All of us are prone to occasional mental sluggishness. It can be tough to snap yourself out of these brain doldrums, but if coffee doesn’t work, try something else. For instance, you could read this article. These facts should blow your mind ever so slightly…enough to get your brain firing normally again, at least.
Apple: first in the phone book, first in our hearts.
Apple is one of the world’s most successful companies, but when Steve Jobs named the company, his main goal was having his company appear before Atari in the phone book. Now Atari and phone books are dead, and the rest is history.
The Soviets helped get an American bridge fixed during the Cold War.
The residents of tiny Vulcan, West Virginia, were so frustrated with their infrastructure that in 1977 they asked the Soviet Union for help replacing a bridge. The Soviets sent over a journalist, and West Virginia quickly agreed to fix the bridge and make the weird problem go away.
Usain Bolt is otherworldly.
Everyone knows that Usain Bolt is fast. How fast? If you take the top 30 100 metre sprint times ever, he holds nine of them. Not bad, right? It gets better : all of the other 21 times on the list were run by athletes associated with doping.
The First Lady and a cartoon character once got into it.
In 1990, First Lady Barbara Bush wrote a letter calling out The Simpsons . Someone on the show’s staff wrote back, in-character as Marge Simpson, telling Bush to be nicer. Bush, to her credit, apologized. It was a weird time.
The patron saint of the internet died in 636 AD.
The Vatican has nominated St. Isidore of Seville as patron saint of the internet. It makes sense, as he was known for meticulous record-keeping and the overall pursuit of knowledge. The crazy thing is that he lived more than a thousand years before the internet even existed.
Bulgaria had a Prime Minister King.
Simeon II of Bulgaria has led an interesting life . He became king at the age of six, but it didn’t last long as Bulgaria voted to end the monarchy. Decades later, in 2005, he became the democratically elected prime minister.
Here’s how a pizza waitress got a $3 million tip.
Back in 1984, a soon-to-be lottery winner asked a waitress at a pizzeria to help him pick his numbers. When he won the $6 million prize, he tipped the waitress half of his share in gratitude.
Coca-Cola made millionaires…and a bunch live in the same town.
During the Great Depression, Coca-Cola wasn’t worth what it is today. For a quick influx of cash, a businessman convinced a bunch of people in Quincy, Florida to buy stock in Coke. Today, the town is full of people who made their fortune from Coca-Cola.
The Ancient Egyptians used a surprisingly modern calendar.
The calendar used by the ancient Egyptians predates ours significantly, but it was actually pretty similar. It consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, with five days of festivities tacked on to the end, bringing a year to 365 days.
An English guy took the rap for a 1,750-year-old cold case.
Back in 1983, a woman’s head surfaced in a peat bog in England. A local man immediately fessed up to killing his wife 22 years later. Well, as it turned out, the bog head was actually 1,750 years old. The guy, who totally did kill his wife, was convicted.
Christopher Columbus was a disgrace even in his own lifetime.
It’s common knowledge just how cruel Christopher Columbus was to the native population when he arrived in the Caribbean in 1492. He was so cruel, in fact, that he was promptly thrown in jail upon his arrival back in Spain.
The reality of the Big Bang Theory is too depressing.
Location scouts for the Big Bang Theory checked out apartments that actual grad students lived in. But when they showed CBS what the apartments looked like , they were rejected for being too depressing.
Ben Franklin donated $6.5 million…in 1990.
Ben Franklin was clearly a guy who knew something about compound interest. When he died in 1790, he left the cities of Boston and Philadelphia $2,000 in his will . The only provision? They couldn’t withdraw the balance for two centuries. In 1990, they got $6.5 million.
A&F really hated Jersey Shore.
Lots of us hate-watched Jersey Shore , but apparel brand Abercrombie & Fitch really hated it. When cast members started wearing the brand on-camera, A&F offered them “substantial payment” to stop wearing their stuff.
Calvin and Hobbes turned down big money.
Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic Calvin and Hobbes , famously refused to allow his creation to be commercialized. In order to keep the comic pure, he reportedly turned down $300-$400 million.
