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Something for everyone interested in hair, makeup, style, and body positivity.Rewind·Posted 4 minutes ago63 Facts I Learned In January 2023 That Really Fascinated Me
When Mario Puzo, the author of the Godfather books, began to adapt the novels to film, he had never written a screenplay before. Although he ended up winning two Oscars for his scripts, he decided to purchase a book on screenwriting in order to further perfect his craft. Puzo said he was shocked when he started reading the book. "The first chapter [of] the book said, study Godfather I. It's the model of a screenplay," he said. "So, I was stuck with the book."
by Madison McGeeBuzzFeed Staff
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I love stumbling across a great fact, whether it's a random piece of trivia, a story about the making of one of my favorite movies or TV shows, or the history of a shocking event.
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Every week, I write a post full of the most fascinating things I've recently learned. At the end of each month, I round 'em all up into one big post for your reading pleasure.
That means that there's a chance you've seen some of these facts in previous BuzzFeed posts. I linked the individual ones for you below, in case you prefer reading them that way!
January 6, 2023
January 20, 2023
January 27, 2023
So, without further ado, here are 63 truly fascinating things I learned in January 2023:
1. During the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1976, producer Lorne Michaels delivered an on-camera plea to the Beatles, inviting them to the studio to reunite and joking that NBC would offer them $3,000 for a performance. It turns out that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were actually watching the show together when Michaels performed the bit. In 1980, Lennon revealed that they actually considered going to the studio. "We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired," he said. "He and I were just sitting there watching the show, and we went, 'Ha ha, wouldn’t it be funny if we went down?'" In later years, McCartney corroborated the story. "It would have been work, and we were having a night off, so we elected not to go," he said. "It was a nice idea — we nearly did it."
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2. In 1959, Walt Disney invited then-vice president Richard Nixon and his family to Disneyland to attend the dedication ceremony for the park's new Monorail. The Monorail's air conditioning only worked when the train was in motion. On the day the Nixon family arrived to tour the Monorail, it was reportedly very hot, so Disney invited them on to the air-conditioned car, and the train took off with the family on board. The issue? Nixon's Secret Service was left on the platform as the train left, essentially "kidnapping" the vice president and his family.
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After the train completed the first lap, it appeared to slow down to let the Secret Service members on. Instead, Nixon's daughters allegedly yelled, "Again!" and the train went for a second lap without the Secret Service agents on board. Bob Gurr, the Disney employee in charge of the whole debacle, said that Nixon reportedly "roared with laughter." The Monorail eventually stopped, allowing the Nixon family to reunite with their Secret Service agents. It was later revealed that Disney executives were actually a bit worried about the Nixon family's joyride. The Monorail had only taken one successful lap prior before the Nixon family's trip. According to Gurr, there were some concerns that the train might catch on fire with the entire Nixon family on board.
University Of Southern Californi / Corbis via Getty Images
3. The rhyme "Rock-A-Bye Baby" might have a pretty dark origin. Some believe that the lullaby was written about the son of King James II of England and Mary of Modena, who allegedly was not actually the couple's biological son. Instead, many think that a random child was brought into the birthing suite and passed off as theirs in order to ensure there would be a Roman Catholic heir to the throne.
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4. On December 8, 1963, Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler, former high school classmates from Los Angeles, kidnapped Frank Sinatra, Jr. in order to demand a hefty ransom from his famous father. Keenan and Amsler had reportedly been tailing Sinatra for weeks in order to determine when would be the best time to strike. Sinatra had been trying to get his own musical career started, and was performing at Harrah’s Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe on the night of the abduction. After the performance, Sinatra was resting in his dressing room with a friend when Keenan knocked on the door and pretended to be delivering a package. They tied up the friend while they blindfolded Sinatra and led him out of the room at gunpoint to a waiting car.
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The friend was able to free himself and contacted authorities, who quickly sprung into action and set up roadblocks to try to catch the kidnappers. According to the FBI report from the kidnapping, the kidnappers were actually stopped, but ended up bluffing their way through the roadblocks and continued on to a hideout in Los Angeles. Less than an hour after the crime, the FBI contacted Sinatra's parents. They believed that the motive for the kidnapping was money, and advised the Sinatras to pay the ransom request so they could trace the money. Keenan, Amsler, and a third conspirator, John Irwin, ultimately ended up demanding $240,000 in ransom. The Sinatras gave the FBI the money, who followed the instructions given by the kidnappers, and dropped the money between two school buses in Sepulveda, California on December 11.
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While Keenan and Amsler were en route to pick up the money, Irwin got nervous and ended up freeing Sinatra, Jr., who walked several miles until he found a security guard who could help him. The guard put Sinatra, Jr. in the trunk of his car to avoid drawing attention and took him home. While he didn't know much about his kidnappers, he was able to give authorities enough information to lead them to the house. All three men involved were quickly captured, and nearly all of the ransom was recovered. During the trial, the defense attempted to argue that Sinatra, Jr. actually orchestrated his own kidnapping as a publicity stunt, but a confession letter written by Keenan was eventually found. All three men were convicted.
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Keenan and Amsler were both sentenced to life in prison plus 75 years, while Irwin was given 75 years. Their sentences were later reduced to just 25 years. Amsler and Irwin both served three and a half years, while Keenan ended up serving four and a half. Upon Keenan's release, he entered the real estate world and became a millionaire. In 1998, he decided to sell his story for publication, and soon after, Columbia Pictures approached him and his co-conspirators, offering them millions to make a movie about the experience. After Sinatra, Jr. caught wind of this, he filed a lawsuit, citing a California law stating that felons could not profit off of their crimes. Keenan shot back, saying that the lawsuit violated his First Amendment rights. After a long legal battle, Sinatra, Jr. won the case.
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5. Although Barbie and Ken might be one of the world's most popular fictional couples, they're low-key kind of siblings. Mattel founder Ruth Handler decided to name the dolls after her children, Barbara and Kenneth, which means that the couple was inspired by a real-life brother and sister duo.
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6. I firmly believe that Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" is one of the best movie theme songs of all time, so I was utterly shocked to learn that the singer allegedly wanted no part of it at first. Before Titanic was released, it was the center of some pretty negative buzz. Studio executives thought that the addition of an epic love song would be a good marketing tool. Director James Cameron was reportedly against ending the movie with a pop song, and allegedly told executives, "Would you put a song at the end of Schindler’s List?" Meanwhile, composer James Horner, who had already been tapped to write the film's score, had been quietly working on "My Heart Will Go On."
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Horner and Dion had already worked together, and he believed that Dion would be the perfect person to tackle the ballad. However, when he approached Dion with the song, she said she was skeptical to work on another movie theme after recording songs for Beauty and the Beast and Up Close and Personal. Eventually, her husband, the late René Angélil, persuaded her to record a demo. "Behind closed doors, I think René told her this was going to be one of the biggest things in her career," record executive Tommy Mottola recalled to Billboard.
