100 Totally Random Facts – Part 8

During World War 2, a Japanese Kamikaze hit the USS Missouri and his body landed on deck. Though an unpopular decision, the Captain demanded a proper burial for the Japanese soldier. He explained to his crew that: after death, he is no longer your enemy, and the crew hand stitched a Japanese flag. - Source

2. In 1986, serial killer Wayne Nance broke into Doug and Kris Welles’s home. Despite being bound, stabbed in the chest, and then later shot, Doug managed to save his wife by shooting their attacker in one of the few known cases of a serial killer being killed by their intended victim. - Source

3. Naloxone (Narcon) has became a mainstay of hospital emergency rooms and medical wards. It can be injected or sprayed up the nose and can stop/reverse a heroin overdose in under 2 minutes. It's so vital that the World Health Organization placed the drug on its list of essential medications in 1983. - Source

4. Cristiano Ronaldo was asked to donate boots to raise funds for an ill child's surgery. Instead, he paid for the full cost of treatment. - Source

5. In 1982, a man named Clay Thompson died while vandalizing a saguaro cactus for fun. He shot the cactus repetitively and then went up to poke it to try to get it to fall over. Instead, the 500-pound saguaro arm fell and killed him. - Source

Although park authorities deny it, Central Park officially has a population of 25 residents according to the 2010 census. - Source

7. Arizona has a law called the "Stupid Motorist Law" that allows the state to charge drivers for their rescue if they ignore barricades and get stuck in flooded roadways. - Source

8. A "fossil word" is a word that is no longer used in general speech but remains in use because it is part of an idiom. For example, amok as in "run amok", or turpitude as in "moral turpitude". There are many other examples. - Source

9. In 2010, a group of Weight Watchers members gathered to see how much weight they had lost, only for the floor to collapse under their combined weight. - Source

10. Annie Oakley was such a great shooter that she could repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet.

The Federal Trade Commission once issued a cease and desist order to Campbell's Soup company for using marbles in their soup ads. The marbles were placed in the bottom of the soup to push the solid ingredients to the top, which was considered deceptive. - Source

12. Futurama writer named Ken Keeler with a Ph.D. in applied math created a mathematical theorem just for the purpose of using it in a Futurama episode to expose young people to higher level math. - Source

13. There are languages with no words for numbers, and people who speak them have trouble keeping track of amounts higher than 5. - Source

14. Walt Disney helped the Army design a Mickey Mouse gas mask in the '40s to make chemical warfare less frightening to kids. - Source

15. Medals from 2016 Rio Olympic Games are defective and show rusting, chipping.

The double leg amputee war veteran named Gregory D. Gadson in the film "Battleship" is played by an actual double leg amputee war veteran. - Source

17. During World War 2, there was an Australian dog named Gunner whose hearing was so accurate that it could warn air force personnel of incoming Japanese planes 20 minutes before they came and before they showed up on the radar. He could also differentiate the sounds between allied and enemy planes. - Source

18. On a trip to China, Prince Philip joked to students that "if you stay here much longer, you'll go slit-eyed". After initial concerns of offense, it was revealed that Chinese authorities were unconcerned. They explained that traveling Chinese students were likewise warned not to go "round-eyed". - Source

19. Disney World once considered building a fifth theme park dedicated to villains, called "The Dark Kingdom". - Source

20. Genoa airport in Italy makes one exception to the 3 ounces of liquid rule - for pesto, which goes through a special pesto scanner. - Source

The Price Is Right rigs the Plinko game for promotional ads using the fishing line so that the chip lands in the $10,000 slot. The wire was mistakenly left in place and a contestant dropped 3 consecutive chips before it was noticed. She was allowed to keep the money. - Source

22. Aliens moving faster as you kill them in Space Invaders was a byproduct of the processor freeing up more memory as they could be rendered more quickly the fewer there were on screen. It was left in the game to make it more challenging. - Source

23. JRR Tolkien initially fell in love with his future wife named Edith Bratt at 16 years old. His guardian, a Catholic priest ordered him to not have any contact until he was 21. He obeyed and met her under a railroad viaduct and she broke up her engagement, converted to Catholicism and married Tolkien.- Source

24. Stephen Colbert's father and 2 brothers died in a plane crash when he was 10. His improv teacher told him "you gotta learn to love the bomb" and as a result, years later he came to realize "I love the thing that I most wish had not happened." - Source

25. In 1997, Microsoft saved Apple from bankruptcy by investing $150 million into the company. - Source