112/500
Walt Disney World Once Had its Own Airport

Walt Disney World once had its own airport with a singing runway! The runway had a set of grooves, just like the ones you find on the side of a highway, that played the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” when driven over at 45 mph. The airport, known as Lake Buena Vista STOLport, has been closed since 1972.

111/500
Dyslexic Man Earns 14 Degrees

A 46-year-old dyslexic man named Benjamin Bolger has earned 14 degrees so far in his life. He claims to be the second-most credentialed perpetual student in modern history.

110/500
Sir Patrick Stewart Used to Be an Obituary Writer

As a teenager, Sir Patrick Stewart worked as an obituary writer and newspaper reporter, but after a year at this job, his employer gave him an ultimatum, asking him to choose either acting or journalism. As it turns out, Stewart had been attending rehearsals during work hours and inventing the stories he reported. Needless to say, he left the job.

109/500
Arnold Schwarzenegger Served in the Army before Becoming a Bodybuilder

In 1965, Arnold Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army to fulfil the mandatory one-year service required by all 18-year-old males at the time. During basic training, he went AWOL to take part in a bodybuilding competition. He won the competition, but had to spend a week in military prison. However, winning the contest paved the way for more contests and better opportunities, which ultimately led him to America.

108/500
This Italian Bank Accepts Cheese as Collateral for Loans

The Italian bank called Credito Emiliano accepts Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as collateral for small business loans. While holding the cheese as insurance, the bank also stores and ages them in climate-controlled vaults as long as the loan is active. The more the cheese ages, the more valuable it gets, much like interest-bearing accounts. The warehouse can store 440,000 wheels of cheese.

107/500
How Henry Ford Kept His Employee Turnover Rate Low

In 1914, when Henry Ford doubled the pay of his employees from $2.25 per day to $5 per day, he did not do it for altruistic reasons. He did it to keep his employee turnover rate low. Ford needed to hire over 52,000 men for a workforce of only 14,000. New workers required a long break-in period and many would quit, which proved costly for the company’s production line. Increasing their wages fixed the problem.

106/500
This Scandinavian Admiral Asked to Borrow Ammo from the Enemy Ship He was Fighting

Peter Tordenskjold was Scandinavia’s gutsiest Admiral. Once, after a 14-hour-long battle with an English ship, he ran out of ammo. Instead of surrendering, he sent an envoy to the English ship, asking to borrow some of their ammo. Upon returning home, the king demanded that Tordenskjold be court martialed for fighting a superior enemy force, but he defended himself so well that he was acquitted. He then went to the king and asked for a promotion, which he got.

105/500
How Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs Earned the Trust of Customers

When Nathan’s Famous hot dogs first opened in 1916, most people were suspicious of the quality of the meat used in the five-cent frankfurters. So, the owner hired white-jacketed young men to eat hot dogs in front of his stand. This trick not only brought “class” to his stand, but it also made people think that the hot dogs must be really good if the doctors were eating them.

104/500
Secret Service Agent Catfished and Caught Hacker

A Secret Service Agent named Matt O’Neill once caught a Romanian hacker by catfishing him. O’Neill posed as a hotel and casino employee named “Sarah” and flirted with the hacker for several months, eventually convincing him to come to the US. O’Neill busted the hacker when he came to meet “Sarah” with a gold necklace and three boxes of grape-flavored condoms.

103/500
How did Elizabeth Swaney Qualify for the Olympics?

Elizabeth Swaney, a relatively amateur skier, managed to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in the women’s halfpipe by accumulating points at a series of qualifying events in the years prior to the Olympics. She performed rather simple routines flawlessly to score points, and ended up outscoring opponents who often crashed or injured themselves while attempting more ambitious runs.

102/500
Seventh-Grader Built a Braille Printer Out of Lego

In 2014, a California seventh-grader named Shubham Banerjee built a braille printer out of Lego building blocks. Since regular braille printers are too expensive for low-income families, the teenager wanted to create a cheaper solution. His design, which he called Braigo, brought down the cost from more than $2000 to less than $500. He also decided to give away the design and software for free.

101/500
This Fish Can Survive for Years without Food or Water

The West African lungfish can survive up to five years without food or water due to a process called estivation. This prehistoric species has remained unchanged for nearly 500 million years. Nicknamed as “living fossils,” the fish can extract oxygen both from water and the air using its gills. During estivation, which is a hibernation-like state, the fish digests its own muscle tissue to obtain nutrients.

100/500
What is the Actual Cause of Chocolate Allergy?

Most people who experience an allergic reaction to chocolate may not actually be allergic to cocoa or any other official ingredient. The flare-ups are most likely the result of contaminants such as ground-up cockroach parts, which the FDA deems safe but only up to a certain point. Getting rid of the bugs entirely would mean using more pesticides, which are more harmful than eating a few bug parts.

99/500
Beekeeper Sued a Bear for Stealing Honey

In 2007, a Macedonian beekeeper sued a bear for stealing honey and damaging property. The beekeeper tried to keep the bear away by playing thumping “turbo-folk” music, but took the matter to court when the trick failed. The bear was found guilty, but since it had no owner and was a protected species, the state had to pay the beekeeper $3,500 in fines.

98/500
What Happened When a Judge Sued His Dry Cleaner for Losing His Pants?

In 2005, an administrative law judge named Roy L. Pearson Jr. sued his dry cleaner for $67 million for allegedly losing his pants. Pearson claimed that the dry cleaners did not provide him with “satisfaction guaranteed” as a sign in the store advertised. The case drew international attention as an example of frivolous litigation and Pearson ended up losing. Later, he was also suspended from his position as a judge.