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Dion agreed to the demo recording. "She laid down this vocal — nonstop, OK? One take," Mottola said. "We were all getting chills." Dion said that everyone in the room was crying after she finished the song in just a single take. Although the demo went well, Dion said she was still worried about what Cameron was going to think. "James Cameron didn’t want to have a song in his movie," she said. "'My movie is big enough, I don’t need something bigger, I don’t need any singer.'" After hearing the song, Cameron agreed that it worked well in the film. "My Heart Will Go On" went on to become one of the bestselling singles of all time, and won the Oscar for Best Original Song, as well as Record of the Year at the Grammys. "I’m so glad that my husband said, 'I really think that you should do that song,'" Dion told Billboard in 2017.
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7. A walrus's tusk size determines their social status. The longer the tusk, the more respected the walrus is. Both male and female walruses grow tusks that can measure up to 3 feet long. If the tusks break, it often means that their social status gets knocked down a few pegs.
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8. In addition to, you know, being the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was also a champion wrestler who was allegedly only defeated once over a dozen years of competition. Lincoln got his start wrestling as a child, where he reportedly competed in matches for over a decade. At age 19, Lincoln purportedly defended his stepbrother's river barge by using his wrestling skills to throw the hijackers overboard. Another one of Lincoln's notable wins came in 1830 when he was challenged to a fight by members of a gang while working as a shopkeeper in New Salem, Illinois. He ended up defeating Jack Armstrong, who was then the town's wrestling champion. Armstrong was allegedly fighting dirty, so Lincoln reportedly picked him up and knocked him out to end the fight.
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In 1992, Lincoln was enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. "We like to say wrestling is life," executive director Lee Roy Smith said. "And he wrestled with life." It also turns out that Lincoln wasn't just a good wrestler, but a pretty athletic guy overall! He allegedly loved to play handball, and was even spotted playing outside during the Republican National Convention when he was nominated to run for president. He also supposedly enjoyed bowling and billiards. In fact, Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian and co-chairman of the Lincoln Forum, said that many would consider Lincoln "what we would describe today as 'ripped.'"
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9. Every year after the holidays, the lumber from the iconic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center has been donated to Habitat for Humanity. The practice originated in 2007. Several of the homes that have been built using lumber from the tree have commemorative stamps on them, acknowledging which year's tree the wood came from.
Gary Hershorn / Corbis via Getty Images
10. Before marrying Prince Charles, Princess Diana had several royal connections. In fact, her lineage, tracing back to her great grand uncle, the fifth Earl of Spencer, has some very fascinating royal roots. He allegedly worked as the groom of the stool, which meant that he helped the king wash up after using the bathroom. The groom would also carry around a portable toilet and closely monitored the royal's diet to get a better sense of when he had to use the bathroom. In addition to assisting with bathroom duties, the groom of the stool would also help the king dress up, and ensured that his room was kept tidy.
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While this doesn't sound like the most glamorous royal role, it was allegedly a very coveted job. As the king would sit on the toilet, he would typically spill secrets to the groom of the stool, who would end up becoming one of the most connected people in the palace. In fact, the role was so prestigious that monarchs in exile were often denied grooms as part of their punishment. While grooms of the stool originated in the 1400s, the role became more popularized during Henry VIII's reign. By the 1800s, the groom of the stool position had evolved to eliminate all bathroom duties. Instead, the groom would help the king with his dressing and other personal grooming. With this shift, the job became known as the groom of the stole instead.
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Diana also allegedly had some pretty notable familial connections outside of the royal family. She was distantly related to prime minister Winston Churchill after Charles Spencer married Anne Churchill in the 1700s. In a rather American twist, Town and Country reported that George Washington is allegedly Diana's eighth cousin, five times removed. Audrey Hepburn and Diana were also distantly related, as Hepburn's mother was a member of the Dutch nobility. And finally, on an episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, actor Glenn Close learned that she and Diana were eighth cousins.
Evening Standard/Smith Collection/Gado/Archive Photos/Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images
11. While you definitely know about NASA's achievements in space, they've also developed quite a few items that you probably have in your home. Among NASA's non-space-related inventions are the Dustbuster, scratch-resistant glasses lenses, athletic cooling fabrics, memory foam, and even elements of the modern laptop including fan-based cooling and a full-sized keyboard.
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12. Back when George Lucas was developing the storylines for the original Star Wars trilogy, he imagined them being a series of stories recorded by an ancient race of immortal beings known as the Whills. His plan was to have the Whills pass on the stories to groups of chroniclers, known as Keepers, who would record them in journals. In fact, Lucas said he originally intended on R2-D2 being one of the Keepers. He also allegedly imagined he himself would also be one of the Keepers, in a way to connect the Star Wars world he created to reality.
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Although the idea of the Whills didn't make it into the final cut of the films, Lucas said he was able to salvage part of his work. "The Whills became part of this massive amount of notes, quotes, background information that I used for the scripts; the stories were actually taken from the 'Journal of the Whills,'" he said. In fact, the Journal of the Whills inspired the movie's opening sequence. The recaps of past events at the beginning of the movies were meant to be entries from the journal, told from the perspective of the Whills. In later years, the Whills made their official debut in Rogue One.
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13. At the LEGO Idea House in Denmark, there is an archive of all 8,000 LEGO sets the company has released since the 1960s. The collection is part of the company's corporate museum, and is closed to visitors unless they have a "business-relevant purpose." Kristian Reimer Hauge, a LEGO historian, said that on the off-chance visitors are allowed in, the company recommends taking your birth year and adding five years in order to be reacquainted with the LEGO sets of your childhood.
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14. While most Mad Men viewers likely knew that the series took a lot of cues from real-life events and ad campaigns, you might not have known that Don Draper, the show's main character, was allegedly partially based on a real person. Draper Daniels was an ad executive for Leo Burnett, an agency in Chicago, and was even credited with creating the Marlboro Man. In 2009, Myra Daniels, Draper's wife, wrote an essay for Chicago magazine titled "I Married A Mad Man," where she revealed that Draper persuaded her to marry him after they met during a business meeting about a company merger, even though she was already engaged.
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Daniels added that after they were married, Draper became much different. "Draper Daniels smoked a lot and sometimes drank his lunch, as Don Draper does on the show," she said. "He had a lot of energy, enjoyed life, and came up with brilliant and innovative ideas, traits shared with Don Draper. He also liked women, much the way Don Draper does. But the Draper Daniels I knew became a one-woman man after we married. He also quit drinking, when I told him I didn’t want to work with a lush." She added that after Draper created the Marlboro Man, he ended up leaving advertising for a year because he felt so guilty about promoting cigarettes. Matthew Weiner, who created Mad Men, said that he was inspired by Draper's name when developing Don Draper, and called Draper Daniels "one of the great copy guys."
