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43 Random Bits of Trivia We Pried From An Old Fact-Clutcher’s Cold, Dead Hands

We’ve waited a long time for these facts

43 Random Bits of Trivia We Pried From An Old Fact-Clutcher’s Cold, Dead Hands

January 28, 2025

A war of attrition was won today, and we’re celebrating its victory here at the Cracked fact-finding offices. See, we normally track down and lug home a ton of great facts daily, but some take a little more time and effort. These were heavily guarded by a tough old guy who fought to keep them till his final breath.

Could we have moved on to other facts years ago? Sure. But we desperately wanted these, and you’re about to see why.

43

Michigan State

Part of the Michigan State University campus was powered by mayonnaise in 2017. GRACKED.COM After 1250 gallons of mayonnaise went bad, the school's Sustainabili- ty Officer used an anaer- obic digester to turn it into energy and power part of the campus. — Source

42

Disneyland

CRACKED DISNEYLAND IS FULL OF LEAD. Disneyland's earliest rides, including The Haunted Mansion and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, were found to contain unsafe levels of lead to this day. Disney has dismissed the concern and it is unknown if they ever fixed the issue. — Source

41

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is spelled 'Pensylvania' on the Liberty Bell. PHOTADA BY ORDER OF AND Pass AND Stom للدر CAD to CCIPIT GRACKED.COM This spelling was one of several acceptable spell- ings of the name at that time. The spelling also ар- pears on the US Constitu- tion, as well as the double N version we are used to. — Source

40

Ants

There's an ant with a spine So dragon-like that scientists called it the Pheidole drogon, after Drogon from Game of Thrones. The ant uses its defined

39

Butter

Butter used to be associated with witches in Ireland back in the day. BUTTER 1 FIRST QUALITY 1 NET WT. 4OZ. (113g) BUTTER 1/2 CUP Butter was used in Celtic pagan rituals, START MEASURE HERE 1/4 CUP-> 1/3 CUP-4/ لم ESPOON MEASURE: 8 and also, a witch could steal a neighbor's 7 6 5 4 3 butter luck using magic. ABELED FOR RETAIL SALE CRACKED.COM NOW YOU KNOW — Source

38

Chelsea Manning

PUNISHED HEROES CHELSEA MANNING EXPOSED THE U.S. MILITARY. While serving in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, she gave hundreds of thousands of top secret documents to WikiLeaks revealing the wanton deaths of Iraqi civilians, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. CRACKED — Matt Barnes (via Chelsea Manning/Twitter)
NPR

37

Russian Spies

A FORMER RUSSIAN SPY SOLVED HIS OWN MURDER. Alexander Litvinenko, while he lay dying, figured out (alongside detectives) that his tea had been poisone — Source: The Guardian

36

Adam Levine

Adam Levine CRACKED.COM The Maroon 5 frontman's father founded the boutique clothing chain M. Fredric. Adam Levine grew up in LA and went to the fancy Brentwood School. — Source: Hollywood Reporter

35

311

311 is an Omaha police code for indecent exposure. The guitarist got arrested for skinny dippinng, So they used the citation code as a band name. CRAC

34

A Beautiful Mind

JOHN NASH A BEAUTIFUL MIND CRACKED.COM The real-life Nash was a lot less pure than his depiction. In the 2001 film, he's a faithful husband to his first love, Alicia. In reality, Nash had an illegitimate son, covert affairs with men, and was abusive toward Alicia, whom he regarded as his slave. — Source: Goliath

33

Moonlight

Moonlight The three lead actors never met. The three actors who play the protagonist at different stages of his life never met each other in the 25 days of shooting. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vogue

32

John Krasinski

John Krasinski GRACKED.COM Krasinski took a handful of gap years after high school, teaching English in Costa Rica. When he saw a woman caught in a riptide one day, he swam out to save her... and immediately regretted it: Oh my God, you just made a poor choice and it might cost you your life.

31

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge had a special breakfast time ritual. CRISPY CRUNCHY Mills General FLAKES WHEATIES WHOLE WHEAT Vaseline THE BREAKFAST OF PAY I jelly original PRESIDENTS After waking up, he liked to eat his breakfast - typically a bowl of boiled wheat and rye -- while a servant massaged his scalp with Vaseline. CRACKED COM — Source

30

Rats

43 Random Bits of Trivia We Pried From An Old Fact-Clutcher’s Cold, Dead Hands — Source: BBC

29

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking's voice was beamed to the nearest black hole. After his burial (between Newton and Darwin), his words were beamed from a European Spac — Source: NBC News

28

Chris D’Elia

Fallen Celebrities Then vs. Now Stand-up comedian CHRIS D'ELIA portrayed characters such as a child molester and a sexual predator. PLOT TWIST: НЕ WAS ACCUSED OF BEING EXACTLY THAT. His agency dropped him and he lost a bunch of gigs, including a role in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (which actually sounds like a win for him, but whatever). CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Avocados

43 Random Bits of Trivia We Pried From An Old Fact-Clutcher’s Cold, Dead Hands — Read More: 17 Surprising Facts About The Food You Eat

26

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to his 'Harry Potter' glasses at first. CRACKED.COM It took a week for Daniel and the film crew to realize the ring of spots coming up around his eyes were due to his nickel sensitivi- ty. Не was then given a pair made from hypoaller- genic materials. — ABC

25

Jerry Springer

CRACKED A SUBWAY STATION Jerry Springer was born in a makeshift bomb shelter in London during World War Two. It happened to be at Highgate subway station, in use as a bomb shelter at the time. — BBC / NPR

