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40 Random Bits of Trivia We Forged From Melted-Down Encyclopedias

Wield these swords of knowledge

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Forged From Melted-Down Encyclopedias

February 17, 2025

You might not be old enough to remember that wall of encyclopedias in your house, but it was our version of the internet back then. Some of us couldn’t afford the entire A-Z collection, so we’d be missing some letters. We couldn’t do a project on flamingos, but we could do one on pandas.

Picking out such a thick book was so daunting that we started dedicating our lives to condensing all that knowledge into short, punchy random facts. Like, get to the point, you thick, dusty old book!

Anywho, here’s a little taste of our life’s work…

40

The Beatles

The Beatles wrote some of their songs purely because they wanted to buy cool new stuff. BRAOT Paul McCartney and John Lennon would start a songwriting

39

Honeybees

Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes. CRACKED.COM As honey bees fly, the hair on their eyes catches the wind to help them figure out direction and speed while traveling. — All Things Nature

38

deadmau5

Joel Zimmerman came up with the name deadmau5 when he found a dead mouse in his computerwhile trying to change his graphics card. Analog

37

Rocky

Rocky Then & Now The awards The Rocky franchise has gotten 12 Oscar nominations, with only the original winning Best Picture, Director, and Editing. Rocky III's The Eye of the Tiger was also nominated for Best Original Song. Stallone was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Creed, and won a Golden Globe in the same category. MAM CRACKED.COM — MGM
Wikipedia

36

Sinead O’Connor

Sinéad O'Connor refused to give a concert because organizers insisted on playing the American National Anthem. CRACKED.COM Frank Sinatra threat- ened to kick her in the ass and New Jer- sey prohibited the Irish singer from ever singing in that concert hall again. — Source

35

Elvis

G2 ELVIS WAS A NATURAL BLONDE. He dyed his hair darker since high school. One time he dyed it himself using black shoe polish. CRACKED.COM — Source: HMV

34

Groundhog Day

Phil Connors was trapped for half a lifetime. Learning all the skills he picked up along the way (master pianist, ice sculptor, etc.) would take 12,403 days, or just under 34 years. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

The Rock

The Rock CRACKED.COM Yeah, no duh, The Rock was a pro wrestler. But before that, he won a national championship with the Miami Hurricanes as a defensive end. An injury kept him out of the NFL, but he played Canadian ball for a little while.

32

Animal Labor

65 ay in U Things or 50 ANIMALS Join the Species Already Extinct 5 - NOVEMBER 1926 - - the , sight... the the - before - - - 141 y investiga - GRACKED.COM the teaght will It's grobable ber be right - wild benef the by to Me - - M . masily - - - - ... - - - . - Loos - - the - - a - - - when .. - - Production - - . 4b to - - - - why - - - - - - - - - two - — Source

31

Michelangelo

Michelangelo used to burn his drawings so that people wouldn't know he had to work to achieve perfection. Michelangelo was con- stantly producing draw- ings throughout his 77-year career as an art- ist, but only about 600 of them have survived since the 16th century. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Medievalists

30

Alexander McQueen

The fashion designer left 50,000 for the care of his three dogs and donated 100,000 to both the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and the Blue Cross Sick Animal Center. — Source: 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

29

Tadpoles

Scientists spawned tadpoles with eyes on their tails. Tufts University researchers wondered what would happen if they transplanted a tadpole's eyeball from its head to, say, its ass. They found that with the help of a neurotransmitter drug triggering new nerve growth, the tail-eye could actually see. Dr. Alphonse Mephesto of Colorado has expressed his complete support. CRACKED.COM — Sci Fi-Grade Experiments That (Somehow) Happened

28

Gold Rush

EARTH HOLDS AN ABUNDANT RESERVE OF GOLD WITHIN ITS DEPTHS. CRACKED There's enough to coat the entire planet's surface with a layer 1.5 feet thick. — USGS / Thought Co

27

Bananas

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Forged From Melted-Down Encyclopedias — Source: Dole

26

Homeland

CRACKED COM Halle Berry could have been the star of Homeland. The network really wanted Berry in the starring role, but the show's creators were dead set on Claire Danes (to the point that the character was named Claire in early drafts of the pilot's script). — Source

25

Leeches

Someone tried to use leeches to forecast the weather in the 1800s. CRACKED.COM Nineteenth-century British surgeon George Merryweather believed leeches could predict the weather. His tempest prognosticator, displayed at the Great Exhibition in 1851, failed to catch on. — Atlas Obscura

24

Prince

Frinae has been described as a pool shark. The Purple One's personal photographer (who considered himself as a fairly decent pool player) told a story

23

Wasps

If you hide in a lake, a swarm of wasps will wait for you to re-emerge. If you're attacked by wasps, don't try to take shelter in a lake. They also are not fooled by playing dead. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 True Facts That Don't Seem Real

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22

Aladdin

Disney's Aladdin was originally going to be set in Baghdad, not Agrabah. We kept it Baghdad in our first treatment, and then the Gulf War happened-the first Gulf War. Roy Disney said, 'This can't be in Baghdad, says co-director John Musker. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Hidden Discoveries

The oldest known turtle shell was discovered in a Polish landfill. CRACKED.COM A paleobiologist rooting around in some old garbage discovered a 215-million-year-old turtle shell fossil, among a ton of other extremely well-preserved marine life fossils. — Source