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15. When Mario Puzo, the author of the Godfather books, was tapped to adapt the series for film, he had never written a screenplay before and admitted that he had no idea what he was doing. However, he clearly had some sort of talent when it came to film. After all, he won two Oscars for his scripts, and told NPR that writing them was "a cinch." After taking home the awards, he said that he decided to buy a book about screenwriting in order to further perfect the craft. When he started studying the book, he found a surprising lesson. "The first chapter [of] the book said, study Godfather I. It's the model of a screenplay," he said. "So, I was stuck with the book."
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16. In 1968, Pan Am, which was then one of America's most popular airlines, launched the First Moon Flights Club, where customers could book their tickets for the first civilian flights to the moon, projected to begin in 2000. The idea originated in 1964, after Gerhard Pistor, an Austrian journalist walked into a travel agency and asked to book a flight to the moon. Instead of passing it off as a joke, the agent reportedly connected him with both the Soviet Aeroflot and Pan Am, inspiring the airline to actually develop their program. In 1968, they enrolled about 180 people.
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When a Pan Am-branded spacecraft appeared in 2001: A Space Odyssey, requests allegedly skyrocketed. Between 1968 and 1971, the airline accepted about 93,000 reservation requests, including some from pretty notable names including politicians, entrepreneurs, and even news anchor, Walter Cronkite. Everyone who enrolled in the program received a numbered membership card in the mail. Pan Am acknowledged that there were a lot of unresolved details regarding the flights. In a form letter sent to members, they wrote, "Starting date of service is not yet known. Equipment and route will, probably, be subject to government approvals. Fares are not fully resolved, and may be out of this world."
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In 1971, the airline stopped taking reservations, citing administrative and financial strain. Despite the sudden halt to the program, Pan Am maintained that the reservations were legitimate. Rival airlines like TWA said they were also keeping a list of customers for when they unveiled their own trips to the moon, but the Pan Am program reigned supreme in terms of popularity. In 1991, Pan Am shuttered after going bankrupt, thus officially voiding the 93,000 reservations.
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17. Pigeons and doves are technically the same exact animal. In fact, the only real difference is in the name: the word "dove" is more Nordic, while "pigeon" has a French origin. Despite the fact that there's no big difference between the birds, some people tend to categorize them by size, dubbing bigger birds pigeons, while smaller ones are typically called doves.
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18. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is often called "the world's first rock star" because of the way he was worshipped by concertgoers. During Liszt's concert piano performances, women allegedly would attack him to grab pieces of his clothing, broken piano strings, and even locks of his hair. Stephen Hough, a concert pianist, told NPR stories of "women throwing their clothes onto the stage and taking his cigar butts and placing them in their cleavages" during Liszt's shows. This phenomenon was nothing like anyone had ever seen and was soon dubbed "Lisztomania."
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Liszt is often credited with revolutionizing the concert experience. He typically played from memory and turned his piano so concertgoers could see his face. "Liszt saw that playing the piano, especially for a whole evening in front of an audience, it was a theatrical event that needed not just musical things happening but physical things on the stage," Hough said. Lisztomania allegedly got so intense that women started writing to the musician with requests for locks of his hair. Legend has it that Liszt supposedly bought a dog and sent clippings of the dog's fur in place of his own hair.
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19. In 1972, director Joyce Chopra filmed herself giving birth for a short film called Joyce at 34, which is believed to be the world's first televised live birth. The inspiration for the film came when Chopra was eight months pregnant and struggling with the way motherhood might change her career and identity. Chopra teamed up with filmmaker Claudia Weill to document the end of her pregnancy and birth. The plan was for Weill to film the birth, but she was out of town when Chopra went into labor, and a backup crew had to come into the delivery room. The 40-second birth sequence marked the first time a woman was filmed giving birth for television, while the rest of the documentary depicted the first 14 months of Chopra's motherhood journey.
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When the documentary debuted, there were some mixed opinions on it. Gloria Steinem called it "one of the rare documentaries that is neither propaganda nor putdown: a film that loves both the people it portrays and the truth," while others complained about the birth scene. Chopra's daughter, Sarah Cole, even wrote about the experience for her college essay. "I was born on film," she wrote. "I have been born a dozen times on public television, once at a cross-cultural film festival in the Soviet Union, every year (as far as I know) at some or other university in the US. A roll of celluloid, from which I could be born at any moment, is reposing in the vault at the Museum of Modern Art."
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20. There is enough salt in the ocean to cover the Earth's entire surface. If all of the salt was spread out across the entire planet, it would reportedly be about 500 feet thick, or the height of a 40-story office building. Most of the salt in the ocean comes from rocks on land and is typically transported by rainwater runoff.
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21. Dr. Dorothy Ferebee devoted her life to providing accessible healthcare to Black people in the South. Ferebee was born into a prominent Black family in Virginia. Her grandfather had been enslaved, but later became a successful businessman. Many people in her family were lawyers, businessmen, or entrepreneurs, but Ferebee knew from a young age that she wanted to be a doctor. She lived with family members in Boston, likely because there were more educational opportunities for her up there. In 1924, she graduated from Tufts Medical School as one of only five women in her class. Although she faced scrutiny for being a Black woman in medicine, she ended up being in the top five of her class.
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Upon graduation, Ferebee struggled to find a job, as they all required photos, which revealed that she was Black. She eventually got a residency position at Freedmen’s Hospital, a Black-owned hospital in Washington, DC. After passing her exams, she worked as an obstetrician, where she controversially promoted contraception and sex education for women. She soon began to pick up on the lack of medical care for Black people in Washington and founded the Southeast Neighborhood House, which provided not only medical care but day care and other opportunities for Black residents.
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Ferebee also ran the Mississippi Health Project from 1935 to 1942, and traveled to the Mississippi Delta every summer with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters to offer medical exams, vaccinations, and health education to Black families. Her work vaccinated about 15,000 children against smallpox and diphtheria, and was praised as one of the most effective health programs in history. She soon began working with the National Council of Negro Women and eventually became president of the organization, where she worked to promote healthcare and end discrimination against Black women. Throughout her career, Ferebee was appointed to several positions in groups like the World Health Organization where she continued to advocate for equal healthcare opportunities until her death in 1980.
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22. One man's desire to explore the Titanic was once used by the US government as a bargaining chip in exchange for exploring two US nuclear submarines that sank during the Cold War. Explorer Robert Ballard had long wanted to search for the Titanic wreckage but needed money to pull it off. The US Navy decided they would fund his exploration, so long as Ballard also searched for the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion, which were believed to be located in the same area. The Titanic search also served as a cover story because the US didn't want Russia to realize that they were scoping out the submarines. After locating the submarines, Ballard had only 12 days left to find the Titanic but ended up being able to pull it off. "We got it, scoring the winning goal at the buzzer," Ballard told CNN about the feat.
