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25 Bits of Trivia to Clog Up Your Gob

Open wide! Here come the facts!

25 Bits of Trivia to Clog Up Your Gob

April 10, 2024 Add Cracked to Google

Because a few of us have little ones at home, we’re getting pretty familiar with spoon helicopters. Since you’re old enough to be reading this, you most likely don’t need us to helicopter spoon-feed you these facts. But why not, right? If you were ancient royalty, you’d let us feed you grapes, wouldn’t you? Just lay back and enjoy!

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25

Peach Black is a deep blue-black pigment that saved lives During WWI, Peach Black was used in gas masks to fight against chlorine gas NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Lions bang like crazy. They breed during a window of several days every two years, and they get it on every 20-30 minutes --they can get up to 50 rounds in 24 hours. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Ye wasn't really used to mean the in Old English Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese The 'th' sound used to be written with a 'p.' Early printers didn't have a 'p' so they used 'y' because it looked similar. Ye was revived in the 19th century to make things sound quaintly old timey. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Laika was the first animal to be launched in the Earth's orbit Laika the dog was part of the Soviet space program. She died from stress only a few hours after the launch. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

We didn't always have the same North Star. Due to a slight wobble of the Earth's axis, the North Star changes. When humans were building the Pyramids, the star Thuban was used for Northern guidance. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

There are exactly as many cicada songs as there are cicada species in existence. Each species of cicada has its own song, and they're all really mating calls - - they're sung by masses of cicada males trying to attract females. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

CRACKED.COM A pandemic in the 19th century was blamed on the telegraph. Just like conspiracy theorists today think 5G is the cause for COVID-19, the Russian Flu of 1889 was blamed on telegraph wires. Since affected towns were linked together by the telegraph, some people just jumped to the obvious conclusion. — Source

18

The Colorization of I Love Lucy

CRACKED.COM A fan colorizes I Love Lucy better than CBS. When CBS started colorizing / Love Lucy, Lucille Ball's hair ended up looking like some radioactive carrot. Zach Smothers of Pop-colorture.com doesn't have CBS' budget, but he managed to get much better results. — Source

17

The Third-World

CRACKED.COM Third-world country doesn't mean poor country. RUSSIA CANADA BONKOLIA UNITED STATES CHIWA KOREA LibH SAND - - - - BRAZIL AUSTI During the Cold War, the countries allied with the U.S. were the First World, while those in the Second World were with the USSR. If your country was neutral, rich or poor, that made it Third World. — Source

16

She-Hulk

CRACKED.COM She-Hulk was created for copyright reasons. With The Incredible Hulk being successful on TV, Marvel feared a spin-off would be made featuring a female version of the character. So they tasked Stan Lee with creating her himself, just to make sure they would own the rights. — Source

15

CRACKED.COM Shops used X-rays to check the fitting of shoes. Sure, just trying on the shoe is often enough, but using a shoe-fitting fluoroscope was undeniably cooler. Too bad that people in the '30s didn't understand how stupidly irresponsible and dangerous this was. — Source

14

Debt in China

CRACKED.COM China publicly shames people in debt. when 2002 and If you're Chinese, you'd better not fall behind in paying your debts. If you do, you'll see your name and face on giant screens-like in the theater, right before a movie. Millions of deadbeats are tracked and shamed by the government. — Source

13

CRACKED.COM Being a camera operator is deadlier than being a stunt performer. Movie stunts are quite risky - especially for the people getting them on camera. When stunts go wrong, four camera operators die on average for every dead stunt performer. — Source

12

CRACKED.COM Dracula's Castle is just some random keep. Vlad the Impaler lived in the currently ruined Poenari Castle, in Wallachia, Romania. As Bran Castle is better looking and easier to reach (not to mention that it's actually in Transylvania), it's peddled to tourists as the real Dracula Castle. — Source

11

CRACKED.COM Alien eggs were made to look less genital to avoid Catholic backlash. H.R. Giger had designed the top of the eggs in Alien to look like a vulva. But the producers thought that that wouldn't fly in Catholic countries, so Giger modified the opening (so now it looked like a cross instead). — Source

10

95% of Mongolians are lactose intolerant, even though their diet relies on milk from seven mammal species. They can consume milk products only thanks to gut bacteria that digest the lactose for them. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

9

The Matrix

The Matrix's code is a bunch of scrambled sushi recipes. To make the iconic code, production and concept designer Simon Whiteley scanned the kanji from his wife's Japanese cookbooks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

8

In 1777, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode through New York to rally American troops. Colonel Ludington received a warning about an incoming British attack, but had to prepare for the battle, so his daughter rode through the countryside to rally his men. She rode all night in the rain, covering 20 to 40 miles, and mobilized hundreds of soldiers. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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7

Someone in New York State bought a Chinese bowl for $3 and sold it for $2.2 million. They bought it at a tag sale and, a few years later, started getting curious about where it came from. So they had it assessed, and realized it was about 1,000 years old. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Cleopatra is remembered as a beautiful seductress only in Europe and the U.S. In the Islamic world, she's remembered as a scholar. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen aren't identical twins. They're fraternal twins (or, technically, sororal twins), which means they grew from different En X eggs. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Ed Sullivan censored. the Rolling Stones (and they hated it). When they appeared on the show in 1967, they were told that Let's spend the night together is a bit too much and they should change it to Let's spend some time together. So they did, but Mick Jagger rolled his eyes every time he said the line (and managed to slip in the original version at one point). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

3

In the 19th century, pioneering investigative journalist Nellie Bly feigned madness to get into the Blackwell's Island Women's Lunatic Asylum in New York. She was there for 10 days, and witnessed appalling abuse, like patients begging for water all night and nurses refusing to give them any. That led to a grand jury investigation, and she did the same thing in the city's jails, orphanages, factories and other institutions over the next 10 years. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

2

We've found the first planet outside the Milky Way -- in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, 23 million light-years away. This is a big deal because the immense distance makes them so hard to detect, and it only happened because of a rare combination of circumstances. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

1

John Lennon caused a massive backlash by saying the Beatles are more popular than Jesus now. NOT Thou shalt ha SAVE DOWN no other DO THE BEATLES the ? BEATLES GODS TH N BEATLE TODAY. $100,000 before LOSS WHAT TOMORROW? ITY WORLD FREE PRIZES WA SEAGON NKK et adidas BUSINESS M GENERAL NO ROW In the U.S. south, church groups burned Beatles records on bonfires and some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs. In Spain, Mexico and South Africa, people staged anti-Beatles rallies and boycotts. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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