262/500
A Conversation between Two Ships

In 1962, While sailing the Mediterranean Sea, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed the Italian Navy ship Amerigo Vespucci with the light signal asking, “Who are you?” The full-rigged ship replied, “Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy.” The Independence responded by saying, “You are the most beautiful ship in the world.”

261/500
The Musical Garbage Trucks of Taiwan

In Taiwan, garbage trucks play classical music such as Beethoven’s “Für Elise” to alert the public to bring out their trash. On collection day, residents gather on the streets with bags of trash, and throw them into the trucks themselves. The government implemented this “trash doesn’t touch the ground” system to eliminate vermin and odor.

260/500
Indoor Plants Help to Cleanse the Air

In the 1980s, NASA conducted a study on houseplants to find ways to clean the air in space stations. The results showed that certain indoor plants not only absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but they also remove cancer-causing volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde and benzene. Peace lilies and florist’s chrysanthemums were found to be excellent air purifiers.

259/500
The Squid Game Phone Number Belongs to a Real Person

The phone number used in the hit Netflix show, Squid Game, belongs to a South Korean woman, who received thousands of text messages and prank calls. Because of that, Netflix has decided to edit scenes of the show to remove the number.

258/500
Abraham Lincoln Had a Successful Wrestling Career

Abraham Lincoln was an accomplished wrestler as a young man, and he is enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. He lost only one of around 300 matches, and once challenged an entire crowd of spectators after defeating an opponent, saying, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.”

257/500
“OMG” Has Been Used for Far Longer than We Thought!

OMG, the acronym for “oh my God,” has been used for over 100 years. It was first used in 1917 by Lord Fisher in a letter to Sir Winston Churchill.

256/500
The Prancing Horse in the Ferrari Logo Does Not Signify Horsepower

Famed Italian WWI fighter pilot, Francesco Baracca, was the one who painted this design on the side of his plane. Baracca’s parents later suggested Enzo Ferrari use the design for good luck.

255/500
The U.S Navy’s Very Own White Oak Forest

The U.S. Navy maintains a 50,000-acre white oak forest called “Constitution Grove” in the middle of Indiana for the sole purpose of refitting and restoring the USS Constitution, which is over 200 years old and is the oldest commissioned vessel still sailing.

254/500
Houses Made of Beer Bottles

In the 1960s, when visiting the island of Curaçao, Freddy Heineken was bothered by the lack of housing and the large amounts of trash including his own beer bottles littered all over. So, he came up with the novel idea of creating rectangular beer bottles that could serve as bricks to build houses. It was called the Heineken World Bottle.

253/500
The Weirdest Cacti You Will Ever See

The creeping devil is one of the most distinctive cacti that lies on the ground and grows at one end while the other end dies slowly. It can grow up to 6.5 feet long and clone itself to survive.

252/500
The Dynasphere – Monowheel Vehicle Design Based on Leonardo da Vinci’s  Sketch

The Dynasphere was a one-wheeled vehicle design, which was patented by Dr. J. A. Purves in 1930. A sketch made by Leonardo da Vinci inspired Purves’ idea for the vehicle, which had a top speed of 30 miles per hour.

251/500
Tucker Tiger Tank was a Beast That the Army Rejected

During World War II, industrialist Preston Tucker introduced the Tucker Tiger Tank, which was a high-speed armored car, fitted with a powerful V12 engine and 37-millimeter anti-aircraft gun mounted in an aircraft-style spherical gun turret. The vehicle could travel at 114 miles per hour on road, but the army rejected it because it was “too fast.”

250/500
The World Can Learn from Finland’s Fine System

A day-fine is a fine payment system that is based on the offender’s daily personal income. In Finland, most infractions are punishable with a day-fine. The more severe the infraction, the more day-fines are given. Usually, the day-fine is one half of daily disposable income. In 2009, a businessman was fined €112,000 for speeding!

249/500
Pepperoni isn’t Authentically Italian

Pepperoni is an Italian-American creation with similarities to the spicy salamis of southern Italy. However, it has a finer grain and softer texture and is less spicy than its Italian inspiration. The Italian word, pepperoni, simply means large bell peppers.

248/500
What is Alcohol Made from Pears Called?

Alcohol made from fermented apple juice is called cider, and alcohol made from fermented pears is called perry.

247/500
A Place where You can Mingle with Otters

You can swim and play with otters at the community organization called Nurtured by Nature in Valley Center, California. If the otters like you, they will shove rocks into your bathing suit. The staff says that it is a sign of friendliness and they have made a game out of it. When you get out of the pool, whoever has the most rocks hiding in their suits wins!

