Salivating before vomiting is a way for your body to protect your teeth from the incoming stomach acid

Andromachi Papanicolaou, the wife of the man who invented the Pap smear volunteered to have her cervix sampled every day for 21 years to help with his research. Their findings went on to save the lives of millions of women by preventing the development of cervical cancer through early detection

The Python programming language was named after Monty Python, not a snake

Eleanor Roosevelt held her own press conferences where only female journalists were allowed. This ensured they kept their jobs during Depression-era layoffs, earning a steady income & professional status

that New Zealand author Janet Frame was falsely diagnosed as schizophrenic and was scheduled to be lobotomised. Several days before the operation, she won New Zealand's most prestigious literary prize, convincing doctors to cancel the procedure

that Billie Joe Armstrong once dropkicked a guy in the middle of a Green Day concert after he saw him roughing up a young girl. He stopped the show and challenged him to a fight before jumping into the crowd

landlords in Glasgow, Scotland tried to increase rent by 25% on women whose husbands were fighting in World War 1. The women organised a rent strike and stopped bailiffs entering their buildings by throwing flour bombs at them and pulling down their trousers

Charles Darwin's personal pet tortoise (Harriet) didn't die until recently at an estimated age of 175 years

There was so much [poop] in the streets of 14th century Paris that multiple roads had names which originated from the french word for [poop], "merde": rue Merdeux, rue Merdelet, rue Merdusson, rue des Merdons, and rue Merdiere. There was also a rue de Pipi, or "Urine Street"

about Janet Stephens, a hair stylist turned hairstyle archeologist. She visited a museum in 2001 and realized historians were wrong about hairstyles on Greek and Roman statues being wigs. She recreated the styles and published her findings in The Journal of Roman Archaeology

upon request, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his copy of the "I have a dream" speech he had just delivered to the then security guard George Raveling. Raveling has been offered as much as $3 million for the original copy but he has refused all offers

John Steinbeck spent two months rewriting 'Of Mice and Men' after his dog ate the only copy of the original manuscript

that the 'inner-voice' of most life-long & completely deaf people is seeing/feeling themselves acting out sign language

in 2013 a surgeon in the UK was struck off and convicted of assault after branding his initials into two patients livers. It was only discovered when 1.6-inch (4cm) initials were discovered by another doctor on an organ that he had transplanted failed

that Nike created a pair of shoes that were so advanced, they were banned from the Olympics because they were considered as technological doping.The Alphaflys, or “the shoe that broke running”, as sports scientist Dr Ross Tuckercalled them, contain tech designed to deliver greater energy return

The Parthenon in Athens was largely intact for over 2000 years. The heavily damaged ruins we see today are not due to natural forces or the passage of time but rather a massive explosion in 1687

Microsoft held a mock funeral for iPhone because they thought the windows phone 7 was going to smash apple in sales

According to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article, 60 percent of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement. By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress

about a woman named Iva Toguri (Tokyo Rose) an American woman who used her position to undermine Japanese propaganda during WW2. She was named a traitor to the USA , and arrested for treason,it took her 30 years to prove her innocence

that in 2017 an 8 year old learned how to drive on YouTube and successfully drove to McDonalds while following traffic laws

Ostrich farms routinely have difficulties getting male ostriches to breed, because they often find their human caretakers more attractive than female ostriches

In the 25 years since Ron Goldman’s family won a $33,500,000 civil judgement against OJ Simpson for wrongful death, he has only paid the family about $133,000

that In 2018, Pope Francis married two flight attendants in an impromptu mid-air wedding on a plane during a trip to Chile. The couple had gotten married in a civil ceremony in 2010 but weren't able to follow it up with a church service because of the earthquake in Chile that year

that humans have the highest daytime visual acuity of any mammal, and among the highest of any animal (some birds of prey have much better). However, we have relatively poor night vision

that a trio of drunken boys decided to sail out to sea looking for a girl they saw at a sports competition event. They ended up sailing for more than seven weeks and drifted 1300 km off course before being rescued by a tuna boat. They all survived by drinking beer, eating coconuts and a bird

that dogs and cats have special taste buds geared specifically for water

the BBC initially refused to publish Richard Dimbleby's eye witness account of Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, they didn't believe it was as terrible as he described. It's estimated 70,000 people died at Belsen. The BBC only agreed to broadcast after Dimbleby threatened to resign

that the religious group known as the Shakers are completely celibate and cannot have children, so they can only gain new members by converting outsiders. As a result, there were only two people in the last existing Shaker community as of 2020, although they gained a single new member in 2021

that The British Pound is the oldest currency in the world, it has been used for over 1,200 years and dated back to Anglo-Saxon era. Back then it equivalent to 1 pound of silver. One pound back then could buy you 15 cows

in 2006, a mother and son were convicted of trying to extort money from Cracker Barrel by claiming they found a dead mouse in her soup. Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that it was dropped into the soup after its death

the average Mexican is genetically 50% indigenous with evidence of native ancestry being significantly higher on the X chromosome

male goats urinate on their heads to smell more attractive to females

The World's Littlest Skyscraper in Wichita Falls was built in 1919. Remote investors were swindled by intentionally not indicating the units on the planned blueprints were in inches, not feet

that in 2017 a sailor was stranded and alone on a cargo ship near the Suez Canal for almost 4 years. Since the owner was having financial difficulties and the captain had gone ashore, the local court declared the sailor the legal guardian

that in 1988 the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) did a psychological profile of Jack the Ripper in time for the 100 years anniversary of the White Chapel murders. The FBI profiled Jack as male, 28-36 years old, most likely a butcher, mortician, or medical orderly

coding RollerCoaster Tycoon in the late 1990s required significant optimization of PC power and memory constraints at the time. Per designer Chris Sawyer, letting guests drown was simply easier than programming the alternative of allowing them to swim to shore

Mount Thor in Canada has the world's longest vertical drop. If you fell off it, you would fall for over a kilometer before you hit anything

in 2009 an American tourist was almost left behind by his transcontinental Australian train. He clung to the outside for two hours and 124 miles in only a t-shirt and jeans while the temperature dropped below freezing

that production on "No Country For Old Men" was shut down for a day due to a large black cloud of smoke drifting into view. The smoke was coming from a pyrotechnics test on the set of Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood", which was simultaneously filming in the same town of Marfa, TX

The Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest attracts over 40,000 fans each year and is broadcast on ESPN to nearly two million viewers.