pretty resourceful in getting him out. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

38 Years CRACKED.COM According to Guiness World Records, the oldest cat was Creme Puff, who lived to be an incredible 38 years and 3 days. — Source

15

$800 million GRACKED.COM Forbes estimated Girl Scouts make about $800 million from cookie sales. — Source

14

1,673.5 tons CRACKED.COM 1,673.5 tons of mustard gas is stockpiled by the U.S. government, to be destroyed by 2024. — Source

13

51 years old CRACKED COM O.Z. Whitehead was 51 when he played a teenager in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. — Source

12

$5 million CRACKED COM $5 million is the estimated amount Goyte gave up by not allowing pre-roll ads on YouTube for his music video for Somebody That I Used to Know — Source

11

Spartacus

76,000 people CRACKED.COM The sound crew from Spartacus went to a Michigan State Spartans game, directing over 76,000 people to scream and cheer to use in the movie's soundtrack. — Source

10

$1 CRACKED.COM James Cameron sold the script for The Terminator for $1, under the condition that he could be the director. — Source

9

When the Berlin Wall fell, banana sales exploded. Titanic adid - Zonen-Gaby (17) im Glück (BRD) Meine erste Banane f nt - Informa I East Germany only got mushy brown bananas, so when the Wall came down, East Germans went crazy for unripe green bananas. There's a joke that they rose up for bananas, not democracy, and whenever a long line forms, Germans say, Are they handing out bananas or what? CRACKED COM — Source

8

A Civil War battle stopped so the soldiers could watch a fistfight. In the Battle of the Wilderness, a Confederate and a Union soldier hiding in the same gully began to duke it out after trying, and failing, to capture each other. Soon, both sides stopped firing and got closer so they could cheer on their dude. (The Union guy lost, and got captured.) CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Salt Lake City has the widest streets of any major U.S. city. At 130 feet, they're twice as wide as Manhattan's. CRACKED.COM Brigham Young, the Mormon president who planned the city, chose the wide streets so settlers could turn their cattle around without resorting to profanity. — Source

6

CRACKED.COM Ellen Degeneres inspired Dory's most recognizable trait even before she signed on to portray the forgetful fish. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton was struggling to write the character without it sounding annoying until he heard Ellen Degeneres changing topics mid-sentence five times on The Ellen Show. Dory was then modeled after the way Degeneres speaks. — Source

5

In The Little Mermaid, Ariel got her red hair to set her apart from Splash's Madison. She was originally meant to be blonde, but five years earlier, Splash came out, featuring Daryl Hannah as a blonde mermaid. Disney wanted to make Ariel stand out, so they went with red, giving Ariel her iconic look. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

24's Jack Bauer keeps shouting Damn it! because that was the only option. The creators needed to have him yell something when he's angry, but anything other than a curse word felt forced. Damn it! was the only one they could run on network TV, so they used that every time. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Sirius Black HARRY POTTER CRACKED.COM One of the better known ones, Sirius is the dog star, and Sirius Black turns into a black dog. It also supplies the name of Sirius ХМ, the satellite radio company your dad still inexplicably pays for. — Source

2

Rogue's abilities of durability, flight, and super strength were stolen... from Carol Danvers. A young Rogue helped Mystique ambush Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel. ELC She absorbed all of the heroine's powers and put her in a coma. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

CRACKED.COM According to an official book... Jake Blues was Elwood Blues the son of a was abandoned woman in prison at a newspaper for murdering stand. her husband. — Source

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