292/500
Elvis Presley’s Girlfriend Pulled This Prank on His Fans

One time, Elvis Presley went to the movies with girlfriend, Linda Thompson, when fans recognized him and went crazy. Linda walked up to the crowd saying, “Charlie, you’re not using that Elvis bit again are you? Come on, you’re not telling these people that you’re Elvis again are you?” The fans believed her.

291/500
This Zoo Used Mirrors to Help Its Flamingos to Breed

Like many birds, flamingos do not breed well when they are in small flocks. To solve this problem, keepers at Colchester Zoo installed mirrors, tricking the flamingos into thinking that their flock was larger than it actually was. The birds started building nests and showing courting behavior within a week.

290/500
Tim Duncan Became a Basketball Player Because of a Hurricane

A hurricane forced Tim Duncan to take up basketball. He grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands and trained to be an Olympic swimmer like his sister. However, after Hurricane Hugo destroyed the island’s only Olympic-sized swimming pool in 1989, he was forced to swim in the ocean. His fear of sharks ruined his enthusiasm for swimming, and he chose to focus on basketball instead.

289/500
Which US State Has the Highest Percentage of Water?

Michigan ranks as the number one US state with the highest percentage of water. Michigan has over 64,980 inland ponds and lakes, and 41.5% of its total area is occupied by water. In fact, water sources are so abundant in this state that no one is ever more than six miles from a body of water.

288/500
Why Did They Use Real Guns in the movie Lord of War?

The makers of the 2005 Nicolas Cage movie, Lord of War, bought 3000 AK-47 rifles because it was cheaper to buy real guns and resell them later than buying props. They also “rented” tanks that were only available for a few months because the source planned on selling them to Libya.

287/500
The Only Member of the Curie Family to Not Pursue a Science Career

Ève Curie, the youngest daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, was the only member of her family to not pursue a career in science. Instead, she chose journalism and writing as her career. Her parents, sister, brother-in-law, and husband won Nobel Prizes. She authored her mother’s biography, Madame Curie, and won the National Book Award for it.

286/500
Why Did Kylie Minogue Sue Kylie Jenner?

When Kylie Jenner tried to trademark the name “Kylie” in the U.S., she was sued by Kylie Minogue, who had been performing as “Kylie” since before Jenner was born. In 2017, Kylie Minogue won the lawsuit with her lawyer calling Jenner a “secondary reality television personality.”

285/500
The Day a Bus Jumped over Tower Bridge

In 1952, a London bus driver named Albert Gunter was driving over Tower Bridge, when to his surprise, the bridge started opening. The double-decker bus was at the edge of the south bascule when it started rising. The driver made a split-second decision and accelerated the bus, clearing a six-foot drop onto the north bascule, which had not started rising. He later received a £10 bonus reward.

284/500
Hugh Hefner Cared about LGBTQ Rights

In 1955, Playboy published a short story titled, The Crooked Man, which described a dystopian future wherein heterosexuals were stigmatized in the same way homosexuals were in real life. The story caused a firestorm of controversy. In response, Hefner said, “If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong, too.”

283/500
The Vikings Discovered America Long Before Columbus

Radiocarbon study of wooden artifacts recovered from an archaeological site has shown that the Vikings were present in North America in 1021 CE, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus found the Americas.

282/500
A Special Bus Ride That’s Meant to Make You Sleep

A Hong Kong tour company has introduced a five-hour, 47-mile-long bus ride to nowhere to help people sleep. The tour is meant for people who cannot get a good night’s sleep at night, but fall asleep on the commute to work. The price of tickets range from $13 to $51 per person based on upper deck or lower deck seating.

281/500
How Much Does the Cast of Friends Make from the Show Now?

The cast of Friends each made $1 million per episode for both the ninth and tenth seasons, and now make an annual income of $20 million each just from reruns. The show still generates $1 billion per year for Warner Bros from syndication revenue, and each of the cast members earn 2% of that, thanks to David Schwimmer, who encouraged everyone to negotiate as a team.

280/500
What Does “Military Grade” Truly Mean?

The phrase “military grade” is just a marketing ploy. In the actual military, “military-grade” does not mean the best. It refers to products that meet the basic and bare-minimum requirements for resiliency while also costing the least.

279/500
Here’s How a Spoof Restaurant Became London’s Highest Rated

In 2017, a journalist named Oobah Butler created a fake restaurant on TripAdvisor and asked friends to post great reviews. Within six months, his fake restaurant named “The Shed” became the top-rated restaurant in London with hundreds of people calling up for reservations. The restaurant opened just for one night and served ten guests frozen dinners.

278/500
Man Wins The Lottery When Returning Orange Juice

In 2018, a New Jersey man bought a $5 orange juice at a ShopRite, but his wife asked him to return it as it was “too expensive” and there was a sale elsewhere. The man returned the orange juice and bought two Powerball lottery tickets with the refunded cash. He ended up winning the $315.3 million Powerball jackpot.

