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We’ve got a shoebox full of facts

42 Random Bits of Trivia That We Just Uncrumpled and Laid Out Nicely Like Receipts at Tax Season

November 08, 2024

Okay, so these facts are a little rough around the edges. So what? You’re gonna pretend like you’re not gonna read them anyways?

You know, reading a couple classier facts doesn’t make you Mr. Big Shot all of a sudden. Where are those classy facts now, huh?

Yeah, that’s what we thought. Those pretty boys might come around every once in a while, but if you’re as thirsty for knowledge as we think you are, these salt-of-the-Earth factoids will always be here for you.

42

The Inventor of the Saxophone

CRACKED THE INVENTOR OF THE SAXOPHONE ALMOST DIED IN THE WEIRDEST WAYS Adolphe Sax had many close calls with death - falling on his head, swallowing a sharp pin, falling into a fire, drinking toxic chemicals, being knocked out and thrown into a river, an explosion, and even a cancerous tumor. — Mel Magazine / ABC

41

Old Orphan

When a shy 15-year-old orphan named Francisco showed up at a French school, teachers enrolled him. He was actually 31. Frederic Bourdin pulled it off by slumping his shoulders, dressing as a teenager, and hiding his bald spot with a baseball cap. If anyone asked, he said he had been abused, and wore the hat to hide the scars. CRACKED.COM http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/08/11/the-chameleon-2* — Source: The 27 Weirdest Lies That Everyone Believed

40

Dog Carrying Day

There is a special holiday in China where dogs are carried around like royalty. CRACKED COM Dog Carrying Day is a holi- day where villagers in China dress up a dog and carry it around on a throne to honor a legend where a dog saved the village by leading the people to water. — Independent

39

Roar

Behind-The-Scenes Accidents 1981 Roar Hey, let's shoot a comedy about a guy living with a bunch of lions and tigers. What could possibly go wrong? Injuries during the two-year shoot are estimated to be between 50 and 100, and future Speed director Jan de Bont had his scalp torn by a lion, requiring 220 stitches. CRACKED.COM — Source

38

Our Senses

MYTH: HUMAN BEINGS HAVE FIVE senses. TOUCH TASTE SIGHT HEARING SMELL FACT: You've ACTUALLY GOT SOMETHING LIKE 15. Scientists still aren't quite sure exactly how many senses you have, or what even constitutes a sense, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one who believes you have just five. Depending on how they count senses, experts usually wind up with somewhere between 14 and 20. There's your sense of time, your sense of where your body is, and so on. CRACKED.COM http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/question242.htm — Source

37

Hiroshima

12 American POWs were being held in Hiroshima when the nuclear bomb went off. And 9 of them were crewmembers of the same plane, the B-24 bomber Lonesome Lady. CRACKED.COM — Source

36

The Stepford Wives

CRACKED.com Matthew Broderick hugely regretted being in The Stepford Wives. He says that there was nothing fun about making it, his role wasn't int

35

Thimbles

42 Random Bits of Trivia That We Just Uncrumpled and Laid Out Nicely Like Receipts at Tax Season — Source: Global Citizen

34

Police Warrants

MYTH: Police can't enter your home without a warrant, right? FACT: They can, if they think you're up to something. On the cop shows, police are like vampires-they can't come in unless you invite them. But in the real world, they can invoke exigent circumstances, an emergency regulation that permits officers to enter a building without a warrant. They're allowed to do it as long as they think evidence is about to be destroyed, someone's in danger, or a suspect is fleeing. Please note the phrase if they think. CRACKED.COM https://definitions.uslegal.com/e/exigent-circumstances/ — Source

33

Maryland

WEIRD WORLD In Maryland, a lawmaker who's also a surgeon tried to combine those jobs. Terri Hill showed up in virtual legislative meetings while literally in the middle of surgery - and got fined a total of $15,000 for it. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

