322/500
The Inventor of Electronic TV was Disappointed by His Invention

Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of all-electronic television, was rather disappointed by his invention for most of his life. However, he changed his mind the day he saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on a device that he had created. He said to his wife, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.”

321/500
How Much Did Mel Gibson Earn from The Passion of the Christ?

When Mel Gibson failed to find a studio to fund The Passion of the Christ, he chose to finance it all by himself and spent around $45 million on the project. Many called this move idiotic, but the film became a major box office hit and made around $612 million. The majority of the profits went to Gibson.

320/500
Theatre Producer David Merrick’s Most Outrageous Publicity Stunt

Theatrical producer, David Merrick, was known for his quirky publicity stunts. When his 1961 musical, Subways Are For Sleeping, received bad reviews, he found seven New Yorkers who had the same names as the city’s seven leading theater critics, and invited them to see the musical and speak highly of it. He then published a newspaper ad with the namesakes’ rave reviews.

319/500
Lawyers Make Millions Off of Porno-Trolling Scam

Between 2011 and 2014, two lawyers in the US ran a scam where they obtained the rights to pornographic films and shared copies of them on The Pirate Bay, and then threatened to sue those who downloaded the films for copyright infringement unless they paid a settlement fee of $3,000. They were caught and sentenced to 14 years behind bars.

318/500
Hugh Grant Pretended to Be His Own Agent for Years

For four years, Hugh Grant pretended to be his own talent agent. He communicated with people using a fake email account under the name James Howe Ealy, and even disguised his voice on the phone with a Scottish accent. “I saved myself an absolute fortune,” he said when speaking about this.

317/500
Wyoming – The First US Territory to Grant Woman the Right to Vote

In 1890, when the U.S. Congress demanded that Wyoming revoke this as a condition of their statehood, the Wyoming legislature fired back saying, “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.” Congress gave in and Wyoming became the first US state in which women could vote.

316/500
How Ryan Reynolds Appears So Confident in Interviews

Ryan Reynolds has openly spoken about his lifelong struggles with anxiety. In 2018, he revealed that he has done many interviews in the character of Deadpool to alleviate his fears.

315/500
Elephants Have Their Own Rituals around Death

On many occasions, they have buried dead or sleeping humans or helped them when they were injured. An old Turkana woman fell asleep under a tree and she woke up to find an elephant standing over her and gently touching her. Soon, more elephants arrived and they began burying her under branches. She was found the next morning unharmed.

314/500
Grant Imahara’s Last Personal Project was Making an Animatronic Baby Yoda

In the months before his sudden death, Grant Imahara built a fully animatronic Baby Yoda to cheer up sick kids. He spent three months of his personal time designing, programming, and 3D-printing the project, and he had planned to tour children’s hospitals with it.

313/500
Places around the World Where People Live the Longest

Throughout the world, there are regions which have a higher than usual number of people who live to be over 100. These areas are designated as “Blue Zones,” and five such regions have been posited including Loma Linda (California, USA), Icaria (Greece), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Sardinia (Italy), and Okinawa (Japan).

312/500
Some Fish Eggs Survive Being Eaten and Pooped Out by Waterfowl

In 2020, a new study revealed that some fish eggs can survive being eaten by waterfowl, and they remain viable after being pooped out by the birds. This provides an explanation for how isolated bodies of water are sometimes “magically” populated by fish.

311/500
Why are Corn, Winter Squash, and Climbing Beans Planted Together?

Native Americans planted the Three Sisters, three main crops including winter squash, corn, and climbing beans, close together so that they can benefit one another. The cornstalk acts a trellis for the beans to climb, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil and their twining vines stabilize the cornstalk in high winds, and the squash plant spreads along the ground, holding moisture and preventing weeds.

310/500
Baking Powder was Born Out of Love!

English chemist and food manufacturer, Alfred Bird, wanted to make bread for his wife, who was allergic to both eggs and yeast. This inspired him to create an alternative, the first form of baking powder, in 1843.

309/500
Where Would You Find the Largest Old-Growth Forest?

Białowieża Forest, one of the last and largest remaining sections of the immense primeval forest that once covered the European Plain, resembles what northeastern Europe looked like before the 14th century. It straddles the border of Poland and Belarus, and supports a rich ecosystem. It is also home to 800 European bison, the heaviest land animal in Europe.

308/500
Contrary to Popular Legend, Twinkies Do Not Last Forever!

When Hostess Brands declared bankruptcy in 2012, a man thought that Twinkies would disappear forever. So, he bought a box of it and stashed it in his basement. Eight years later, he took them out when he had a sweet craving and found that a strange mold was growing on it. One Twinkie was practically “mummified” by the fungus.

