Here’s What A Five-Hour Grindset Sleep Schedule Does to Your Brain

‘The Simpsons’ Actually Benefited From a Devastating Natural Disaster

5 of the Most Dangerous Cars Ever Made

Phil Hendrie Shares His Lessons from Playing Principal Vagina on ‘Rick and Morty’

50 Hilarious Tweets About Family to Print Out and Show to Your Grandpa

35 Random Bits of Trivia That Have Never Been Contacted by the Outside World

They appear to be not only peaceful, but highly advanced

35 Random Bits of Trivia That Have Never Been Contacted by the Outside World

May 04, 2024

There’s so much to learn from these isolated bits of trivia — at least for those who have ears to listen.

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

35

King Mithridates of Pontus had a flock of poisonous ducks. CRACKED.COM These birds consumed poisonous plants and didn't die, making them useful for creating antidotes. However, their blood, meat, and eggs could kill you if you ingested them. — Source

34

It rains iron on the gas giant 51 Pegasi В. CRACKED.COM The planet is located 50 light years away from us and has temperatures reaching 1000 to 2000°C (3632 degrees Fahrenheit). The gasses that make up the planet would be so hot that it would glow red. — Source

33

A Greek playwright was killed by a falling tortoise. CRACKED.COM An eagle mistook the bald head of Aeschylus for a rock, and dropped the reptile on him, thinking its shell would break. — Source

32

115 people died in a stampede at a church in 1902. HILOH BAPTIST CHURGH Rev.T.W.WALKER. PASTAR PHO CRACKED COM The congregation at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Alabama mistook a cry of FIGHT! for FIRE! and stampeded to the exits. — Source

31

There is a Native American lake named Chargoggagoggmanchaugga- goggchaubunagungamaugg. GRACKED COM It means you fish on your side, I fish on my side, and no one fishes in the middle. It is known more commonly as Lake Chaubunagungamaug or Webster Lake. — Source

30

Nikola Tesla shunned physical contact with other people, with a special aversion to touching hair. GRACKED.COM To avoid shaking hands with people he met, he lied that he had injured his hands in a laboratory accident. Не was just ahead of the game in that respect. — Source

29

6 planes crashed trying to rescue plane-crash survivors in 1942. ASIANA AIRLINE UNIOR - GRACKED.COM The original plane crash-landed due to bad winter weather in Greenland. Survivors of the subsequent crashes spent up to 5.5 months taking shelter on a glacier waiting for help. — Source

28

Emma Watson almost didn't return to the Harry Potter franchise after the fifth installment. CRACKED.COM She had considered not returning for The Half Blood Prince, but decided that she wouldn't be able to watch someone else play Hermione. — Source

27

A surrealist poet read the palms of prisoners going to the Nazi gas chambers, predicting long life. GRAGKED.COM Robert Desnos' readings predicting longevity, more children, and abundant joy were made with such contagious excitement that the guards were unable to go through with the executions. — Source

26

As a 12-year-old slave boy in 1841 invented the technique for pollinating vanilla orchids profitably. GRACKED.COM It's unlikely that vanilla would be nearly as well known as it is today without Edmond Albius' technique. — Source

25

A member of Dutch parliament is a Somali-born woman who escaped and sought asylum in the Netherlands. CRACKED.COM Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a victim of genital mutilation and married off to her cousin. She is now an activist for women's rights and opposes honor violence and child marriage. — Source

24

Kermit the Frog made Danny Trejo cry on the set of The Muppets: Most Wanted! CRACKED.COM Trejo's mother passed away during filming, but he shrugged off most of the sympathy from the cast because of his tough guy persona. When Steve Whitmire apologized in character as Kermit, Trejo broke down. — Source

23

Nike had conditions before giving rookie Michael Jordan a contract, and he blew all of them out of the water. CRACKED.COM Jordan had to be rookie of the year, or average 20 ppg, or be an All Star, or sell $4 million worth shoes in a year. Не was rookie of the year, scored 28.2 ppg, named All Star, and Nike sold $100 mill of shoes in 1984-85. — Source

22

Roman busts sometimes had removable hair so that you could update it with the current fashion. CRACKED.COM It would have been too expensive to commission a new bust every time hair fashion changed, so a mix-and-match bust would have been preferable for women with less money. — Source

21

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson each picked John С Calhoun to be their running mate in 1824. CRACKED.COM Calhoun was vehemently opposed to nearly all of Adams's policies, but he did nothing to dissuade Adams supporters from voting for him for vice president. — Source

20

The Blue Marble

The Blue Marble is the only whole-earth photo taken by human hands. It was taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of about 18,000 miles from the planet's surface. No one has since been far enough from earth to take a similar picture. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

Sex toys are illegal in India, and their sale punishable by 2 years in prison. When a Canadian compa- ny tried to patent a vibra- tor, the patent office said the obscenity law has never engaged positively with the notion of sexual pleasure. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