McDonald’s

The first McDonald's drive-thru opened next to a military base in Arizona. 5 McDonald's SERVICE SYSTEM HAMBURGERS McDonald's 25 have Sold OVER 1 MILLION Soldiers at the base couldn't show up in public in a work or duty uniform, so a drive-thru was set up to allow them to buy at McDonald's anyway. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Welshite

Welshite was formally described by Paul Brian Moore, arguably the greatest mineralogist of the 20th century. Не named it after the science teacher, Wilfred R. Welsh, an amateur mineralogist, biker and fossil collector, who inspired him. Nothing shite about that. CRACKED — Source

30

Harold and Maude

In order to get the classic 1971 film Harold and Maude made, producer Robert Evans lied to the executives and didn't tell them that the movie's romanc

29

Earth’s Water

Earth's water If you put all the water on Earth into a sphere, it would be 860 miles in diameter. That's the distance from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Topeka, Kansas. CRACKED — USGS.gov
USGS.gov

28

Wine

Thomas Jefferson dollar had a wine habit. CRACKED COM He spent over $1 million per year having that good European wine imported to the states. Impress — 5 Famous People Who Lost Everything (For Stupid Reasons)

27

Saturday Night Live

THE BEES BELUSHI ET AL INTERNATION CRACKED.COM One of the show's first notes from meddling network execs: Cut the bees. Lorne Michaels responded by inserting the Bees into nearly every episode of Season One, making them the show's first recurring characters. — Source

26

Hattie McDaniel

The first African American to win an Oscar was sat at a segregated table. CRACKED.COM When Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940, for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind, she had to make her way to the stage from a segregated table at the back of the room. — Hollywood Reporter

25

The Tooth Fairy

GRACKED.COM SEITE TEAM UNITED NOVESSAR OF AMERICA DD160755588 Kids earn an average of $4.13 per lost tooth in the US. That's four times the minimum wage per hour in Mexico. — Source

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24

Schitt’s Creek

EASTER EGGSTRA REFERENCES & HIDDEN MEANINGS CRACKED.COM SCHITT'S CREEK David's sweaters. In the series finale, the show pays tribute to all of David's signature sweaters by having them neatly stacked in a drawer in the background. — Source: 16 Easter Eggs And Hidden Meanings In 'Schitt's Creek'

23

Dudley Do-Right

42 Random Bits of Trivia That We Just Uncrumpled and Laid Out Nicely Like Receipts at Tax Season — Source: YouTube

22

Jason Statham

Sport Celebrities Jason Statham was on the national British diving team. Before becoming a Hollywood action star, he dove in the 1990 Commonwealth Games. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Saran Wrap

CRACKED SARAN WRAP IS PROBABLY IN YOUR BRAIN. A new study shows that food plastic wrap sheds microplastics that can cross the blood brain barrier in two hours. — Source

20

Boulder, Colorado

CRACKED BOULDER'S FIRST FIRE TRUCK AND POLICE CAR CRASHED INTO EACH OTHER. They were both on their way to the same emergency. B.F.D. — Boulder Historical Society
5 Utter Failures from History’s First Fire Departments

19

Allergies

CRACKED DISCOVERING OUR ALLERGIES MIGHT COME FROM NEANDERTHALS Two 2015 studies showed that some people are more likely to have hay fever and other allergies due to genes they inherited from Neanderthals. This suggests that Neanderthal DNA helped our ancestors to be more resistant to illnesses. — NPR

18

Q*Bert

TIL The Q*Bert arcade game had a special knocker inside the cabinet. PLAYER 1 12820 CHANGE TO: LEVEL 2 ROUND: 1 CRACKED.COM A plunger that strikes a mounting bracket would make a physical knock when Q*Bert fell off the stage, landing inside the arcade cabinet. — Edge

17

Poop Test

Think all poop stinks? Not to your mother. Scientists found that when mothers sniffed and rated various samples of baby poop, they reported that poop from their own babies smelled less nasty. It actually makes sense. If mothers are less disgusted by their own children, they'll take better care of them. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Renting Prison Cells

WEIRD WORLD Denmark is going to rent 300 prison cells a year from the country of Kosovo. e ROOM Denmark has been dealing with prison overcrowding, and apparently this is the solution. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