24

Robert De Niro

23

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock shot Psycho as an episode of his TV show. THE IMPROVISATION: Hitchcock shot Psycho with the crew and assets of his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents, because the studio didn't want to give him a cent for a new movie. THE RESULT: An instant classic that influenced pretty much all later horror films. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin' Donuts was originally named Open Kettle. DUNKIN' DRIVETHRU DONUTS - The founder's architect came up with the name we know now, changed two years later. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Geena Davis

Geena Davis used to be a live mannequin. One day while working at a clothing store, Davis decided to pose as a mannequin in the store's window display. Since she managed to attract a crowd, and was really good at staying still, the store hired her to work as a live mannequin over the weekends. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Palace of Fine Arts

San Francisco's Palace of Fine arts is not the original structure. It was originally constructed to be part of the 1915 Panama-Pacifi Exposition, and

19

The Smithsonian

CRACKED.COM James Smithson is entombed in the Smithsonian. decre's la the exemory Sellow Famil of Specification who Die'd at Senoe Society the اليوم N year In a crypt just inside the north entrance of the Smithsonian Castle lies the relocated remains of the institute's founding father, James Smithson. Не was a chemist who enjoyed studying things like human tears and snake venom. — Source

18

Lord of the Rings

HALF OF MIDDLE-EARTH FELL INTO THE OCEAN. What you see in maps of Middle-earth is only a part of what the continent was in the past. The entire eastern half (called Beleriand) was destroyed in a huge war in which the gods themselves were involved. — Source: The One Wiki to Rule Them All

17

Political Betting During COVID

The online betting world turned upside down. TAU EMNS DIU FOOTAAU 39998 000000 mnod Since pretty much all sports events anywhere are cancelled, online — Source: Politico

16

Helen Gibson

Helen Gibson (1891-1977) was ONE BADASS WOMAN. Back when men would dress in drag to perform female stunts, Gibson became the first Hollywood stunt woman. One of her most harrowing stunts involved jumping a motorcycle onto a speeding train. CRACKED — Source: 31 Amazing Women Who Deserve To Be Way More Famous

15

Missiles

No one knows where the missing Russian bioweapon missiles are. CRACKED.COM Even after signing a treaty banning bio-weapons, the Soviet Union built ICBMs that could be loaded with weaponized smallpox, an- thrax, typhus, and rabies. After the fall of the USSR, most of them were lost. — Source

14

HSBC

Evil Things Huge Companies Have Done - Sometimes prosecutors have to decide between the lesser of two evils. Do you shut down an institution running a — Source: The 5 Most Cartoonishly Evil Banks of All Time

13

Bill Gates

Bill Gates' climate fund is going to spend billions on fighting climate change. Some of the technologies it plans to boost include sustainable aviation fuels, green hydrogen fuels, energy storage, and ways to capture carbon dioxide. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream starts off using wide shots, but as the film progresses the shots get tighter and tighter. This was a technique Darren Aronofsky used in order to get the audience to feel what the characters were experiencing. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Samuel L. Jackson

SAMUEL L. JACKSON WAS A CHEERLEADER. CRACKED.COM By his own admission, he joined the squad to meet girls. — YouTube / Mercury News

10

Snoke

Snoke's look from The Last Jedi was based on Hugh Hefner. The decision to dress a space dictator as a playboy came from Andy Serkis and Rian Johnson,

9

UFOs

Kurt Russell says he saw the Phoenix Lights in Phoenix, AZ, in 1997. Не saw them while flying his plane, and reported them to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport - he might be the first ever person who did so. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Celebrities Who Swear They Saw UFOs And/Or Aliens

8

Soap

ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP SPAWNS SUPERBUGS. Widespread use of antibacterial agents in soap leads to the evolution of drug-resistant superbugs, such as streptococcus pneumonia and strains of E. coli. These bugs have evolved to resist antibiotics, so they're insanely hard to treat. GRACKED.COM http://abcnews go.com/Health/story?id=117985 — Source

7

Prisons

A reduced jail CRACKED COM time in exchange ORDENY for reading is possible in Brazil. For each book a prisoner reads, they must submit a report, and i

6

Megalodon

MEGALODON Dead for 3.6 million years. 67', 132,000 LBS CRACKED.COM Megalodon was not only one of the biggest fish ever but one of the largest predators to terrorize the planet. The only natural predator to today's Great White shark (besides humans) are Killer Whales, but during the Miocene era not even whales were safe from the megalodon's 11' wide jaws. — Source: 34 Real Creatures More Terrifying Than Any Work Of Fiction

5

Incest

MYTH: INCEST LEADS TO messeD-UP BABIES. FACT: IT BAReLY Does. Having a cousin as your sexual partner does increase the risk of birth defects by 2 to 3 percent, but that's it. In fact, one Rutgers professor estimates 80 percent of every single married couple in human history were second cousins or more closely related. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Stones

Stones were placed in the mouths of corpses so they couldn't come back to life. CRACKED.COM These Vampire Burials involved placing a rock in the jaws of the dead before being lowered to the grave, so that the body couldn't resurrect and infect the living with what killed it - usually diseases the living couldn't understand. — Source

3

Black Sabbath

43 Random Bits of Trivia We Pried From An Old Fact-Clutcher’s Cold, Dead Hands

2

G.I. Joe

CRACKED COM SPIRIT WAS A JUMBLE OF STEREOTYPES IN THE SHAPE OF AN ACTION FIGURE. Everything about G.I. Joe figure Spirit was a Native American stereotype, starting with his name: Charlie Iron-Knife. His card file described him as a tracker, a shaman, and a mystic warrior. Не also had an American eagle, because we know every Native American is issued one of those. — Source

1

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan defended having rock music on the Voyager Golden Record. There was some controver- sy over the inclusion of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny В. Goode,' with Sagan being told rock music was ado- lescent. Sagan responded, There are a lot of adoles- cents on the planet. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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