246/500
Dr. Seuss’s First Book Was Rejected 27 Times!

Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times. He was ready to give up and burn the manuscript when one day he ran into an old college friend who had gone into publishing. That friend launched Dr. Seuss’s career, and if it weren’t for that chance encounter, he probably would have never become one of the world’s most loved children’s authors.

245/500
Apple was Forced to Purchase Rural Land for $1.7 million

When Apple was buying rural land for a new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, an elderly couple refused to sell their less than an acre plot of land, which they had purchased for $6,000 34 years ago. After they rejected every single offer, Apple asked them to name a price, and the couple sold their land for $1.7 million.

244/500
Longest Ever Cab Journey

Back in 2012, three friends from the UK set a world record for completing the longest ever journey by taxi. They drove 43,319.5 miles in their 20-year-old black cab named Hannah. They drove across 50 countries and four continents and generated a fare of £79,006.80.

243/500
The First Electric Car was Launched in the 1890s

The first successful electric car made its debut in the US in 1890, and by 1900, electric cars had become so popular that there was a fleet of electric cars and taxis in New York City. These electric vehicles were not only a status symbol, but they also accounted for a third of all vehicles on the road.

242/500
Mysterious Abandoned Lifeboat in the World’s Most Remote Island

In 1964, a survey team discovered an abandoned lifeboat in a small lagoon on Bouvet Island, the most remote island in the world. They conducted a search but discovered no other sign of human activity. No one knows how it got there. Though some suspect it belonged to a Soviet scientific reconnaissance vessel, the identity of the boat has remained a mystery.

241/500
Michigan Woman Gives Birth on 8/8/8, 9/9/9 and 10/10/10

A woman named Barbara Soper from Michigan gave birth to her three children on 8/8/8, 9/9/9 and 10/10/10 respectively. The odds of such an incredible thing happening are more than 50 million to one.

240/500
What the Japanese Believe about the Year’s First Dream

In Japanese culture, Hatsuyume or the first dream you have in the new year can foretell the luck you will have in the ensuing year. Many people in Japan spend December 31 without sleeping so that they can experience Hatsuyume on the night of January 1. Dreaming of Mount Fuji, a hawk, or an eggplant is generally considered to be lucky.

239/500
The Incredibly Beautiful Yunhe Rice Terraces

The beautiful Yunhe Rice Terraces in Zhejiang Province are the largest terrace fields in eastern China. Situated at an altitude between 200 and 1,500 meters, the terraces cover an area of 20 square miles. It has been feeding and nourishing the local population for over 1,000 years.

238/500
Bea Arthur was a Badass Truck Driver for the Marines

Before becoming a famous actress in classic sitcoms such as Maude and The Golden Girls, Bea Arthur served in the US Marine Corps as a truck driver and dispatcher between 1944 and 1945. She was one of the first members of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, and she was honorably discharged at the rank of staff sergeant.

237/500
Walt Whitman Wrote This Novel Drunk

In 1842, American poet Walt Whitman published a temperance novel called Franklin Evans, which was meant to condemn alcohol consumption. Whitman later admitted that he was embarrassed by the book and that he had written it in three days, while he was under the influence of alcohol himself, because he needed the money.

236/500
When Two Teenagers Exposed Ribena’s Secret

In the late 2000s, two Auckland teenagers discovered that despite claiming to have four times the vitamin C of oranges, the blackcurrant-based drink called Ribena had no detectable Vitamin C content. The maker, GlaxoSmithKline, was taken to court and fined $217,500 for misleading the customers with false advertising.

235/500
Why is The Lion King Game So Difficult?

The SNES version of The Lion King, which is notorious for being an incredibly difficult video game especially for kids, was made so punishing on purpose. Disney actually told the developers to make the game especially hard so that people would not be able to complete it during a rental period at Blockbuster. A few developers even apologized later for making the game so difficult.

234/500
Javelin Thrower Uwe Hohn’s “Eternal World Record”

In 1984, while competing in the Olympic Day of Athletics, javelin thrower Uwe Hohn threw the javelin a distance of 104.80 meters (over 343 feet), becoming the first and only person in history to break the 100 meters barrier. Shortly after this, changes were implemented to the design of javelins to shorten distances, turning his mark into an “eternal world record.”

233/500
An Incredible Coincidence or Fate?

New Jersey history professor and former Texas Ranger, Royce Burton, was telling his class a story about how a fellow ranger had saved his life when he had gotten lost in a canyon in 1940. Although the two had lost touch, Burton still remembered that frightening night. As he was telling this story, an elderly man walked into his classroom, and he happened to be that same Ranger who had tracked him down after all these years.