There is a river basin in Venezuela that gets pounded by lightning strikes. The lighting can hit over 200 times per hour for up to 10 hours straight. It ос- curs more than 100 times a year and is predictable up to a few months in ad- vance. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

Wrigley didn't start off selling gum, it was just an incentive to buy baking powder. WRIGLEY'S SPEARMINT THE PERFECT GUM TRADE MARKS REGISTERED FIVE STICKS Healthful-Refreshing-Delicious TORONTO Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Limited. CANADA William Wrigley Jr. offered baking powder as an incen- tive to buy soap. The bak- ing powder proved to be more popular so he started selling it, offering gum as an incentive, which became even more popular. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

Unilever

Dove and Axe are owned. by the same company, Unilever. Unilever One promotes female self-confidence by re-de- fining beauty while the other advertises itself us- ing highly sexualized imag- es of women. They're play- ing both sides so they al- ways come out on top. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

The Cuckoo bumblebee has lost the ability to collect pollen and to rear their brood. Once a female has infiltrat- ed a host colony, she will kill/subdue the queen of that colony and forcibly enslave the workers of that colony to feed her and her developing young. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

The South Korean government produced kimchi that was safe for their astronaut to take onto the ISS. Top government research institutes spent millions of dollars and several years perfecting a version that would not turn dangerous when exposed to cosmic rays or other forms of radi- ation. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

The US banned sliced bread in 1943 for two months, until the public demanded its return. This was meant as a war- time conservation mea- sure, as sliced bread need- ed heavier wrapping to stay fresh. One housewife wrote to the NY Times ex- plaining pre-sliced bread kept her household sane. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

Henry A. Wallace ran for President promising an equal wage for women and African-Americans in 1944. As a kid, he was taught farming by George Wash- ington Carver. Не was cheated by party politics despite being more pop- ular than any other candi- date at the time. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

Sea water released by large ships causes billions of dollars worth of economical damage. Large ships use seawater as ballast; the water con- tains all sorts of living or- ganisms which when re- leased, results in the spread of invasive species around the world. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd, almost won the first Oscar for best actor. The Academy be- lieved that this new idea of handing out these Oscars could possibly be damaged by the first Best Actor being a dog. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

9

A snail's mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but it can have over 25,000 teeth. But their teeth aren't located on the jaws - they're actually locat- ed on the radula, the snail's version of a tongue. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

During the Battle of Stalingrad, factories in the city continued to produce tanks. These tanks, unpainted and lacking gunsights, were driven directly from the factory floor to the front line and were often crewed by factory workers. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

While shooting 'Deliverance' Burt Reynolds insisted on doing a stunt himself instead of a dummy. During the stunt, he got injured and his clothes came off. Waking up in hospital, he asked the di- rector what it looked like, who said, It looked like a dummy falling over a waterfall. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

Gulag is actually an acronym. It means Glavnoye Upra- vleniye LAGerej, which translates to Main Ad- ministration of Corrective Labor Camps and Settle- ments. Gulag sounds a lot more menacing. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

Actress Carole Lombard lost her life after a coin flip. The highest paid actress of the 30s and Clark Gable's wife, Carole flipped a coin on whether to return home by plane or train. Her flight crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

The first recorded battle in history was the Battle of Megiddo in 1457 В.С. It left such an impression on the Levantine people there that they believed the final battle of humani- ty would take place there as well. That's where the word Armageddon comes from. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

3

Every waist-expanding fast food item we love is thanks to a food scientist named Tom Ryan. Не invented Jif Peanut Butter, Pizza Hut's dou- ble-stuffed pizza, the Mc- Griddle, McDonald's fruit & yogurt parfait, Smashburg- er, the Meat-lovers Pizza and McDonald's entire Dol- lar Menu. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

Ford had a concept nuclear-powered car called the Nucleon in the 1950's. The vehicle was to be powered by a small nu- clear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possi- ble by reducing sizes. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

The first doughnut machine was made in 1920 to meet the demand following WW1. Adolph Levitt, a Jewish refugee who came to America fleeing czarist Russia, designed the ma- chine and began selling fried doughnuts from his Harlem bakery in New York City. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

Tags:

Visual

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Movies & TV

4 Fan Theories That Explain Why Movies Make No Sense

Movies & TV

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia We Plucked From a Lion’s Paw

Trivia & Jokes

36 Ridiculous Lies People Believed for Far Too Long

Trivia & Jokes

36 Random Bits of Trivia to Take Daily on A Full Stomach and An Empty Brain

Trivia & Jokes

40 Random Bits of Trivia That Other Random Bits of Trivia Look to for Guidance

Science & History

44 Myths, Miconceptions and Counterintuitive Facts That Made Your Brain Zig While Reality Zagged

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

19 Awesome Survival Tips (You’ll Probably Never Need)

2

21 Sequels That Missed The Originals' Point

3

The 5 Most Spectacular Landscapes on Earth (That Murder You)

4

4 Fan Theories That Explain Why Movies Make No Sense

5

11 Are-You-Kidding-Me Revelations From Celebrity Tell-Alls