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23. While When Harry Met Sally... might be one of the best friends-to-lovers romances of all time, it turns out that the beloved love story was supposed to pan out a little differently! In the movie, Harry and Sally meet when they're paired to drive cross-country to New York City and eventually become close friends, only to realize that they might actually have been in love with each other for years. Director Rob Reiner revealed that Harry and Sally were actually never supposed to end up together. Much of the film was based on Reiner's personal life. He had been long divorced and wasn't interested in ending the movie with a love story. Instead, the original script had Harry and Sally drifting apart, and ended with the pair bumping into each other on the street to briefly catch up before going their separate ways.
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"I was in the middle of my single life," Reiner said in 1989. "I’d been out a number of times — all these disastrous, confusing relationships, one after another." During filming, Reiner was introduced to Michele Singer by Barry Sonnenfeld, the film's cinematographer, and the pair quickly fell for each other. Inspired by both Reiner's new love story and negative audience reaction to the original ending, Reiner and Nora Ephron, who wrote the screenplay, decided to revamp the ending. "It wasn’t until I met Michele that I thought, Okay, that’s how it could work for me, and I changed the ending to where they got together," Reiner revealed.
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24. In 2001, casino owner Steve Wynn purchased "Le Rêve," Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter for $48.4 million. Several years later, Steven Cohen, an art collector who had long coveted the painting, expressed interest in purchasing it, and the two worked out a deal: Cohen would acquire "Le Rêve" for a whopping $139 million, making it the highest price paid for a work of art. The painting went through inspections, and soon, the deal was done. Just before the painting transferred over to Cohen, Wynn invited several friends to the Wynn Las Vegas hotel for the weekend. The group allegedly expressed interest in seeing "Le Rêve," so Wynn escorted them to the painting, where he accidentally elbowed "Le Rêve" and ripped it. Wynn was later able to have the painting repaired, and Cohen eventually bought it in 2013.
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25. On October 7, 1949, Jean Spangler, who worked as a background actor and dancer, disappeared in Los Angeles, a crime that has still not been solved over 70 years later. That fall, Spangler had been working as a dancer at Hollywood's Florentine Gardens and had just wrapped a bit part in The Petty Girl. While Spangler had been making strides in her career, according to Entertainment Weekly, she was also dealing with some personal drama: In 1942, she married Dexter Benner but filed for divorce just six months later. The pair eventually reconciled, and Spangler gave birth to their daughter in 1944. They split up again shortly after, launching a long custody battle, which Spangler eventually won.
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On the night of Friday, October 7, 1949, Spangler left her young daughter, Christine, with her sister-in-law, Sophie, and told them she was heading off to work. It wasn't unusual for Spangler to work nights, so Sophie reportedly didn't think anything of it. About two hours after leaving, Spangler allegedly called the apartment and told Sophie not to expect her back until the next morning because she had a long shoot ahead of her. When Spangler still hadn't returned by Saturday evening, Sophie called the police, who began searching for the actor. By Sunday morning, authorities had found Spangler's purse in the Fern Dell area of Los Angeles's Griffith Park. The purse's handle was torn, and inside was a note in Spangler's handwriting reading, "Kirk: Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away."
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
The discovery of the purse and the note deepened the case: Who were Kirk and Dr. Scott, and how did Spangler know them? Despite efforts by both the authorities and the Spangler family, there was no trace of Spangler. The LAPD has since declared the case an "unsolved missing persons case." To make the case even more troubling, Spangler's disappearance has been linked to the Black Dahlia case, in which Elizabeth Short, a young actor and dancer, was found murdered in Los Angeles in 1947. That case also went unsolved. So, how was Spangler connected to Short? They both worked as dancers at Florentine Gardens.
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There are several additional theories as to what happened to Spangler. Some believe that the Kirk in the note is actor Kirk Douglas, whom Spangler worked with in the movie Young Man with a Horn. Spangler's mother recalled her mentioning a "Kirk," and Spangler had allegedly told several people that she was involved in a new romance. Douglas said he met Spangler on set but denied knowing her well. Others believe that Dr. Scott, who was mentioned in the note, had something to do with it. Authorities confirmed that Spangler knew a Dr. Scott, but no doctors with that name admitted to knowing Spangler, who had allegedly had an affair with a man named Scotty years earlier. Additional theories point fingers at the mob, claiming that Spangler had reportedly been seen with members just days before. Finally, Entertainment Weekly reported that many believe Spangler's ex-husband had something to do with her disappearance, in an attempt to regain custody of Christine.
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26. To be honest, I didn't think snails had any teeth at all, so to learn that they actually have thousands throughout their lifetime was certainly a shock to the system. A snail has dozens of rows of teeth, which, according to NPR, "form a multi-toothed ribbon called a radula." As the teeth get worn down, they fall out and are replaced by the next row of teeth. Within four to six weeks, a snail's entire set of chompers has been replaced, with new teeth constantly growing.
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27. While the song "Respect" was certainly popularized by Aretha Franklin, it actually began as an Otis Redding song about a man demanding respect from his wife. Redding's version of the song, which was released in 1965, was a modest hit, reaching No. 35 on the US charts. Redding said that he loved the song not only for its musicality but also for its message. "It says something, too: 'What you want, baby, you got it; what you need, baby, you got it; all I’m asking for is a little respect when I come home.' The song lines are great," Redding said. Meanwhile, in November 1966, Franklin parted ways with her label, Columbia Records, after allegedly not selling as many records as they initially believed she would.
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Soon after, Franklin was signed to Atlantic Records. During one of her first recording sessions, she began singing "Respect." Tom Dowd, a studio engineer, had actually worked on Redding's version of the song and noted how Franklin, along with her sister Carolyn, reworked the song to put her own twist on the track, singing from the perspective of a woman. "Respect" immediately hit No. 1 and became Franklin's most famous song. "Well, I just love it," Franklin said of the song in 2014. "Of course, that became a mantra for the Civil Rights Movement. 'Respect' is just basic to everyone: Everybody wants and needs respect. It’s basic to mankind. Perhaps what people could not say, the record said it for them."
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28. In 1984, Coca-Cola launched a campaign to design soda cans that could be used in space. The prototype worked in weightlessness, allowing the soda to remain fizzy without spewing out of the can. NASA allowed the astronauts to test the cans on board a space flight. When Pepsi heard about Coca-Cola's plan, it decided to develop its own cans. In 1985, the Coke and Pepsi cans were both tested on the STS-51-F mission. Astronauts had some mixed reviews of the cans, and NASA ultimately decided not to include either brand's can in its official spacecraft pantry.