20

Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans Sam Worthington had the mechanical owl banished. Worthington really hated Bubo the owl, a popular character in the 1981 movie, and had it written out, claiming that it would ruin his career. (The movie did that anyway helped by all the other changes he demanded). — More: 6 Pissed-Off Actors Whose Demands Radically Changed Movies

19

The NBA

Latrell Sprewell 68 GAMES BA RANK MUNTS 1ST TS 9TH STLS 5TH CRACKED.COM Sprewell was benched after choking out his coach, being sent to the locker ROOM, and then coming back to punch him one last time. The Warriors, understandably, tried to fire him, but he somehow won an arbitration battle. All the team could do was trade him off to the Knicks. — Source: 15 Of The Longest, Oddest, And Most Deserved Suspensions In Sports History

18

Speeding

CRACKED ONE ITALIAN MAYOR SURE KNOWS HOW TO SLOW DRIVERS DOWN. The mayor of a village in Northern Italy installed speed cameras, and in only two weeks, they caught over 58,000 incidents of speeding. — Sampajano_Anizza/Shutterstock
NPR

17

The NRA

A few hours after the tragic shooting in Aurora, the NRA obliviously tweeted this: Follow American Rifleman TR @NRA_Rifleman Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans? OZA Reply Retweet Favorite 28 4 RETWEETS FAVORITES XIN 9:20 AM-20 Jul 12 via HootSuite Embed this Tweet They claimed that they didn't know what had happened and that it was taken out of context. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Huge Social Media Gaffes By Huge Companies

16

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade

40 Random Bits of Trivia We Forged From Melted-Down Encyclopedias — Source: The New York Times

15

Alfred Hitchcock

CRACKED.COM Alfred Hitchcock Не tortured actresses on set. While some actresses defended him, the bad stories are really bad. For example, he'd refer to The 39 Steps' lead actress as the Birmingham tart (not a cool word, fellas), and then he'd direct her by pretending he was going to jerk off, to get a shocked face. — More: 12 Classic Movie Moments Made Possible by Abuse and Murder

14

Organs

13 Scintillating Now-You-Know Movie Facts and General Trivia - In September 2020, science discovered a new human organ. — Source

13

Microsoft

MICROSOFT SURE KNOWS HOW TO PARTY (BUT NOT HOW TO MANAGE). Microsoft held a fancy event in Switzerland with Sting, attended by execs. The next day, they said they'd cut 10,000 jobs. CRACKED — stedalle/Shutterstock
Fortune

12

Thomas Jefferson

CRACKED COM Thomas Jefferson made ice cream big in the U.S. In the early 1800s, everyone paid attention to what the president served his guests, and J

11

Maps in Playing Cards

Real-life James Bonds hid maps in playing cards. In order to sneak a map past prison security, the Brits would cut one into 52 pieces and hide them on playing cards. 48 of the cards would form the main map, the four aces made a small map of Europe, and the Joker held the map's key. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Ridiculous Gadgets Used By IRL James Bonds

10

Joe Biden

Biden became the first president in decades without a button for summoning an aide. It had been there since the GWB administration, and used for whatever POTUS wanted: Trump used it to call for Diet Coke, while Obama used it to call for tea. Hours after Biden's inauguration, it was — Source: The Week, Cracked

9

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

8

Archie

WELL. LET'S том, IF THE YOU US PAGANS PRAY, PRAY TO THE DOIT... REAL GOD! ARCHIE WAS RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA AT ONE POINT. Back in the '70s and '80s, long before Riverdale made Archie and Jughead cool again, Archie Comics licensed their characters to a Christian publisher. That's how we got plots like the Riverdale crew acting as missionaries to ethnic stereotypes around the world. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

U-571

The movie 'U-571' ended up being condemned in the British Parliament. The historical inaccuracies caused many controver- sies, including the fact that the Americans did not cap- ture the Enigma machine. The code had been broken years before they entered the war. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

The Joker

THERE'S A NOD TO CITIZEN KANE IN JOKER. The End At the end of the film, the words The End appear on the screen in the exact same way as it does in the iconic 1941 film. CRACKED.COM — Screen Rant

5

Interstellar

Interstellar used way, way less CGI in its scenes than you'd probably think. For example, instead of using a green screen, some space scenes projected, well, space on a 60-foot background. CRACKED COM — Source

4

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 GRAGKED.COM Due to nuclear warfare still being a sensitive subject in Japan, the Japanese version of Fallout 3 does not give the player the option to detonate the Megaton nuclear bomb. — Source

3

Marijuana

A survey distributed by Stanford University found that habitual marijuana users were having roughly 20% more sex than non users. The study, which was adjusted for various demographics, found more sex was being had by users than people who abstained regardless of CRACKED.COM the fact that marijuana is thought to cause lower sperm rates and decreased libido. It is inconclusive whether there was a causal link. — 25 Bizarre Statistics About Relationships And Sex

2

Tigers

The largest population of tigers in the world is in the USA. With an estimated 5,000 tigers, the U.S. captive tiger popula- tion exceeds the ар- proximately 3,200 ti- gers in the wild. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

Fendersmiths

Jobs that no longer exist Fendersmiths A fendersmith is a specialist in fireplaces, who cleans, maintains, builds and tends to them, often in palaces. S Ana 0355 lemb-she out ghi rath 10 the higbeet CRACKED — Morphart Creation/Shutterstock
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