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37 Elusive Bits of Trivia We Finally Tracked Down in A Coordinated Effort With Multiple Top-Tier Fact-Finding Agencies

These are quite possibly the most elusive facts we’ve ever found

37 Elusive Bits of Trivia We Finally Tracked Down in A Coordinated Effort With Multiple Top-Tier Fact-Finding Agencies

December 30, 2024

We’re not too proud to admit that we needed some help finding these bad boys. Usually the Cracked offices are split into fact-finding teams that specialize in different factual fields. We random fact finders had a little trouble with this batch, so we hit up some pals in the history, science and entertainment departments for help.

It was a little demoralizing at first, but they really helped make this list what it is. We seriously owe them one.

37

Rogue One

CRACKED.COM STAR WARS One draft of Rogue One saw all the heroes survive. Writer Gary Whitta was worried Disney wouldn't let them go that dark, but after director Gareth Edwards went to talk to Disney, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy told them to let it rip. — Source: Entertainment Weekly

36

The Berlin Wall

When the Berlin Wall fell, banana sales exploded. Titanic adid - Zonen-Gaby (17) im Glück (BRD) Meine erste Banane f nt - Informa I East Germany only got mushy brown bananas, so when the Wall came down, East Germans went crazy for unripe green bananas. There's a joke that they rose up for bananas, not democracy, and whenever a long line forms, Germans say, Are they handing out bananas or what? CRACKED COM — Source

35

Rihanna

Celebrity tattoos Rihanna has the goddess Isis on her chest to commemorate her late grandmother. CRACKED.COM — The Hollywood Reporter

34

Credit Cards

Unwed women couldn't get a credit card up until 1974. po BNL CLASSIC GRUPPO BNP PARIBAS 3 5000 1399 1922 coPa 60 VALID MasterCard THRU ١٤/١ AEEA B VISA CRACKED.COM Banks could refuse to issue a credit card to a woman unless her husband co-signed for the card. A di- vorced woman was consid- ered too much of a risk be- cause she couldn't keep a marriage under control. — Source

33

The Razzies

GRACKED.COM Initial reactions to the Shining were mixed to the point that... Stanley Kubrick was nominated for the first-ever Worst Director Razzie Award. — Source: 24 Pop Culture Iconic Things (That Bombed Initially)

32

Mattel

Mattel once tried to sue Aqua over their song Barbie Girl. Judge Alex Kozinski said that the song was protected by the right to free speech in the US, and advised the parties to chill. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — BBC

31

Newspapers

CRACKED THE WORLD'S FIRST NEWSPAPER ORIGINATED IN CHINA. It dates back to 740 CE. — Source

30

World War II Practice Bombs

As city workers were digging a trench for a fiber optic cable at the Hollister Airport dog park, they found an active WWII practice bomb. DISARMED 9/10/18 MCSO CH The Jerry Gabe Municipal Dog Park located in California was once a former Navy base in the 1940s, so it is believed to host more bombs and fuel tanks underground. CRACKED.COM — Source: 20 Creepy Discoveries That People Stumbled Into

29

Mars

Mars' ocean water may still be there A new NASA study proposes that water on Mars didn't disappear into space, as previously believed, but might be trapped within minerals in the planet's crust. — Source: Science Daily

28

Insensitive Tweets

In 2013, the Atlanta Journal- Constitution tweeted its congratulations to a lottery winner by making a joke about slavery: AJC Follow ajc @ajc $1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules. bit.ly/1cdQe6e Reply Retweet Favorite Pocket More 8 2 RETWEETS FAVORITES 8:35 AM-23 Oct 13 The newspaper deleted the tweet, apologized CRACKED.COM and promised appropriate disciplinary action for the employee responsible. — Source: 29 Huge Social Media Gaffes By Huge Companies

27

Saw Copycat

GRACKED MATTHEW TINLING PLAYED JIGSAW FROM SAW. In 2013, he was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the torture and murder of Richard Hamilton. Не stabbed Hamilton 17 times, and tried to sever his spinal cord like a scene from Saw VI. — Daily Mail

26

Shayne Lamas

CRACKED SHAYNE LAMAS LEAVE IT TO LAMAS The Bachelor star got her own show that focused on her family. She said her family started doing crazy things for cameras and were no longer acting like themselves. They painted her as a bimbo, and it made her hate the show and reality TV in general. — iHeart / Page Six

25

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was a beloved children's author. And he didn't like children. Theodor Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss, not only never liked children, but was actually scared of them. Не never had children of his own, and according to his widow, the reason he didn't like them was that he never knew what their weird child brains would make them do next. Не ventured into children's stories when his publisher tasked him with writing a book even first graders couldn't put down, using a vocabulary of just 250 words. CRACKED.COM http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/film.html — 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

24

The Abyss

CRACKED JAMES CAMERON: RAT TORTURER EXTRAORDINAIRE. In James Cameron's 1989 movie The Abyss, they put a real rat underwater in a special fluid to show what it's like to dive deep in the ocean - that part wasn't simulated at all. And, yes, the rat survived. — Film School Rejects

23

Doctored Photos

Ulysses S. Grant was never here. GRANT The picture is a composite of Grant's head on the body of Major General Alexander McCook. The background is a p

