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29 Brilliant and Gorgeous Bits of Trivia That Have Been Training Their Whole Lives for This Trivia Pageant

Facts… the pep in your brain’s step

29 Brilliant and Gorgeous Bits of Trivia That Have Been Training Their Whole Lives for This Trivia Pageant

January 05, 2024

All their lives, these facts have dreamed of greatness. When an Excel spreadsheet cost JPMorgan $6 billion, that little fact sprung to life and thought to itself, “One day, everyone is gonna know me!” Well, little fact, that day has finally come. Soak up the limelight.

29

In the 17th century, the English village of Eyam voluntarily quarantined to save others. The decision cut their population by 260, but it meant the bubonic plague didn't spread to nearby villages and the towns of Sheffield and Bakewell. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

‘American’ Cheese

The process for making American cheese was actually created in Switzerland. The original motivation was to reduce waste involved in making cheese, and the technique was perfected in the US in 1916 and then patented. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Saving Private Ryan helped get Tom Hanks in the Army Ranger Hall of Fame. Не became an honorary member not just for his portrayal of a Ranger, but also for his campaigning for the recognition of the honor of those who served. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Danny DeVito dubbed the Lorax's voice in five languages he didn't speak. They were German, Russian, Italian, and Catalan and Castilian Spanish. The movie was a piece of cake compared to the Russian dub, he said. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Country music star Reba McEntire was supposed to be in Titanic. She turned down the role of The Unsinkable Molly Brown because she was touring and had a lot of people on the payroll, so it went to Kathy Bates. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Martin Scorsese's dad has a cameo in Goodfellas -- he plays Vinnie. Vinnie is in Paulie's close circle, and he shows up three times - - a at the wedding; when Henry talks about their time in prison; and when Tommy gets killed. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES' РОО IS NORMALLY BRIGHT ORANGE This is due to a diet of tiny crustaceans called copepods. One researcher said it floats but has the worst stink of any fecal matter. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

ALMOST 90% OF PEOPLE LIVE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE That's where most of the land and temperate climate zone (for now) are at. Also, China and India. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

RESEARCHERS HAVE PAINTED EYES ON COW BUTTS In a four year study in Botswana, researchers discovered that fake eyes on cattle's bums prevented attacks from predators. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

EMMA MORANO WAS BORN IN 1899 AND DIED IN 2017 Morano was the last documented person born in the 1800s to die. She died at age 117, citing her old age to genes, eating three eggs a day, and being single. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INTRODUCED TOFU TO THE UNITED STATES Franklin wrote the first known letter that references tofu (what he called Chinese cheese) to reach American soil. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

‘German’ Chocolate Cake

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE DOESN'T COME FROM GERMANY German's chocolate is named after Sam German, who is believed to be American or English. The cake recipe came from a Texas homemaker. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

THE ANGLO-ZANZIBAR WAR LASTED ABOUT 40 MINUTES It's considered the shortest war in history. About 500 Zanzibari soldiers and civilians died. One British seaman died. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

The Empire State Building

New York City has a total of 41 buildings that have their own ZIP code. One of them is the Empire State Building, with the ZIP code 10118. Most of the buildings are in midtown, but there are some in the Financial District. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

The deadliest recorded blizzard, from 1972, wiped about 200 villages off the map. It ripped through Iran and Azerbaijan, and it killed about 4,000 people in Iran alone. Amazingly, it left up to 26 feet of snow in its wake. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

We've found out that some plants produce noise when they're stressed. They're ultrasonic clicks that humans can't hear, and plants begin making them if they're being harmed .. say, if they're suffering drought or being attacked. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

A fake diplomat saved thousands of Jews during World War II. Italian Giorgio Perlasca was very much for fascism until it turned, you know, fascistic. So after seeking refuge in neutral Spain, he pretended to be a diplomat and started working to give Hungarian Jews certificates of protection. Over 5,000 people were saved this way. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Sugar can keep wounds from festering. Sugar is a common treatment for wounds in some parts of the world, as it's pretty much the cheapest, most attainable remedy. It turns out the sweet stuff is great, as it removes moisture from the wound, killing the bacteria. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

A molasses flood killed 21 people. The Great Molasses Flood wasn't some medieval, pseudo-mythical event - it happened in Boston in 1919. 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst from a tank, and the almost- biblical flood swallowed everything in its path. 21 people died and 150 were injured. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

The Crypto Doctrine

A video game lets you steal art for real (or at least NFTs). The Crypto Doctrine is as close as a game can get to art theft, in that you can steal actual NFTs, for real. It's only fitting that the NFTs were made without the consent of the original artists. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

The Thinking of the First Homicide Detectives

It was believed that murdered corpses bled in the presence of their killers. This belief that victims oozed cries of revenge didn't fully die out until the early 1800s. Cruentation, as the phenomenon was called, was even weighted more heavily than actual evidence of murder. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Porn

CRACKED COM Romans had porn coins. Coins with sexy imagery have been found for centuries, going back to the early times of the Roman Empire. Regular money, however, wasn't X-rated- so it isn't clear what the deal with these was. It's been theorized they were tokens to be used at brothels. — Source

7

OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NO FEDERAL The FBI spent two PIDELITY ER years investigating a BUREAU fake anti-Goth group. Among the many online groups the FBI keeps tabs on was an Е.Д.Д. x extremist church which ran a website called God Hates - of do my membership et GAL - Goths. The group wasn't real, though- as the agents found out when they thought of checking the site's About Us page, after over two years of investigating them. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

The original settlers of Madagascar really went out of their way to get there. You'd think that Madagascar was first settled by people coming from Africa - and you'd be wrong. Madagascar's indigeous population are descended from people who canoed all the way from Indonesia, 3,000 miles away. The motivation for that long trip is still a mystery. CRACKED COM — Source

5

Insert Home Page Cut Ca Copy Using Excel cost JPMorgan billions. You'd think that a huge financial company would use something fancier than Excel. JPMorgan didn't - to assess risky investments, they relied on a complex series of spreadsheets. Predictably, small errors snowballed, eventually costing the company over $6 billion in 2012. В A CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Paper airplanes have existed for thousands of years. The Chinese have been folding paper into flying shapes for the last 2,000 years. Of course, they didn't call them airplanes- those were more like simple origami birds. Paper planes as we know them today date back to the Civil War, when they were called paper darts. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Marisol Nichols

CRACKED.COM Riverdale's Marisol Nichols fights sex criminals in real life. In the lulls of her acting job, Nichols moonlights as an undercover agent, helping the FBI hunt down sex predators. It sounds like the premise for a TV show - so of course, it's been turned into a TV show by Sony Pictures Television. — Source

2

GRACKED.COM People used to get poisoning from potatoes. Before modern screening processes, it wasn't uncommon for people to get solanine poisoning from potatoes. Solanine is one of the same ingredients that make deadly nightshade, well, deadly. Green potatoes tend to be chock-full of the nasty stuff. — Source

1

Looney Tunes

Bugs Bunny was a reskinned Daffy Duck. The first cartoon featuring Daffy Duck was very well received - so people over at Warner Bros. just went and ripped off their own hit, changing the loony duck for a loony rabbit. Then Bugs was further developed with the years, becoming the trickster we know today. CRACKED.COM — Source

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