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29. Chances are, you were taught about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree as a child. The story goes something like this: A young Washington received a hatchet as a gift. When he went outside to test out his new weapon, he damaged his father's cherry tree. He tried to play it off until his father confronted him, to which Washington reportedly replied with some version of, "I cannot tell a lie…I cut the cherry tree." The story is often taught to children in order to promote honesty, but the kicker is that the story isn't true at all.
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So how did this story come to be? After Washington died in 1799, there was a high demand for new stories about the president. Mason Locke Weems, Washington's biographer, decided to publish a new biography full of details about Washington's life. When the first printing of the book was released in 1800, the cherry tree story was not included but was added in time for the book's fifth printing in 1806. Weems's book included lots of false stories about the president, but the cherry tree story proved to be the most enduring.
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Weems included fake stories about Washington's personal life in order to make him seem like the ideal role model for young Americans. While the original version of the story was written with a general audience in mind, in 1836, it was rewritten by William Holmes McGuffey for a series of children's textbooks. The textbooks remained in print for over 100 years. Many people began claiming the myth as fact. In 1835, P.T. Barnum bought Joice Heth, an enslaved woman who claimed to have raised George Washington. Heth corroborated the cherry tree story, even though she likely had never even met Washington, as she would have been 161 years old in order to have raised him, as she claimed.
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30. If you ever thought Parks and Recreation and The Office seemed pretty similar, you were correct. After The Office became a smash hit for NBC, they hoped that Parks and Recreation could capture the same audience, and planned a very specific plot point to link the two shows. Paul Lieberstein, who played Toby, in addition to working as a writer and executive producer on The Office, intended for a broken copier featured in an episode of the show to be sent away for repairs. However, instead of returning to the Dunder Mifflin office in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the copier would be refurbished and shipped off to Pawnee, Indiana, where it would serve as the Parks and Recreation Department's copier. The plan to link the shows was eventually abandoned, and Parks and Recreation went on to be its own series instead of an Office spinoff.
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31. Ever wondered why Queen Elizabeth II's birthday was celebrated in June, when she was actually born in April? While Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, all of her birthday festivities take place in June, at an event known as the Trooping of the Colour, which is normally held during the second week of June. Palace officials believed that her April birthday lent itself to the possibility of inclement weather, so they decided to move her big day to June to ensure nice-enough weather for a parade.
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Believe it or not, Queen Elizabeth II isn't the only royal to have two birthdays. The tradition actually began in 1748 with King George II, whose birthday was in November. He decided to combine his birthday celebration with the Trooping of the Colour events so that spectators wouldn't get sick while gathering outside in the cold to celebrate his birthday in November. Before becoming king, George was known for his time in the military, so it made sense to celebrate at a military-themed event. Years later, Edward VII, who also had a November birthday, made the June date for the Trooping of the Colour official. Queen Elizabeth II's birthday shifted dates a few times during her reign: It was held on Thursdays for her first seven years as queen but later shifted to Saturdays.
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32. Explorers traversing the summit of Kīlauea and the Kaʻū Desert in Hawaii have noticed long, blonde strands of hair dusting the ground. The hair actually doesn't belong to humans or animals — it comes from the volcano itself! The strands are thin glass fibers, known as Pele's hair, named after Pele, a Hawaiian deity who created the state's volcanic landscape. The hairlike objects are created when gas bubbles burst after a volcanic eruption. The molten lava is stretched into long threads. The strands are so light that they're easily picked up by the wind, and often clump together when they settle, thus creating the hair effect. Don't be fooled, though! The strands can often be sharp and have been known to become lodged in eyes and skin.
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33. All clown fish are born male but can change their sex to female in order to become a dominant member of their school. If you've seen Finding Nemo, then you probably know that clown fish live in an anemone. Within that, there is one "breeding pair" that lives among other non-breeding fish. When the female from the breeding pair dies, one of the male fish becomes female. This is known as sequential hermaphroditism and is an irreversible change. Of course, that technically means that in Finding Nemo, Marlin would have turned into a female after Nemo's mother died.
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34. 1967's The Jungle Book ended up being the final film Walt Disney ever worked on. Disney first expressed an interest in buying the rights to Rudyard Kipling's novel in the 1930s but was unsuccessful in securing the rights for over a decade. Although Disney was a fan of the original book, he wanted to make some big changes to the script so that the film would align more with the typical family-friendly Disney fare. This allegedly caused some controversy with his team.
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After The Sword and the Stone received negative reviews from critics, Disney decided that he was going to return to film, and vowed to personally oversee the entire production of The Jungle Book to ensure that it wouldn't be another flop. During this time, Disney had largely stepped back from the movie business as he prepared to open his amusement parks. Shortly before the film was completed, Disney died of lung cancer. When the movie launched, it was well received by both critics and viewers, although some have attributed the movie's success to an outpouring of support for the filmmaker in the wake of his death.
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35. While moving in New York City is an utter hassle, I truly can't imagine how bad it used to be on the city's mandated "Moving Day." From the colonial period to around World War II, every lease in the city ended on May 1, so millions of people had to move that day. There was a law that stated that every landlord had to notify tenants of rent increases on February 1, giving them ample time to find new places to live before May 1's Moving Day. Although I think having an entire city move on the same day seems like a complete nightmare, Moving Day was often seen as a holiday, and most local schools were closed to commemorate the day.
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36. When temperatures rise in Australia, flower nectar begins to ferment. This proves dangerous for bees, which get drunk off of the fermented nectar. When the tipsy bees try to get back into their hives, they're often turned away by the bees on guard until they sober up. So, why can't drunk bees reenter their hives? They run the risk of fermenting the hive's honey, which could prove fatal to the entire colony.
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37. My inner 12-year-old is very excited about the film adaptation of Judy Blume's classic YA novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, so I recently set out on a nostalgic deep dive into the beloved title. Blume revealed that she wrote the book in just six weeks. "It was all so new, so exciting, so close to the surface," she wrote. "Margaret is the book that changed my life." The novel, which covers topics like puberty and sex, garnered immense praise and overwhelming criticism, landing on both "best of" and "most banned" lists. Blume said she never set out to write such a controversial title.
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"To me, there was nothing wrong with thinking about getting your period and wanting your breasts to grow. It wasn't controversial in my mind. It was just true." Blume said she donated three signed copies of the book to her children's school, only to be shocked when the books were pulled from the library's shelves. "The male principal was not a good guy for many, many reasons. But he removed them from the library, and he said, 'You know, girls in sixth grade are too young to read about this. We can't have these books in our library,'" Blume said. Although Blume said she long resisted turning the book into a movie, she eventually caved. "I would love to see Margaret done well. Why not? What am I waiting for? I’m 80 years old. If I want to see it, I better hurry up."
