David Bowie used to travel around in New York carrying a Greek newspaper in the belief that people would assume he was just a Greek man who looked like David Bowie and leave him alone.

Steven Spielberg asked all the extras doing a Nazi salute in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' to also cross their fingers behind their backs.

that during the middle ages it was believed that ringing church bells during thunderstorms would keep lightning away. The practice was abandoned after more than 100 bell ringers were killed by lightning.

that Earth is the only known place in our solar system where fire occurs and no known exoplanets have oxygen enough to allow fire.

that in 1931, a scientist tried to teach a baby chimpanzee human behavior by raising it alongside his human son. The chimpanzee never acquired language skills, and the experiment was called off when the human baby began imitating the chimpanzee's vocalizations.

that when the set of James Cameron’s Titanic was submerged during filming, the Grand Staircase dislodged and floated; supporting the unconfirmed theory that the missing original staircase dislodged and floated away during the real sinking.

that the Bald Eagle population has recovered! They are now fairly common birds to be seen in residential areas.

When Jane married Stephen Hawking, she believed it would be a two year commitment, as doctors said he only had two years to live. Jane became his full time caretaker and they were together 25 years.

In 2019, Konami added a new official rule to Yu Gi Oh tournaments, the Hygiene clause where you would be disqualified if you smell bad or wear dirty clothing as it produces an "unpleasant" playing environment. The response was generally positive.

The first man to report a rogue wave was Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1826, d'Urville was then publicly ridiculed because such a wave was believed impossible. A rogue wave was not measured until 1995 and the lack of earlier reporting is likely due to few wooden ships surviving the encounter.

John Steinbeck IV wrote an article in January 1968 about marijuana usage among the troops. This set off a media firestorm, & the Army began clamping down on marijuana usage, arresting ~1000 G.I.s a week for possession. Many G.I.s switched to heroin, which was odorless and thus harder to detect.

that in addition to names like “Hope”, “Felicity”, and “Prudence”, Puritans also named their children things like “Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world- to-save”, “Damned”, and “Fly-fornication”.

An entire Roman legion went missing in the 2nd Century AD, and we're still baffled as to what happened.

there is a shrine in Wales where Dobby the house elf was buried. consisting of 1000's of painted rocks and socks.

that for a period of 20 years, Argentina ranked as one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, having the highest GDP per capita in 1895 and being among the 10 richest until 1920. Today, the country is in crippling debt, and is considered one of the biggest economic downturns in modern history.

Rod Serling originally wrote an episode about Emmett Till but it was rejected and so he turned to science fiction, instead, to talk about social issues, creating The Twilight Zone.

Cleopatra was born of incest. "More than a dozen of Cleopatra’s ancestors tied the knot with cousins or siblings, and it’s likely that her own parents were brother and sister. In keeping with this custom, Cleopatra eventually married both of her adolescent brothers.

that astronauts eat steak and eggs before a flight because it's filling and low on dietary fiber so they won't have to poop during the mission.

Public nativity scenes are often the victim of baby Jesus theft. Some churches have had to chain their baby Jesus down to deter theft while others have added GPS tracking to their baby Jesus.

the 4.5 trillion cigarette butts that are littered every year make them the most littered man-made waste item in the world.

that 20-50% of all fatal hypothermia cases strip their clothes off before they finally freeze to death.

two gifted college students considered themselves so superior they planned “the perfect crime” to prove their intellectual abilities. After [taking out] a child, despite their purported genius, they left plenty of evidence and were swiftly caught and brought to judgment.

there is an Amish computer. It doesn't have internet access, video, or music. It's marketed towards Amish farmers who need help managing increasingly complex operations.

second-hand incense smoke can be as dangerous, or worst, as cigarette smoke.

that there is a rise in Hyundai and Kia car thefts because online videos have revealed that they can be hot-wired using just a USB cable.

in 1634 Massachusetts Puritans made long hair illegal for males.

that the creator of Vaseline, Robert Chesebrough, claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day.

there are people in France who have actually done time in jail for stealing garden gnomes in the name of The Garden Gnome Liberation Front.

about a brutal sleep experiment aired on Channel 4 in the UK in the early 2000's where contestants had to stay awake for a whole week in order to win £100k.

that a teen boy from the UK became legally blind while having a diet of potato chips and fries.