52/500
Salvador Dalí’s Interesting Gift to Harpo Marx

After Salvador Dalí and Harpo Marx met and developed a friendship, Dalí sent Marx a gift – a harp with strings made of barbed wire and a frame dripping spoons and forks. The gift was wrapped in cellophane, and Marx took a photo of himself sitting at the harp with bandaged fingers.

51/500
How a Chinese Man Used His First-Class Plane Ticket to Enjoy Free Meals

A man in China bought a first-class, fully refundable plane ticket, which gave him access to the airport’s VIP lounge where high-rolling travelers can dine for free. The man rescheduled his first-class ticket 300 times in one year to enjoy free meals. When the airline figured out his scheme and confronted him, he cancelled the ticket and got a full refund.

50/500
The Arabia – A Steamboat That Sank in the Missouri River was Found Underground

The Arabia was a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856. Over time, the river shifted 800 meters to the east, eventually turning the site of the sinking into a field. The steamboat remained under 45 feet of slit and topsoil until 1988, when it was excavated. The mud, as it turned out, was such a great preserver that most of the artifacts on board were found to be intact. They even found jars of preserved apples that were still edible!

49/500
Here’s What this Bolivian Drug Lord did When His Son was Captured

In 1981, Bolivian drug lord Roberto Suárez Gómez’s son was arrested and extradited to the US. In 1983, Suárez wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan, offering to pay off Bolivia’s foreign debt (over $3 billion) in exchange for amnesty for himself and his son.

48/500
Some People Can Give Themselves Goosebumps

Some estimates show that about one in every 1500 individuals have something known as Voluntarily Generated Piloerection, which is the ability to consciously give oneself goosebumps. The phenomenon both intrigues and perplexes neurophysiologists because it defies the conventional understanding of how our unconscious nervous system works.

47/500
Legally Blind Man Regains Sight Thanks to Artificial Cornea

A new type of artificial cornea helped a 78-year-old legally blind man to regain his sight. Jamal Furani lost his sight ten years ago due to corneal disease. This new implant, designed with biomimetic material, is capable of stimulating cellular proliferation, which leads to progressive tissue integrations. The treatment can potentially help millions of people who suffer from corneal blindness.

46/500
Man Faked His Own Kidnapping to Party with Friends

A 34-year-old man named Rogelio Andaverde was abducted by two armed and masked men from his home in Edinburg, Texas. Terrified, his wife called the cops, but Andaverde remained missing. Two days later, he showed up at his house unharmed. Investigators later found out that Andaverde staged his own kidnapping because he wanted to go out with his friends and party.

45/500
Artist Bought Billboards to Showcase Artwork Instead of Ads

An artist named Brian Kane bought advertising time to display art instead of loud promotional images on interstate billboards in Massachusetts. The project called Healing Tool digitally restores nature by replacing or patching over the landscape which gets blocked by the billboard. It aims to provide a moment of unexpected beauty and temporary relief during the everyday grind of commuting.

44/500
How the Sahara Desert Enriches the Soil in the Amazon Rainforest

Every year, approximately 22,000 tons of dust from the Sahara Desert is carried by air currents to the Amazon Rainforest, enriching the tropical soil with phosphorus that gets lost due to rain and flooding.

43/500
Lifelong Cigar Smoker Became the World’s Oldest Living Human at Age 114

Walter Breuning was a lifelong cigar smoker, but he quit when he was 103 years old because cigars had gotten too pricey. He briefly started smoking cigars again at age 108 after receiving a lot of them as gifts. He lived up to be over 114 years old, and between July 2009 and until his death in April 2011, he was the world’s oldest recognized living man.

42/500
The Woman Who Built the Abort Guidance System Worked Until the Day She Gave Birth

Judith Love Cohen was an American aerospace engineer who helped to create the abort guidance system which was used during the Apollo 13 mission to bring the astronauts safely back home. She went to work the day her son was born. She took a printout of the problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss to let him know that she had solved the problem. The same day, she gave birth to Jack Black.

41/500
How a Cat Saved Her Owner’s Life

In 2012, a 21-pound cat named Pudding saved his owner’s life merely hours after being adopted. Amy Jung, the woman who adopted Pudding, suffered a diabetic seizure the night she brought him home. The cat responded by planting his weight on her chest and proceeded to swat her face and bite her nose until she regained consciousness and called for help.

40/500
The Origin of the Word Loophole

The term “loophole” originated from a 16th-century architectural feature. Castles of that time used to have narrow slits built into the walls that allowed archers to fire their arrows safely. The word “loophole” was also likely derived from the Dutch word lûpen, which meant “to watch.”

39/500
The Heartwarming Story behind The Hollywood Sign

When the Hollywood Sign needed to be completely rebuilt in the late 70s, some of the biggest names in showbiz came together to realize the quarter-million-dollar project. During a gala fundraiser, individual letters of the Sign were auctioned off. Alice Cooper donated $27,700 and “bought” the letter “O” in honor of his close friend Groucho Marx.