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38. In 2015, Taylor Swift trademarked several phrases from her 1989 album, including "This sick beat," "Nice to meet you, where you been?" and "We never go out of style." The trademarks meant that the phrases could not be printed on non-Swift-approved merchandise. It applied to everything from the typical merch, like tote bags, mugs, and T-shirts, to some unconventional items, including "napkin holders, paint brushes, Christmas tree ornaments and 'whips, harness, and saddlery.'"
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39. In the lead-up to Prohibition, there was an increase in "dry" propaganda, which emphasized the alleged dangers of drinking. This propaganda became required reading in schools but was actually full of misinformation about alcohol, and let me tell you, reading some of the most widely spread ideas had my jaw on the floor. Mental Floss reported that one commonly held belief was that drinking alcohol would turn people's blood into water. This was spread by a branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a group that believed that prohibiting alcohol would lead to the elimination of domestic violence. Another myth, attributed to Alfred Ploetz, a German eugenicist who would later go on to join the Nazi Party, was that the scent of alcohol would lead to birth defects.
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The other propaganda included the belief that a popular type of wine was made by allowing a bag of dried cockroaches to dissolve in a bottle of liquor. But perhaps the wildest of them all was the idea that the brains of frequent drinkers were more flammable. George McCandlish, a known Prohibitionist, claimed that he once saw two surgeons performing an autopsy on a heavy drinker. McCandlish alleged that he witnessed the surgeons hold a lighted match to the patient's brain, which immediately caught on fire, thus reportedly proving the presence of alcohol in the brain matter.
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40. You might not expect Birmingham, Alabama, to be home to the world's biggest iron statue, but "Vulcan," located on Red Mountain, has earned the honor. Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti sculpted it in 1904 as part of an exhibit for the St. Louis World's Fair to promote the city and state. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge, represented Alabama's growing interest in metalwork and production. In 1946, a torch was added to the statue's hand to represent traffic conditions: If the light was red, there had been a fatal accident; if it was green, there hadn't been any fatalities. The torch was removed during restoration in 1999 in an attempt to return the statue to its original form. "Vulcan" is actually the second-largest statue in the United States — only the Statue of Liberty is bigger!
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41. Victoria Claflin Woodhull was the first woman ever to run for president of the United States. Woodhull was born into poverty in 1838. Under the encouragement of their father, Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, began dabbling in séances and fortune telling, which allowed them to begin earning money. In 1868, the duo moved to New York, where they met Cornelius Vanderbilt. The sisters worked out a deal with Vanderbilt: He would offer them stock advice in exchange for Woodhull becoming his personal clairvoyant, helping him contact his dead wife.
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In 1870, Vanderbilt helped the sisters open Woodhull, Claflin, & Co., the first woman-owned Wall Street firm. They also began to publish a radical leftist newspaper and were among the first to publish The Communist Manifesto in the United States. By 1872, Woodhull had her sights set on the presidency, and that year, she became the first woman to run for president. Her campaign, ultimately unsuccessful, included promises like women's suffrage and the abolition of the death penalty. After losing, she moved to England, where she started another newspaper and worked on the grounds of George Washington's ancestral home.
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42. Eminem's hit "Rap God" earned the Guinness World Record for the "most words in a hit single." The 2013 song, which is 6 minutes and 4 seconds long, includes 1,560 words, clocking in at an average of 4.28 words per second. The song name-checks more than 40 rappers and public figures. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 7 and later helped Eminem secure another record for the most simultaneous Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead solo artist.
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43. Steven Spielberg's E.T. forever lives in my mind for being the first movie to ever make me cry. The movie actually originated from several separate ideas. Director Steven Spielberg was looking to film a smaller, more personal movie after a string of blockbusters, and he began work on a movie called Growing Up, which was inspired by his parents' divorce. Although the movie was eventually shelved, Spielberg was still interested in the idea, even as he was feeling pressured to develop a sequel to his hit film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While he had no intentions of following through on the sequel, he began work on the script for Night Skies, which followed a family being terrorized by an alien. He later combined the alien premise with the personal plot line of Growing Up to develop E.T.
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When it came to casting the child actors for the film, Drew Barrymore, who was 6 years old at the time, reportedly dazzled producers during her audition when she told them she wasn't an actress, but the drummer for a fictional band. Meanwhile, Henry Thomas allegedly made Spielberg cry during his audition, earning him his role. While filming, Spielberg actually did the voice acting for E.T.'s character. In post-production, the voice of actor Debra Winger was used, until sound designer Ben Burtt hired Pat Welsh, a non-actor with a raspy voice who he met at a camera store. But perhaps the most shocking fact of all about the film is that Spielberg planned to reveal E.T.'s real name in a sequel. Although the sequel never panned out, we did get to learn E.T.'s name: Zrek.
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44. While you've probably uttered the phrase "sweating like a pig" at least once in your life, it turns out the saying actually makes no sense because pigs barely sweat! Pigs have very few sweat glands, so any sweat they do produce has little to no effect on their body temperature. To cool down during hot weather and maintain a stable body temperature, pigs will wallow in water or mud. They can also pant to cool themselves down.
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45. In 1989, actor Rebecca Schaeffer was found murdered in her Hollywood home. Schaeffer, who started as a model before transitioning to acting, starred on the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, which garnered her a large fanbase. After taking on a few film roles, she was in talks to star in The Godfather III. On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer answered a knock on the door. It was Robert John Bardo, a 19-year-old fan who had hired a private investigator to find Schaeffer's address. Bardo was carrying a fan mail card that Schaeffer had sent him, a photo of Schaeffer, and a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, which was notably the same book that Mark David Chapman was carrying when he murdered John Lennon.
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Schaeffer reportedly smiled at Bardo and told him to take care before shutting the door. An hour later, Bardo returned to Schaeffer's home with a gun, killing her. He immediately fled the scene and was found running down the road in Tucson, Arizona. ABC News reported that he was screaming, "I killed Rebecca Schaeffer" when he was apprehended. Authorities began to look into Bardo's connection to Schaeffer, and they found that he had likely been stalking her for years. There was evidence that he tried to get on the set of My Sister Sam but was turned away by security guards. It was later revealed that Bardo had decided to kill Schaeffer after allegedly becoming enraged while watching her in a love scene in the movie Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
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Bardo was also reportedly inspired by an article about the attempted murder of Raging Bull actress Theresa Saldana. In 1982, Arthur Jackson went to Saldana's home to kill her, but she survived the attack. During the trial, Bardo tried to plead insanity, with his siblings arguing that he had to drop out of school because of his mental health. In 1991, Bardo was found guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The year after Schaeffer's death, California passed the United States' first anti-stalking law. The law is now recognized in all 50 states.