97/500
A Man Survived Being Nearly Swallowed by a Whale

A humpback whale nearly swallowed a man and spat him out, and the man survived! The man, a 56-year-old commercial lobster diver named Michael Packard, said that he was around 45 feet underwater when everything suddenly went dark. He said he was in the closed mouth of the whale for 30 to 40 seconds before the whale rose to the surface and spat him out.

96/500
When BBC’s April Fool’s Day Prank Went Wrong

In 1980, BBC World Service pulled an April Fool’s Day prank by announcing that the iconic Big Ben would go through a makeover by becoming a digital clock that produces electronic beeps. Sadly, the prank was not received well and people called in to lodge their complaints. The BBC had to apologize for weeks after the incident.

95/500
Japanese Pole Vaulters Who Refused to Compete Against Each Other

At the 1936 Summer Olympics, two Japanese pole vaulters named Sueo Ōe and Shuhei Nishida tied for second, but they declined to compete against each other. As a result, Nishida was awarded the silver medal and Ōe won a bronze medal. Upon returning to Japan, the athletes had their medals cut in half and spliced together to create new “friendship medals,” which were half silver and half bronze.

94/500
Former President of Sony Pictures Quit His Job to Help Impoverished Children in Cambodia

Hollywood executive and former president of Sony Pictures, Scott Neeson, quit his job and moved to Cambodia to help children in need. He sold his mansion, Porsche, and yacht and founded Cambodian Children’s Fund, a non-profit organization that provides education, food, and shelter to children in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cambodia. Today, his organization works with over 2,000 children and serves over 12,000 people in the community.

93/500
Eight-Year-Old Stumbles Upon Unlikely Treasure

In 2012, an eight-year-old boy in the UK stumbled upon a large and waxy rock-like substance on the beach. It turned out to be ambergris or sperm whale excrement. Although it sounds disgusting, ambergris has a special scent and it is used by perfumeries such as Chanel to make their perfumes last longer. The specimen that the boy found was worth around $65,000.

92/500
When Benedictine Monks were Sued for Making Cheaper Caskets

When Benedictine monks in Louisiana started selling simple and affordable handcrafted caskets, the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors told them they could not do that because they were not licensed. The monks took the matter to court and won! The judge ruled that the state board’s demands did not serve a “legitimate governmental purpose.”

91/500
How the Greater Honeyguide Birds Help Humans and Themselves

The greater honeyguide birds have an interesting relationship with humans. They guide humans to the nests of wild bees. Upon reaching the nest, the honey-hunters incapacitate the adult bees and open the nest. After the humans take their honey, the greater honeyguide eats whatever is left. Thus, the birds help people in exchange for their food.

90/500
Doctors Operate on Woman on a Flight to Save Her Life

In 1995, two doctors aboard a British Airways flight performed surgery on a woman who had a punctured left lung. With limited access to medical equipment, the doctors improvised and operated on the woman using a local anaesthetic, metal clothes hanger, water bottle cap, knife, and fork. They sterilised their equipment using cognac, and the surgery was over in ten minutes. The woman felt better and spent the rest of the flight time eating and watching movies.

89/500
You Can Buy the Right to Some of Stephen King’s Short Stories for $1

Stephen King sells the rights to some of his short stories for just $1, allowing aspiring filmmakers and students to adapt them into movies. The arrangement is known as the Dollar Baby or Dollar Deal.

88/500
Which Knives Have the Sharpest Edges?

Obsidian blades, which are made from a type of volcanic glass, are known to have the sharpest edges. Capable of producing cuts that are many times finer than the best steel scalpels, these blades have been used to perform surgical procedures since the Stone Age. The blade causes very little trauma to the tissue and the cut heals faster with less scarring.

87/500
Here’s Why You Cannot Sink in Quicksand

It is impossible to sink in quicksand. Quicksand has a density of approximately 2 grams per milliliter, whereas human density is only around 1 gram per milliliter. That means you are not dense enough to fully sink into it. However, motion liquifies the sand, which means the more you panic and move around, the more you sink. If you stay still, you will only descend up to your waist.

86/500
Caffeine is the Coffee Plant’s Natural Defense Mechanism

Caffeine works as the coffee plant’s natural defense mechanism. As an alkaloid, caffeine is toxic to both fungi and insects. Moreover, the high levels of caffeine that coffee seedlings produce can even prevent other plants from growing in the vicinity of the coffee plant. That is how the coffee plant “defends” itself against other plants that might compete for nutrient resources and space.

85/500
Did You Know that Water is Not Entirely Colorless?

Water is not colorless. The color of water varies depending on the ambient conditions, and pure water has a slight blue tint that becomes darker green when the thickness of the observed sample increases. The blue color is an intrinsic property of water, and the combination of selective absorption and scattering of white light causes it.

84/500
Family’s Bulky Doorstop Turned Out to Be 17-Pound Gold Nugget

In 1799, the son of a farmer in North Carolina found a large yellow rock in a creek on the family’s farm. Unsure of the substance, the family used it as a bulky doorstop for three years. The rock turned out to be a 17-pound gold nugget, and it was the first documented commercial gold found in the US. Although the gold nugget was valued at approximately $3,600, the family unknowingly sold it to a jeweler for $3.50.

83/500
Blinking During Conversation Indicates that The Person Isn’t Listening

While having a conversation with someone, if you see that the other person is blinking a lot, it might mean that they have stopped paying attention to what you are saying. Researchers have found that blinking puts up a slight physical barrier between us and the outside world. So, when people start blinking, it is usually because their mind is wandering.