The professional bowler Chris Barnes once beat a robot optimized to throw strikes

that when Yoshitaro Shibasaki and his team completed their 1907 ascent of Mount Tsurugi — thought to be the final unclimbed mountain remaining in the Japanese archipelago — they found an ancient sword at the summit that was later determined to have been left there more than 1000 years earlier.

A company in the 90's made pencils with the anti-drug slogan "Too Cool to Do Drugs" but had to recall them because, when sharpened, they read "Do Drugs"

of Lauren Stratford (Wilson) who wrote a book claiming that she was in a Satanic cult in which she sacrificed her own child. After magazine reporters exposed her as never having a child, she changed her name and claimed to be a holocaust survivor, and was exposed again by the same magazine.

George Lucas not only gave his blessing to make Spaceballs, he also handed the movie over to his effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, to provide the space effects and postproduction

US President John Adam’s beloved daughter Nabby developed breast cancer and underwent a complete mastectomy without anesthesia while strapped to a chair.

the boy whose exorcism was the inspiration behind The Exorcist grew up to be a NASA engineer. His work contributed to the Apollo mission in the '60s.

despite its vastness, it only takes 39-40 digits of pi to calculate the size of the observable universe to an accuracy of 1 hydrogen atom. Because of this, NASA uses only 15 digits of pi in even their highest accuracy calculations.

The only children to survive the Titanic without a parent were two brothers aged 2 and 4. Their father kidnapped them from his ex-wife and boarded the ship with a fake name. The father didn’t survive and for weeks the boys were known as the Titanic Orphans until their mother was found.

that the surgeon August Bier tested on his own assistant a form of anesthesia consisting of injecting cocaine directly into the spine, and to check how effective it was, he stuck a needle in his leg, hit him in the shins with a hammer, ripped off his pubic hair and even squeezed his testicles.

that SNL called Phil Hartman "The Glue" because his professionalism and comedy skills held together so many sketches

of the Fontana delle Tette in Treviso, North Italy, a XVI century topless statue of a woman sprinkling water from each nipple. During celebrations, it spouts red and white wine, free to drink.

: As far back as 1872, despite practically no women being allowed to vote, Victoria Woodhull of the Equal Rights Party became the first woman nominated for a US Presidential election. Frederick Douglass, a black abolitionist, was even chosen as her running mate

Episodes Five and Ten of 1960s Doctor Who story The Daleks' Master Plan were long considered missing until they were found in the basement of a Mormon church in Wandsworth. Nobody has found out how they got there.

that there are around 50-60 blue faience hippopotamus statuettes that survived from Ancient Egypt. Due to the danger hippos posed in the wild, they often snapped off the legs of hippopotamus statuettes before placing them in tombs, so the hippos wouldn’t be able to eat the soul of the deceased.

in 2009 British people rebelled against the ongoing trend of X Factor victors winning Christmas number one by purchasing copies of Rage Against the Machine

that a 2019 study showed that evening primrose plants can "hear" the sound of a buzzing bee nearby and produce sweeter nectar in response to it.

in 1983, NFL Chiefs running back Joe Delaney sacrificed his life in an attempt to save three children from drowning. His number is unofficially retired by the team and a statue was put up in his hometown.

that Hormel Foods keeps a file of hatemail they've received from American soldiers who had to eat the notorious food product while at war overseas

Consumers lose $3 billion a year in unspent gift cards, with starbucks itself having $140 million in unused gift cards.

French secret service agents bombed the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior in order to stop Greenpeace from disrupting underwater nuclear testing in 1985.

Quentin Tarantino directed an episode of CSI in 2005 after word of him being a fan of the show got back to the show's producers.

traditional grass lawns originated as a status symbol for the wealthy. Neatly cut lawns used solely for aesthetics became a status symbol as it demonstrated that the owner could afford to maintain grass that didn’t serve purposes of food production.

that Pres. George HW Bush vomited on the lap of Japanese PM Kiichi Miyazawa during a 1992 state banquet. The incident caused a wave of late night TV jokes & ridicule, even coining Busshu-suru meaning "to do the Bush thing or bushing it". It was also spoofed in the film "Hot Shots! Part Deux."

that Sigmund Freud was a Cocaine Addict, and he personally prescribed it to his wife and friends

that the Capitol was designed to have George Washington's tomb on public display. Both houses passed bills saying he should be buried there, and his wife consented, but due to various delays it took until 1830 for it to be viable. After an attempted theft of his head, the project was cancelled.

When Emperor Nero got his mistress pregnant, he divorced and banished his wife Octavia. When this led to a public outcry, he instead had her executed.

about corn sweat, where corn plants release water into the air. One acre of corn can release 3,000-4,000 gallons of water per day, and can raise the humidity level up to 10%.

that "American cheese" is a combination of cheddar, Colby, washed curd, or granular cheeses. By federal law, it must be labeled "process American cheese" if made of more than one cheese or "process American cheese food" if it's at least 51% cheese but contains other specific dairy ingredients.

that dandelions are edible and are actually really nutritious and can be eaten raw

that the Ignalina nuclear power plant located in eastern Lithuania is identical to the Chernobyl plant in Pripyat. The plant remained operational until 2009 and was used as the set for the HBO Chernobyl miniseries.

that during World War II, the United States published a spy manual urging middle managers in enemy territory to sabotage their employers by bringing up irrelevant issues, promoting bad workers, haggling over petty details, and holding unnecessary meetings.

Gunslinger effect, The quantum physicist Niels Bohr deducted that in a gun dual, the person who draws first loses.

about Louis Remme, who rode on horseback nonstop from Sacramento to Portland in 1855, racing against the ship-borne news of a bank run that would prevent him from withdrawing his own money

that cigars have beetle larvae. Under the right temperature and humidity, they can hatch and infest whole cigar boxes.