38/500
Limping was Considered Fashionable in Victorian England

Limping was a fad in Victorian England. Alexandra of Denmark, the bride of the Prince of Wales, was a 19th-century fashion icon, who had a pronounced limp. Young women all over London, and even Edinburgh, would go around faking a limp in an effort to copy her. They called it the Alexandra Limp, and shopkeepers started selling mismatched shoes with one low heel and one high.

37/500
March of Dimes – The Fundraising Campaign in the Fight Against Polio

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded an organization to combat polio, comedian and singer Eddie Cantor came up with an innovative fundraising campaign called March of Dimes. Americans were asked to mail a dime to the President. Soon, the mail room of the White House was flooded with over 2,680,000 dimes. The money went directly to the research that led to the creation of the polio vaccine, and that is the reason why Roosevelt is on the U.S. dime.

36/500
This is How Male Kangaroos Impress Female Kangaroos

Male kangaroos flex their biceps to impress females. Researchers have found that male kangaroos use their bulging biceps to wrestle away rival mates. Kangaroos have long been considered a symbol of strength. In fact, the boxing kangaroo is a national symbol of Australia, and men used to actually fight kangaroos in boxing rings.

35/500
The Tragic Fate of an Ailing Queen Bee

When a queen bee becomes sick, old, or failing, the worker bees replace her in a procedure called “supersedure.” When a new queen becomes available, the worker bees cluster tightly around the existing queen, raising her body temperature and causing her to die from overheating. This process is called “balling.”

34/500
Man Deposited Junk Mail Check and It was Credited!

In 1995, a man named Patrick Combs received a junk mail check for $95,093.35. As a joke, he deposited the fake check through his bank’s ATM. Surprisingly, the bank credited the sum into his account and did not realize their error until a month later.

33/500
What is the Siberian Unicorn?

This is a “Siberian unicorn,” a giant rhino that shared the Earth with humans up until at least 39,000 years ago.

32/500
Ancient Brewery Capable of Producing Thousands of Liters of Beer

A 5,000-year-old brewery that was capable of producing thousands of liters of beer has been discovered in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos. The site, which is situated in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate, possibly dates back to around 3,100 BCE during the reign of King Narmer.

31/500
A South Korean Professor Built a Self-Driving Car in 1993

Han Min-hong, a South Korean professor, built and successfully tested a self-driving car in 1993. The car traveled 185 miles from Seol to Busan through one of South Korea’s most heavily-traveled expressways. Despite the amazing results, the government saw no future in the technology and scrapped funding for his research.

30/500
How a Teenager Traded an Old Cell Phone to Eventually get a Porsche

When a 17-year-old boy named Steven Ortiz received an old cell phone for free, he used the barter trade option on Craigslist to end up with a Porsche. He made 14 trades over two years, and traded things like better phones, a dirt bike, a MacBook Pro laptop, a 1987 Toyota 4Runner, and 1975 Ford Bronco, which being a collectible, helped him to get the Porsche.

29/500
Hackers Reveal Critical Security Flaw in Hotmail

In 1999, a group of hackers revealed a critical security flaw in Hotmail that allowed anybody to log in to any Hotmail account simply by using the password “eh.” Hotmail servers were down for over two hours, but Microsoft managed to fix the bug that prevented a similar attack from happening again.

28/500
How Long Did It Take to Complete the Oxford Dictionary?

In 1879, when work on the Oxford English Dictionary began, it was estimated that the project would be finished in ten years. However, in five years, they had only managed to add as far as the word “ant.” The first edition was published in 1928, 49 years after the initial work began. Today, it would take one person 120 years to “key in” all the words in the dictionary.

27/500
A 2-700-Year-Old Statue was Being Used as a Bike Rack in a Museum

While visiting the God’s House Tower museum in England, two archaeologists realized that a 2,700-year-old statue was being used as a bike rack. The staff had no idea that the 27-inch statue was of the Egyptian king Taharqa and dated back to the 7th Century BCE. So, the statue was ignored and kept in the basement for a century.

26/500
Here’s What the Founder of Wendy’s Did to Promote Education

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, was a high school dropout, something he later regretted. Fearing that his success might inspire teens to quit school, he went back to school and earned a GED at the age of 60. He also founded the Dave Thomas Education Center, which offers GED tuition to young adults.

25/500
The Finnish Love Sauna so Much That They Even Built Them in the Battlefield

In Finland, saunas are a necessary part of everyday life and they are also an important part of their national identity. The Finnish are so serious about their sauna that the military even built them during wars. During World War II, the Finnish military field manual stated that it takes eight hours for the battalion to build saunas, which were egalitarian places where hierarchies or titles do not matter.

24/500
Here’s Why Dogs Run in Circle before Lying Down

Ever wondered why dogs circle before lying down? As it turns out, their evolutionary ancestors used to sleep outside. Turning around in circles gave them the opportunity to scope out potential threats. They also did that to determine the direction of the wind, which helped them to pick up on threatening scents even when sleeping.

23/500
How Britain Sent Beer to Its Soldiers during WWII

A British brewery gave away free beer for the soldiers during World War II, but after the Normandy landings, it was difficult to get all that beer across the English Channel. So, RAF pilots thought of a novel solution – using the drop tanks to transport beer instead of fuel. Flying at a high altitude also kept the beer chilled.