307/500
The Earliest Diet Book was Written in the 1550s

In the 1550s, a Venetian nobleman named Luigi Cornaro wrote one of the earliest books on diet and the secrets to living long. When he was around 40, Cornaro found himself exhausted and in poor health due to his hedonistic lifestyle. He began dieting, eating only 352g of food and 414 mL of wine per day. He lived to be 100 and was healthy well into his old age.

306/500
The Lesser-Known, but Highly Critical Figures behind the Apollo 15 Mission

Buzz Corey, Jimmy Calunga, and Norma Cretal were the only three people in the entire US qualified to hand-pack parachutes for the Apollo 15 capsule. Their expertise was so vital that they were not allowed to ride in the same vehicle together for fear that a single car accident could cripple the space program.

305/500
Shia LeBeouf’s Love for Plagiarism

Actor Shia LaBeouf came under fire for plagiarising the 2012 American short film, Howard Cantour.com, which he directed. He later took to Twitter to apologize to the original artist, Daniel Clowes, but people quickly discovered that Shia’s apology itself was plagiarized from a Yahoo Answers post.

304/500
False Advertising at Its Best

In 2017, two snack-loving men sued Garden Veggie Straws for deceptive advertising. The snack, which claims to have 30% less fat than potato chips and even has images of real veggies on the packaging, is actually made of salt, starch, and tomato paste.

303/500
How Did this Stork Land Researchers with a $2,700 Phone Bill?

A Polish environmental charity placed a GPS tracker on a white stork to track its migratory habits. The bird travelled some 3,700 miles and was traced to a valley in Sudan before losing contact. The charity later received a massive phone bill of $2,700. Turns out, someone in Sudan found the tracker and used the SIM card inside to rack up 20 hours’ worth of phone calls.

302/500
Jim Carrey’s Legendary Success in 1994

Jim Carrey was the first actor to have three box office smash hits in a span of 11 months. The year was 1994, and the films were Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.

301/500
Burger King Offender Gets Caught Thanks to 4chan Detectives

In 2012, a Burger King employee anonymously posted an image on 4-chan of himself putting his feet in lettuce with the caption “This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King.” Within a day, 4-chan users tracked down the branch where the man worked and contacted the news. He was promptly fired.

300/500
Why Roosters Don’t Go Deaf from Crowing So Loudly

When roosters open their beaks fully, their external auditory canals close off completely, essentially acting like built-in earplugs. This allows them to crow as loudly as possible without damaging their own hearing.

299/500
Doug Hegdahl – The Incredibly Bright One

Doug Hegdahl, a US navy officer, was held as a POW during the Vietnam War. His captors called him “The Incredibly Stupid One” because he appeared to be incapable of reading or writing. After being released, Hegdahl provided critical information on 256 other POWs that he had memorized to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”

298/500
Casa do Penedo – The Incredible Stone House

Casa do Penedo is a weird-looking house in northern Portugal that is made of four large boulders, which serve as the foundation, ceiling, and walls. This architectural monument looks surprisingly similar to the home of Fred and Wilma from the 1990s cartoon, The Flintstones.

297/500
Divers Discover 1,600 Years Old Treasure Trove

In 2016, two casual scuba divers stumbled upon a 1,600-year-old Roman shipwreck off the coast of Israel. Local archaeologists were alerted, and they discovered the largest cache of underwater artifacts including bronze statues, bronze busts, oil lamps and thousands of coins bearing the faces of Roman emperors. Experts called it the biggest find in 30 years.

296/500
Why Do They Play Music to Callers on Hold?

The practice of playing music to callers on hold was originally created by an inventor and factory owner named Alfred Levy. He discovered that a loose wire in his factory’s phone lines had made the building a giant receiver, and audio broadcast signals from a radio station next door was transmitting through the loose wire and could be heard when callers were put on hold.

295/500
The Origin of Chili Peppers May Surprise You!

Today, we cannot imagine Indian, Chinese, Thai and many other Asian cuisines without the pungent heat of chili peppers, but the chili pepper actually originated in South America and was unknown in Asia until world-wide sea trade first brought them there in the 15th century.

294/500
What a “Fine, I’ll Do It Myself” Moment!

In 2019, a 22-year-old Canadian man named John McCue took it upon himself to fill potholes after hitting a big one while on a drive with his mother. He also had a sign that said, “I filled the potholes. Pay me instead of your taxes.” Drivers thanked him for his work with cash, coffee, and joints.

293/500
The Clever and Hilarious Oxford Poop Prank

In the 1790s an undergraduate at Oxford pulled a prank, where he collected buckets of guano (bat and seabird poop) and spread it across his college lawn in a way that spelled GUANO. The authorities had the poop removed immediately. But guano is such a rich fertilizer that when spring came, the word GUANO was clearly visible, growing higher and thicker than the rest of the grass.