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46. Ever wondered where the name P.F. Chang's came from? Philip Chiang was inspired to start his own restaurant after seeing the success of the Mandarin Restaurant, which his mother, Cecilia, opened in 1961. Chiang ended up opening a restaurant called Mandarette. He later met restaurateur Paul Fleming, and the two entered a partnership to create a Chinese American restaurant. They decided to combine both of their names to give the restaurant its famous moniker: the P.F. comes from Fleming's initials, while Chiang's last name was tweaked just a tad.
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47. Eugene Shoemaker was a geologist and astronomer who dreamed of one day making it to the moon. After graduating with a degree in geology, Shoemaker worked for the US Geological Survey. In the 1960s, he helped develop the astrogeology branch of the USGS and started working with NASA to develop lunar exploration missions. Plans to have Shoemaker become the first geologist to walk on the moon were set, until he was disqualified from space travel after being diagnosed with Addison's disease. Shoemaker instead worked closely with Apollo astronaut training and provided TV commentary for space missions.
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Meanwhile, at some point in the 1980s, Shoemaker and his wife, Carolyn, began taking an interest in comet-spotting during their spare time. By the early 1990s, Carolyn was credited with 32 comet discoveries, while Shoemaker had 29. The couple made headlines in 1993 when they teamed with fellow comet-spotter David Levy to discover a comet orbiting around Jupiter. The comet was later named the Shoemaker-Levy 9 after the discovery. The comet eventually hit Jupiter, an event that typically only happens every billion years. In 1997, Shoemaker was killed in a car accident on a research trip. His ashes were later carried to the moon to honor both his dream of being in space and his contributions to science.
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48. Foods like potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, all members of the Solanaceae flowering plant family, contain small amounts of naturally occurring nicotine. You probably know that nicotine is highly addictive and is often citied as the reason why it's so difficult to quit smoking. However, studies have shown that the nicotine found in food might actually be beneficial. In 2013, CBS reported that eating food containing nicotine actually reduced the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.
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49. When Princess Diana and Prince Charles married in 1981, she omitted one particular line from the traditional wedding vows. About a month before the wedding, news broke that Diana was planning to "break royal precedent" and omit the word "obey" from her vows. The inclusion of the word had been part of the traditional royal wedding vows as printed in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which dates back to 1662. Prior to Diana's wedding, every royal wedding had included the line in the vows, including Queen Elizabeth II's nuptials. Diana's decision was modeled after the Church of England's more modern approach to wedding vows.
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Instead of agreeing to "obey" Charles, Diana promised she would "love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health." The New York Times reported that Charles and Diana allegedly had several serious conversations with Dr. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, before making their decision. While some might have expected backlash for the break in tradition, it was a popular decision. Dr. Edward Carpenter, the dean of Westminster Abbey, said he was "delighted" by the new vows, calling them "much more Christian." In the years after Diana's wedding, both Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle also omitted the word "obey" from their vows during their royal weddings.
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50. Hydrangeas are known as nature's pH indicator. The blooms change colors depending on the level of pH in the soil. When the flowers are in acidic soil, their blooms are blue, whereas when planted in more neutral or basic soil, the flowers tend to be red or pink.
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51. Although many of Glee's memorable mash-ups and elaborate dance numbers helped the original songs see a resurgence on the charts, several artists notably refused to allow the show to cover their songs. In 2011, Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash revealed that he turned down a request for the show to cover the band's songs. "I draw the line at Glee," he said. "Glee is worse than Grease, and Grease is bad enough…. When Grease came out, I was like, 'Oh, c’mon, give me a break.' Actually, I look at Grease now and think: Between High School Musical and Glee, Grease was a brilliant work of art." Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy shot back, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “Usually, I find that people who make those comments, their careers are over; they’re uneducated and quite stupid."
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Slash wasn't the only one who wasn't a Glee fan. After Murphy's comments, the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl called Murphy "a f**king jerk," adding, "Dude, maybe not everyone loves Glee. Me included." Murphy later called the members of Kings of Leon "self-centered assholes" after they denied the show use of the song "Use Somebody." Other bands initially declined to have their songs featured until the show proved to be a huge success. Murphy said that while at first Coldplay rejected a request to cover "Vida La Vida," they later had a change of heart and granted the show access to the band's entire catalog.
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52. A parrot's toes are zygodactyl, meaning two toes point forward, while the other two toes point backward. This arrangement allows for a parrot to have maximum grip. While other birds have four toes, theirs are normally organized with three toes in the front and one in the back. Parrots' zygodactyl toes allow for them to be incredibly skilled climbers.
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53. President Lyndon B. Johnson shocked both staffers and constituents when he decided not to run for re-election in 1968, revealing the news during a televised speech. While many believed that Johnson's decision was because of opposition to the Vietnam War, in a 1988 essay for Texas Monthly, George Christian, the president's former secretary, claimed that Johnson's decision to not seek re-election was largely motivated by health concerns. In 1967, Johnson had secretly commissioned a study on his life expectancy, using the medical histories of his family members to guide the study and come to a decision.
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"My daddy was only 62 when he died, and I figured that with my history of heart trouble I'd never live through another four years," he told the Atlantic in 1971. "The American people had enough of presidents dying in office." The study revealed that Johnson would die when he was 64 years old. Sure enough, Johnson died of a heart attack at age 64 on January 22, 1973. Had he won re-election, his death would have come just two days after the January 20 inauguration of his successor. Interestingly enough, in his final days, Johnson allegedly listened to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by the vocally anti-war duo Simon and Garfunkel on repeat, concerned that his legacy would be marred by the Vietnam War and not the progress he made in equal rights and Medicare.
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54. Willie Nelson has played the same guitar for decades, dating back to the late 1960s. The guitar, known as Trigger, was purchased by Nelson in 1969 after a drunk person reportedly destroyed his guitar during a break between sets at a concert. Nelson had the new guitar customized with parts from his old guitar and began using it in his shows. Trigger now has a massive hole in it, but Nelson reportedly refuses most fixes for the instrument in order to keep it as close to original condition as possible. In the late 1990s, Nelson found himself in financial trouble with the IRS. After paying most of the back taxes he owed, he reportedly couldn't afford to pay a backing band, so he recorded an entire solo album using Trigger. The album did so well that he was able to pay off the rest of his debts.
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55. In 2011, just two days after the US military killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Disney attempted to trademark the name "SEAL Team 6," the elite Navy unit that led the mission. Disney reportedly planned to develop a TV series based on the SEALs that would air on ABC, but the trademark application included everything from games to Christmas stockings. When news broke that the company was trying to trademark the name, they faced intense criticism and became fodder for comedians. Jon Stewart joked that he couldn't "wait for the Happy Meal" on The Daily Show.