277/500
This Playboy Model’s Billionaire Husband Left Her Penniless

Playboy model, Anna Nicole Smith, did not receive a penny when her 90-year-old billionaire husband died. Oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall, never included her in his will and left his $1.6 billion estates to his son.

276/500
Egyptian Egg Ovens from the 4th Century BC

The Egyptian egg ovens are brick incubators that use artificial heat to hatch eggs. The largest of these ovens were capable of hatching 80,000 eggs. They were created sometime in the 4th century BC, and farmers in rural Egypt still use this 2000-year-old hatching technique.

275/500
Amsterdam’s Pirate Broadcasting Channel

In the 1960s, the Dutch were so frustrated with the government’s monopoly of radio and television broadcasting that some pirate broadcasters built an artificial island called REM Island in the North Sea to broadcast uncensored TV and radio. However, the government passed a law, making the seabed under the island a Dutch territory, and the military raided the station and stopped the broadcasting.

274/500
Is Shearing Harmful for the Sheep?

Sheep shearing is not animal cruelty. When sheep go unsheared for a long time, their overgrown coat can lead to several health problems. Not only do the animals have trouble regulating body temperature, but they also become prone to parasitic infection, which is caused due to the buildup of manure and urine.

273/500
Japanese Companies that Specialize in Helping People Vanish without a Trace

Jouhatsu, the Japanese word for “evaporation,” also refers to people who purposely leave their homes, jobs, families and vanish without a trace. Japan even has companies that specialize in this and they help people disappear.

272/500
The Evolution of the Watch from the Pocket to the Wrist

The watch made its way from the pocket to the wrist primarily during the First World War, when the creeping barrage artillery tactic required precise synchronization. Soldiers wore wristwatches, specially designed with luminous dials and unbreakable glass for the rigours of trench warfare. Before the war, the “bracelet watch” was mostly seen as a silly fad.

271/500
The Most Earthquake-Resistant Building in the World

When it comes to earthquake resistance, the Torre Mayor, the third tallest building in Mexico, is one of the strongest buildings on Earth. It is designed to withstand earthquakes measuring 8.5 on the Richter Scale. When a 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico City, not only did the building remain undamaged, but the occupants did not even feel the tremors.

270/500
Driving with a Joystick was Almost a Thing!

In the early 1990s, the now defunct Saab Automobile made a prototype vehicle called Prometheus that had no steering wheel. Instead, the car had a joystick in the center console. It was deemed to improve safety due to the clean, wide, and open dashboard, but steering a car with a joystick was found to be extremely problematic.

269/500
Kindness Does Not Cost a Thing!

When a waiter at the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai overheard a gentleman telling his wife, who was in a wheelchair, that it was a shame that they could not get down to the beach, he told maintenance about it. By the next afternoon, the hotel had built a wooden walkway that led down the beach to a tent that was set up for the couple to have dinner in.

268/500
Why Do Schools Shut Down During Summer?

Students get summers off because in the 19th century, it was simply too hot to go to school, especially in the cities. While the rich hightailed it to the cooler countryside, a large number of students simply skipped school. Eventually, lawmakers decided to create school-free summers, arguing that the brain needed rest too.

267/500
Robert De Niro’s Method Acting is on Another Level

Robert De Niro is such a dedicated actor that he went to great lengths to prepare for his roles. For The Godfather: Part II, he lived in Sicily for months and learned the local language and the way of life. For Taxi Driver, he got a license and drove a cab for 15 hours a day for a month. For New York, New York, he learned to play the saxophone, and he gained 60 lbs for Raging Bull.

266/500
Fugitive Sent a Selfie to the Police to Replace Ugly Mugshot

A man suspected of arson and vandalism sent a selfie to the police department because he thought the photo on his arrest warrant was too unflattering. The police department posted the photo on their Facebook page. The post got viral and he eventually got caught.

265/500
Air Travel Used to Be Quite Different in the 1950s

In the 1950s, air travel involved placing babies in “skycots.” These were cradles that were attached to the overhead luggage bins, and they hung above the seats. The babies were placed inside these skycots for the entire duration of the flight.

264/500
The White House Had its Very Own Sheep

During World War I, to avoid hiring groundskeepers to maintain the White House lawn, President Woodrow Wilson enlisted a flock of sheep that kept the grass trimmed. The sheep also helped to raise nearly $52,000 for the Red Cross through the auction of their wool.

263/500
Smart Move Made by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito

Instead of taking their usual salaries for the 1988 film Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito agreed with the studio to take 40% of the film’s box office returns (20% each). The film was a commercial success, grossing $216 million worldwide, and the actors made $35,000,000 through international sales, video/DVD sales and TV screenings. It was the biggest paycheck of their careers.