The Godfather

Best Movies Ever The Godfather The horse head was real. Francis Ford Coppola didn't find the original prop convincing, so they just found a soon-to-be- terminated horse and managed to have its head shipped to the set on an ice bucket. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

The Office

Little League teammates CRACKED.COM Before they were castmates on The Office, BJ Novak and John Krasinski were in the same Little League and went to high school together. — Amazing Celebrity Connections

13

Vanilla Ice

Vanilla Ice flips houses the CRACKED.COM Ice started studying real estate in the 90's, and became surprisingly adept at investing in and remodeling homes. Не now owns Vanilla Ice Real Estate, and has a show on the DIY Network. — Source: 15 Famous Musicians Who Quit The Scene For (Relatively) Normal Jobs

12

Frida Kahlo

A millionaire burned a $10 million work of art to sell as an NFT. CRACKED.COM Martin Mobarak burned an illustration by Frida Kahlo, which was from her diary, claiming Kahlo would have liked to de- stroy her works for the benefit of others. — Cultura Colectiva

11

Surviving Siberia

A 3-year-old girl named Karina Chikitova survived 11 days in the Siberian wilderness with her dog. CRACKED.COM She ate wild berries and drank from a river, curling up next to her dog for warmth. She was saved when her dog went back to her village and guided rescuers to her. — Huffington Post

10

Smiling

CRACKED SMILES CAN BE DECEIVING IN SOME PLACES. Smiling varies in how it's seen across cultures - sometimes seen as positive, other times seen as a sign of less intelligence. Also, when corruption is high, people don't trust those who smile. — Springer / Chopra

9

World War I

In WWI, a random Russian got kidnapped by his own country's peace negotiators. 6281 The team negotiating Russia's withdrawal from WWI planed to bring a peasant (to represent the common people), but on the way to the train, they realized they forgot him. So they snatched a badly dressed guy off the street, and next thing he knew, he was talking to European princes. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

8

The Crips

The Crips began as a neighborhood watch. According to Stanley Tookie Williams, he started recruiting other boys to form a watch against the street gangs that troubled South Central Los Angeles. Eventually, Tookie's group gained strength and became the Crips, one of the largest gangs in the world themselves. Oops. CRACKED COM — Source

7

China

The Chinese Navy used multi-stage rockets in the 14th century. Images NASA, Wikimedia Commons That's 100 years before Columbus stumbled across the Atlantic and invented American slavery. GRACKED COM — Source

6

Beats by Dre

42 Random Bits of Trivia That We Just Uncrumpled and Laid Out Nicely Like Receipts at Tax Season

5

Montel Williams

Montel Williams MONTEL MONTEL M> EXTACI BAPSLES E ETMACT 2242 CAPSWES MONTE AX EB #88845 CRACKEDCO After he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, he dedicated his life to finding an alternative to wrecking his body with opioids. The fruits of his labor are Montel Hemp Extract Capsules, which — Source: Forbes

4

Scranton, Pennsylvania

The Office made Scranton thrive. The show wasn't actually shot in ORL Scranton, but it still BEST brought windfall to OSs a the sleepy Pennsylvania town. Fans can book Office-themed tours in the place where Dunder Mifflin never existed, or eat sandwiches named after the characters in theme restaurants. — More: 6 Normal Towns That Became Weirdo Tourist Hotspots

3

Gary Coleman

CRACKED When GARY COLEMAN turned 18, he found his accounts basically empty. Не sued his parents, and was awarded $1.3 million, but after legal fees and medical bills, he soon went bankrupt. — Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock
Insider

2

Oldboy

42 Random Bits of Trivia That We Just Uncrumpled and Laid Out Nicely Like Receipts at Tax Season

1

Canadian Radio Stations

CANADA You MUST play 35% Canadian music. JUSTIN BIEBER NICKELEACK SILVER SIDE UP MY WORLD 2.0 Canadian radio stations have to blast 21 minutes of Cana — Source: Canada.ca

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