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As far as brain storage goes, we’d replace our siblings’ birthdays for these facts any day!

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Payed a Slap Fighting Champion to Absolutely Wallop Into Our Heads

November 14, 2024

When we heard that forcibly slamming facts into our brains is the best way to drive them in there, we were a little worried that the ensuing concussion would cause us to immediately forget them. Makes sense, right? What good are new facts if brain trauma knocks them right out of you?

Luckily, we were wrong. We didn’t really get a say in the matter, but when we came to, we were pleasantly surprised that these new facts were deeply embedded in our brains.

Are you ready? Butch here is gonna show you how it’s done!

40

Royalty

If you were a king or a queen in centuries past, your intimate life was anything but intimate. Since providing an heir was so important, the royal bumping of the uglies was a state affair, often discussed in official correspondence and Royal sex diplomatic talk. That's how we know, for example, that Louis was a very XVI was hilariously awful in public thing. the sack. CRACKED.COM — Source

39

Sylvester Stallone

CRACKED SYLVESTER STALLONE'S SEVERED NERVE MADE HIM AN ICON. Sylvester Stallone was born with a facial nerve severed, leaving his lip and chin partially paralyzed. Growing up in Hell's Kitchen he faced physical abuse from his father and bullying due to his speech impediment. — Chicago Tribune / Hollywood Reporter

38

George Washington

George Washington was a redhead He powdered his hair, as was fashionable at the time. CRACKED.COM — Source: Mount Vernon

37

The Unknown Soldier

In WWI and WWII, a French village mourned a latrine. During WWI, the villagers of Bourg, France, where general Patton ran a tank school, thought a sealed pit with two crossed sticks was a U.S. soldier's grave. It was a latrine, and the sticks meant keep away. Patton didn't correct them. When he came back in WWII, it was still treated like a grave. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

36

The River Thames

The Great Stink was the peak of reek on the River Thames in 1850's London. After decades of human feces and industrial runoff building up in the river — Source

35

Cleopatra

Cleopatra is known for being the last pharaoh of Egypt, but she was not actually Egyptian. She was Macedonian. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

The Aztecs

Cacao Beans The Aztecs loved chocolate sO much they used cocoa beans as curreNCY.

33

Hollywood’s First Effects Man

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects 1907 The glass shot Known as Hollywood's first effects man, Norman 0. Dawn shot real-life footage through painted settings on glass in 1907's Missions of California. This layering could place an in-studio actor on the edge of a cliff, like Chaplin in 1925's The Gold Rush. CRACKED — United Artists
Film School Rejects

32

Australia

There's a sovereign state inside of Australia CRACKED.COM 5 farms on the Hutt River attempted to secede from Australia in the 1960's a request that the state obviously denied. Except that, in their denial, they referred to the Administrator of Hutt River Province, which actually granted them statehood. To this day, the Province doesn't pay taxes. — Source: The 6 Most Creative Abuses of Loopholes

31

The Inventor of the Ethernet

We'll all get tired of the internet. ROBERT METCALFE GRACKED.COM The guy who co-invented Ethernet predicted the internet would go supernova, and in 1996 will catastrophically collapse. — Source: 15 Impossibly Silly Predictions (Made By Serious People)

30

Pickles

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Payed a Slap Fighting Champion to Absolutely Wallop Into Our Heads — Source: Mental Floss

29

Trains

55 50 5 TRAINS 1850 8 SIERRA RAILROAD CRACKED CON Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia. -Irish professor Dionysius Lardner. We do have high-speed trains now, as well as even faster transport methods. — Source

28

Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel osment could not blink on-screen, at all, in Spielberg's A.I. My dad and I mastered it to make me noticeably different and it worked. But that made the role his hardest one yet, he said at the time. CRACKED.COM — Source: Cinema.com

27

Jack Kirby

GRACKED COM Jack Kirby almost punched a Nazi. When Captain America decked Hitler in 1941, American Nazis were so mad that they bombarded his creators, Kirby and Joe Simon, with death threats. When a Nazi showed up at their office to threaten them in person, Kirby headed out with every intention of reenacting the comic cover-but by the time he got to the lobby, the Nazi was gone. — Source

26

The X-Files

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Payed a Slap Fighting Champion to Absolutely Wallop Into Our Heads — More: Beloved TV Shows With WTF Sexist Backstage Drama

25

Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah té CRACKED.COM She decided she was finished dying after her death in Set It Off. All of her contracts since 1996 stipulate that her character can't die. In her words, If I die, I can't be in the sequel. — Source

24

Jon Cryer

Jocks playing dorks JON CRYER is an actor who also competes in triathlons, which he attributes to his trainer Rich Guzman and his own competitive nature. CRACKED — CBS
Triathlete

23

Jim Carrey

JIM CARREY YES Jim Carrey traded his salary for a stake of ownership in Yes Man, which reportedly earned him $8 million more than what he would've been paid. GRAGKED.COM — Source

22

Danielle Steel

Celebrity Colognes and Perfumes DANIELLE by Danielle Steel Yes, the same person who writes romance novels. Per the ad, the fragrance is named Danielle to embody a strong and intriguing woman. Strong like Steel, maybe? CRACKED.COM — Source: Fragrantica