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About two weeks after Disney filed their trademark applications, the Navy filed two of their own, seeking trademarks for both "SEAL Team" posters and clothing and "Navy SEAL" goods and services. "The Navy is fully committed to protecting its trademark rights as it pertains to this matter and is currently examining all legal options," Navy spokesperson Amanda Greenberg told news outlets. On May 25, 2011, Disney pulled their trademark application out of respect for the Navy, but said that they were still interested in producing a show that focused on the Navy SEALs.
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56. In 1945, artist Al Hirschfeld wanted to celebrate the birth of his daughter Nina by hiding her name in the background of his latest cartoon for the New York Times. Once people caught wind of Hirschfeld's gesture, he decided to continue the gimmick and began hiding the name Nina in many of his drawings. He sometimes even included the name several times and would denote how many times it was hidden in the cartoon by putting a number next to his signature. In 2020, a virtual exhibit opened that chronicled the search for Nina in Hirschfeld's work.
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57. Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, so chances are you're dusting off your romantic playlists in anticipation of the holiday. "Unchained Melody," known as one of the most classic love songs of all time and popularized by the Righteous Brothers, was first written in 1955 for a rather unexpected reason: It was the theme song for Unchained, a movie about a man in maximum security prison who is torn between being on his best behavior in order to potentially shorten his sentence or escaping from prison in order to reunite with his beloved wife. The first version of the song was performed by Todd Duncan, who also had a role in the film. The song was a modest hit at the time.
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Meanwhile, in 1965, the Righteous Brothers had just negotiated a deal to release music on Phil Spector's Phillies record label. Spector was known for putting more unconventional songs that weren't made for radio on the B-side of singles, and he decided to have the duo record their own spin on "Unchained Melody." When the song was released in 1965, it entered the charts at No. 72 before quickly climbing up to the No. 4 spot within a few weeks. In 1990, the song appeared in the movie Ghost and once again became popular. The Righteous Brothers wanted to record a new spin on the song, and eventually, both the original version and the 1990 version were both on the charts. "Unchained Melody" was notably one of the last songs Elvis Presley publicly performed before his death in 1977.
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58. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, newspapers reported that there were over 118,000 people who claimed they were supposed to be on the ship but missed it for various reasons. Some of those people were pretty famous faces for the time period. Milton Hershey had allegedly sent a deposit for a stateroom aboard the ship in 1911, but business concerns surrounding his growing chocolate empire kept him home. Financier J.P. Morgan also reportedly had a ticket for the Titanic's maiden voyage, but was supposedly enjoying his vacation so much that he chose to extend it instead of boarding the ship.
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59. The Golden Raspberry awards, typically known as the Razzies, award the worst film performances of each year. The award show recently came under fire after nominating Ryan Kiera Armstrong, a 12-year-old actor, for Worst Actress for her performance in Firestarter. After facing backlash, the organization ended up rescinding Armstrong's nomination and made a rule that minors could no longer be nominated for the awards. Prior to Armstrong's nomination, other child actors had been nominated for their performances. In 1999, Jake Lloyd was nominated for his role in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, while Macaulay Culkin was nominated in 1995 for three separate roles. This turn of events made me curious to see if they had ever rescinded any other nominations before, and turns out, they have!
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In 2021, the organization retracted the "Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in 2021" award after the actor revealed he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects language and communication. "If someone’s medical condition is a factor in their decision making and/or their performance, we acknowledge that it is not appropriate to give them a Razzie," organizers John J.B. Wilson and Mo Murphy said in a statement. They also retroactively rescinded Shelley Duvall's 1980 nomination for her role in The Shining, citing reports that she had allegedly been mistreated by director Stanley Kubrick while on set, after previously acknowledging that they felt bad for nominating her.
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60. The names of American movies often change when they're released in other countries, and sometimes, the changes are honestly pretty hilarious. When the holiday hit Home Alone was released in France, it was reportedly renamed Mum, I Missed the Plane. A few years later, the sequel film, known in America as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, was reportedly called Mum, I Missed the Plane Again and This Time I Am Lost in New York.
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61. You probably knew that The Wizard of Oz was based on a novel, but did you know that the series eventually grew to include 14 books and was even later dubbed the "Harry Potter of its time?" In 1898, L. Frank Baum, who had already released two children's books, began working on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He was reportedly struggling to come up with a name for the magical land where the novel takes place, until he looked at his filing cabinet, where the drawers were labeled "A-G," "H-N," and "O-Z." He liked the way "O-Z" looked together, solidifying a name for the wonderful land of Oz. After finishing the novel, Baum actually assembled the first copy of the book himself as it came off the press, and gave the edition to his sister.
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Within two weeks, the book sold out, and it went on to sell around 90,000 copies in six months. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz stayed on the bestseller list for two years. By the time the sixth book came out, Baum was allegedly sick of writing the series and wanted to move on to other projects. During this time, Baum was facing financial issues and soon realized he had to continue writing more Oz books in order to stay afloat. In 1903, Baum adapted the book into a successful musical, which later moved to Broadway. By 1910, a silent film based on the novel was released, paving the way for the 1939 classic film that has allowed the novel to endure for decades.
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62. Dogs are incredibly talented sniffers — their noses have millions more scent receptors than human noses, which is why dogs are often used to sniff out evidence at crime scenes or in airports. Despite their strong noses, their taste buds leave a lot to be desired. They only have about a sixth of the number of taste buds that humans have. This is a trait left over from evolution, when dogs would scavenge for their food.
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63. And finally, Amelia Bloomer was a suffragist who was also instrumental in changing women's clothing styles. Although Bloomer only had a few years of formal education, she became a teacher. After marrying Dexter Bloomer, the couple moved to Seneca Falls, where she quickly became involved in the political community. After all, Seneca Falls was the home of the women's suffrage movement. Dexter soon picked up on his wife's passion for political causes and encouraged her to write a newspaper column. Amelia attended the first women's rights convention in 1848. Within a year, she had developed the Lilly, a women's newspaper. During this time, Dexter had become the postmaster of Seneca Falls, and he tapped Amelia to be his assistant. They soon transformed the post office into the headquarters for the women's rights movement.
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Amelia was passionate about reform in women's clothing. She noticed that there were health and safety concerns surrounding the dresses and corsets most women wore, and she decided to advocate for a new fashion. She pushed for women to wear pantaloons under their dresses instead, which became known as "bloomers" because of Bloomer's influence. The bloomers were reportedly mocked by more conservative people, but soon became a symbol of activism for the suffrage movement. In 1851, Bloomer introduced Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both key members of the movement. In 1853, Bloomer and her husband moved west and eventually settled in Iowa, where she advocated for women to become property owners. Bloomer continued to stand for women's rights until her death in 1894, although her support of temperance (prohibiting alcohol) proved to be controversial.
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