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23 Fascinating Facts from All over the World. Something You Have Never Heard Of!

Curiosity is a very strong motivator pushing us to explore the world and broaden our horizons. Today you will learn about some unusual people, mysterious monuments and amazing animals.

#1 Mobile X-ray

During World War I, Marie Curie created mobile X-ray stations. They were fitted onto special trucks equipped with power generators relying on the vehicle’s engine. Thanks to them, well over one million wounded French soldiers were X-rayed.

#2 Apology advert

In 2016 a Japanese company published an advertisement where its employees apologize to their customers for increasing the price of ice-cream (by about 15%), It was the biggest price increase since 1991.

 

#3 Bugs Bunny Voice

Mel Blanc (the actor who lent his voice to Bugs Bunny) started smoking cigarettes at the age of 9. He survived a car crash followed by a two-week comma and changed his surname from Blank to Blanc. He died at the age of 81, a year after the animated movie called ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’

#4 Country border along the street

Canus Street is part of the border between the USA and Canada. People living on the southern part are American citizens while those living on the northern side are Canadians. The street is under permanent surveillance.

 

#5 Mysterious objects

Dodecahedrons date back to Roman times. They were made of stone or brass. They are hollow and in fact nobody knows the purpose they served. There are about 27 hypothesis in total. According to some of them the object could have been used as dice, military standards, candle holders, geometrical sculptures, tools to calibrate water supply pipes, toys or tools to indicate the best date for sowing.

#6 Changing funeral plans

The funeral protocol for Winston Churchill had to be updated a few times as the politician survived a few men who were supposed to carry his coffin.

 

#7 U-Boot hunting

Ernest Hemingway really wanted to serve somehow during World War 2. He came up with an idea to patrol a part of the Caribbean Sea on his fishing boat. Together with his crew he would be looking out for German U-Boots. He hoped that they would want to buy some fish from him and once trapped like that they would be shot by his fellow fishermen. Interestingly, the plan came off, although he never managed to sink an U-Boot.

 

#8 Love for sauna

The Finnish love saunas so much that their construction wasn’t suspended even during wars. Inside a sauna there are no social level or titles. No matter which part of society you come from , in sauna they are all equal.

 

#9 A bench with a zip-code

In 2000, a bench in a park in Bristol (Great Britain) received its own zip-code. It was to allow doctors register homeless people as patients.

 

#10 A cat on the lap

Do you remember the scene from Godfather where Marlon Brando holds a cat on his lap? The cat was never a part of the script. It had come there by accident, the director caught it and put it on the actor’s lap.

 

#11 A hotel for the Queen

The Scarborough Grand Hotel (Great Britain) has got as many room as there are days in a year – 365. It also has got 52 chimneys (standing for weeks) and 12 floors (for months). Additionally, it is V-shaped, as it was to commemorate Queen Victoria.

 

#12 Delivering a baby in a standing position

The giraffe’s pregnancy lasts 15 months. The mother delivers the baby on her… four legs! The whole process is really peculiar as the young one falls 2 meters down with its head going forward. Of course it doesn’t get hurt and soon it goes running!

 

#13 Famous female pirates

Being a pirate was not a privilege for men only, especially at the break of 17th and 18th century. Women-pirates include Anne Bonny, a children of a lawyer and a maid (who never got married) and Mary Read, born in London, who at first worked as a messenger (wearing boys clothes). Both ladies were captured at the beginning on 18th century.

 

#14 Green glass

Beer bottles are usually brown. This is because the color stops a lot of sun rays which preserves the beverage’s taste. As after World War 2 there were shortages of glass in this color, breweries went for green bottles to stand out from other companies using white glass bottles.

 

#15 Beavers go parachute jumping

In 1946 The Idaho Fishing Department decided to use the parachutes remaining after World War 2 to drop boxes with beavers on a preserved area. 76 beavers were dropped like that and only one did not survive the landing.

 

#16 Perfect cooperation

Ravens and wolves can cooperate really effectively. The birds call wolves to places where they have found dead animals. Wolves rip them apart and crows are happy to feast on the leftovers.

 

#17 Long live Americans!

Walter Breuning (1896 – 2011) lived 115 years. When he was 103, he gave up smoking cigars as they were… too expensive. However, he returned to the habit at the age of 108 because he got a lot of cigars as a gift.

 

#18 Mosquito evidence

The Finnish police managed to capture a car thief using … a dead mosquito. The car was found in an abandoned car. It turned out that it had sucked out some of the criminal’s blood which enabled the police to use the DNA to identify the man.

 

#19 The Sahara dust

Every year, wind brings about 30 million tons of Sahara dust to the Amazon forest. For the rainforest plants this is a priceless source of phosphor, which gives the plants the juicy green color.

 

#20 Bees surviving a fire

After the fire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, 200,000 bees were found on the roof of the structure. The insects were first thought to be dead. However, they did survive the disaster.

 

#21 A primitive incubator

Louis II of Hungary (king of Czech, Hungary and Croatia) was born in 1506 as a premature baby. To help him survive, the doctors would wrap him with bodies of dead animals which worked as a very primitive incubator. His mother died four weeks after his birth from childbed fever.

 

#22 As the body of Marie Curie is still radio-active, it is buried in a lead coffin

#23 One of the best movie tricks in the entire history of cinema: ‘Contact’ (1997)

Which fact surprised you the most?

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