21

Britney Spears

IBRITNEY SPEARS DERA NYLA Nyla was a restaurant that combined the postal codes for New York and Spears' Louisiana home. The Cajun cookery piled up both debt and health code violations before Britney bailed. Nyla's Toxic menu was offered for less than a year before shutting down for good. — Vanity Fair

20

Firefighters

Most high-rises have nearly unbreakable windows, which is a problem for firefighters.. So there are building codes that require some of a high-rise's

19

Google Maps

CRACKED CATCHING TWO MURDERERS IN INDIA The cops in India used Google Maps to locate and arrest people responsible for killing a taxi driver in 2023. The killers were smart enough not to use their own phones, but dumb enough to use Maps to plan a route at the time of the killing. — Times of India

18

The Quaker Man

CRACKED THE QUAKER MAN ISN'T WILLIAM PENN-JUST A MYTH. The Quaker Man isn't based on any real person, even though lots of people think it's William Penn. — Source

17

Abraham Lincoln

Emo Laments from Dignified People Abraham Lincoln Lincoln lived with depression throughout his life (maybe because some time traveler showed him his party's future). Still, at one point he moped, I am now the most miserable man living. #Relatable CRACKED.COM — Source

16

The Zimbabwe Flush

In 2012, the sewers of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, were cleared by a synchronized flush. y Stanble Bank The town asked every one of the million residents to flush at the same time, saying they might be fined if they refused. The big flush (as the mayor called it) was intended to keep the pipes wet, so that they don't burst or get clogged. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Around the World in a Modified Jeep

Ben Carlin went around the world in a modified jeep. It took ten years, thousands of dollars, and numerous setbacks, but Carlin drove an amphibious ve

14

Wall Street Honor

A restaurant at Wall Street operated on the honor system. - OF TARC Oi The Exchange Buffet ran successfully from 1885 to 1963 and oper- ated on the honor sys- tem, where customers would tally their own bills. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

Boise, Idaho

WEIRD WORLD In Boise, Idaho, a book was returned 110 long years after it got checked out. We all went, 'Hmm that's weird. There is no record of this in our catalog. It says November 8 of 1911, so obviously, it was pretty overdue, said library assistant Anne Marie Martin. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Weed Farming

CRACKED 5943 Riverbanks Road Grants Pass OR x Q 1943 Riverbanks Rd Explore this area Traffic Bicycing 5943 Riverbanks Rd NABBING AN OVERLY ENTREPRENEURIAL WEED FARMER In 2013, police used Google Earth to spot a drug farmer in Oregon who was growing more marijuana plants than he was allowed. When the police raided the farm, they found 94 plants - three times the legal limit. — The Guardian

11

Oscar the Grouch

THE SESAME STREET EASTER EGG IN HALO INFINITE CRACKED.COM nen OSCAR'S HOUSE The urban-themed map has an alleyway featuring two dumpsters with one tagged as Oscar's House. It's the only trash can with that tag, and it of course refers to Oscar the Grouch. — Source: GameSpot

10

Ted Lasso

TED LASSO WAS ORIGINALLY A CHARACTER FROM 2013 NBC SPORTS COMMERCIALS. CRACKED And even though it took almost 10 years to get the show on the air, Jason Sudeikis' soccer knowledge still only comes from Playstation. — Source

9

IT

BILL SKARSGÂRD WAS SO MISERABLE MAKING П, НЕ SUFFERED FROM PENNYWISE NIGHTMARES. The actor compared the role to a destructive relationship, adding, I was so miserable. You'll float foo Skarsgård said that even after the film was done, September X he would have vivid nightmares about the demon clown. Every night, he came and visited, he said. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Juries

JURIES AREN'T JUST FOR CRIMINAL CASES. If you're summoned for jury duty, you might have to sit through a murder case- or it might be someone suing someone else. Most civil cases, however, have fewer jurors than criminal ones, and the verdict doesn't need to be unanimous. — Source: Clark Law Firm

7

Absinthe

Absinthe isn't more dangerous than similar strength alcohols. It doesn't have any hallucinogenic properties. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — NCBI

6

Irish Seagulls

The plan to feed contraceptive pills to seagulls has been called problematic. CRACKED.COM Politicians in Ireland have suggested leaving pill-laced pellets for aggressive gulls that attack people for their food, but some of the birds are protected species and the laced food may affect other animals. — Source

5

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

CRACKEDC COM Hugh Ross, the narrator The narration in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was recorded by an edition assistant

4

Walmart

Walmart loses $3 billion to shoplifting every year. 2200 Walmart macy But that's only 1% of its annual revenue. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

3

New Hampshire

New Hampshire drinks almost twice as much as other states. CRACKED.COM The national average, from the National Institute on Al- cohol Abuse and Alcohol- ism, is 2.35 gallons of alco- hol a year per capita. New Hamshirians obliterated this by chugging 4.76 gallons per capita in 2016. — Source

2

Long-Term Trolling

Francis Douce 1834 After leaving a ton of antiques to a different museum, he left a mystery box to the British Museum, stipulating that it couldn't be opened for over 60 years. When it was opened in 1900, it was found to contain... almost nothing. Douce was a disgruntled ex-employee

1

Harvard University

CRACKED IN 1962, HARVARD'S ACCEPTANCE RATE WAS 84%. Today it is 3.2% — Marcio Jose Bastos Silva/Shutterstock
The Harvard Crimson

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