22

Hiccups

The longest attack of hiccups lasted 68 years. CRACKED.COM Charles Osborne fell while attempting to butcher a 350-pound hog in 1922, bursting a blood vessel in his brain. His bout of hic- cups finally stopped in 1990, the year before he died at 97. — NY Daily News

21

The Largest Bell Ever Made

The largest bell ever made was lost by a greedy governor. Est Portugese warlord Filipe de Brito e Nicote was granted a governorship, then promptly declared independence. Не tried to melt the Shwedagon Pagoda's 23-ton bell to make cannons, then dropped it in a river. De Brito was executed at the stake. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Jaws

If you love (or hate) summer blockbusters, you can thank Jaws for it. Before Jaws got released, summer was considered a dead period for movie releases - and Jaws was the first ever summer blockbuster. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Religion

A guy claims smoking pot is his religious freedom. Indiana's religious freedom law has allowed businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples,

18

Lead

Lead can be detected in the remains of former Japanese geishas. CRACKED.COM The white face paint worn by geishas and samurai in ancient Ja- pan was lead based, and so lead can be de- tected in their bones. — Source

17

Lobsters

Lobsters don't age like other creatures. They don't lose their fertility or strength, and their metabolism doesn't slow. And they keep getting bigger. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Michelangelo

CRACKED It wasn't until 1990 that anyone realized that in Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the cloak surrounding God and his angels is a giant brain, complete with cerebellum, optic chiasm and pituitary gland. — Source / The Collector

15

Battleship

Russian officers played the game Battleship before WWI. CRACKED.COM The game dates back to the turn of the 20th cen- tury, where it was played with just paper and pen. A version using plastic pegs wasn't created until 1967. — Source

14

Allison Mack

CRACKED ALLISON МАСК RECRUITED GIRLS FOR HER CULT LEADER. The Smallville actor recruited women who would be severely mistreated by NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere. She faced sex trafficking charges but negotiated a plea deal for the lesser charge of racketeering. She served 2 years in prison, and Raniere got 120 years. — Source

13

Chicago

Since 1962, the Chicago River has been dyed green every year on St. Patrick's day. However, disodium salt, the green dye used to color the river until 1966, was later determined to have been harmful to the river's ecosystems. Due to rising environmental concerns, vegetable dyes are now used for painting the river green. CRACKED COM — Familiar Holidays That Have Dirty Little Secrets

12

The Goonies

The Goonies map was probably thrown away by... Patty Duke? CRACKED.COM Sean Astin made off with a bunch of props from the movie and then just left it all behind when he turned 18, at which point he thinks the map was accidentally thrown out by his mom, who is Patty Duke for some reason. — Source

11

New Zealand

There are no snakes in New Zealand. The islands that make up the country have zero native snake species -- a few lizard species are the closest thing. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Charlie Chaplin

CRACKEDCON Charlie Chaplin married actress Lita Grey after he knocked her up and she refused to have an abortion. He was 35 and she was 16.

9

Train Travel

Many people thought women could not ride trains when they were first introduced in the US. Mizuno DW 22342 a р/д CRACKED GOM People believed that women's bodies were not designed to go at 50 miles an hour, and that their uteruses would fly out of their bodies if they were accelerated to that speed. — Source

8

Michael Jackson

He almost owned Marvel HNER CRACKED He nearly teamed up with Stan Lee to purchase Marvel, and was particularly interested in the film rights to Spider-Man. Lee is pretty sure Jackson wanted to actually play the lead role. — Source: Comics Alliance

7

Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson's fiancée said she'd leave him if he took the role of James Bond. CRACKED.COM The Irish actor was heavily courted for the role in the mid 90s, but his then fian- cée and late wife Natasha Richardson told him she wouldn't marry him if he took the role. — Independent

6

Reebok Bacon

5

Sleep

Sleeping for a long time is positively associated with testis size. A 2018 study found that, the longer you sleep, the larger the size of your testis, even after age and body mass index were adjusted for. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

4

Costumes

THE ORACLE'S COSTUME IN THe MATRIK IS A REFERENCE TO A MICHELANGELO PAINTING It's of Michelangelo's Delphic Sibyl, a Greek oracular figure who wears the same colors the Oracle does. CRACKED.COM — Source: Michelangelo.net

3

Bad Predictions

15 Really Inaccurate Predictions About The Future - “There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. — Source: Saturday Evening Post

2

Corryvreckan Maelstrom

Think whirlpools are a temporary, small- scale phenomenon? You're looking at a large, permanent one. This is the Corryvreckan Maelstrom, off the coast of Scotland. It's a massive, eternal vortex caused by a dramatic underwater pinnacle. A documentary team once tossed a mannequin into the vortex and it was immediately sucked to a depth of 650 feet. GRACKED.COM http://www. bfi.org uk/iims-tv-people/4ce2b85575545 — Source: 22 Ridiculous Places Right Here On Earth

1

Laos

Laos is the most heavily bombed nation in history. GRACKED.COM The US secretly dropped an average of 8 bombs a min- ute for 9 years during the Vietnam war. Almost $200 million was spent over the last 25 years to remove un- exploded ordnance. — Source

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