The Austrian wine market collapsed in 1985 when it was discovered winemakers were adding antifreeze to artificially sweeten the wine.
Greenland got its name because the Viking…
Greenland got its name because the Viking who discovered it was banished from Iceland and felt lonely in his new homeland, so he named and advertised it as the lush ‘Greenland’ to attract settlers, despite the fact that it was actually a completely barren and largely uninhabitable land.
Harrison Ford and Sean Connery filmed their…
Harrison Ford and Sean Connery filmed their conversation scenes onboard the Zeppelin in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade without pants on, because of the hot set.
Charles Redheffer was an American inventor who claimed…
Charles Redheffer was an American inventor who claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine, He was later exposed when an engineer found a hidden cord that led to an upper floor. Upstairs he found an old man who was turning a hand-crank with one hand and eating bread with the other.
Danny Elfman came up with the theme to ‘Batman’ on a flight…
Danny Elfman came up with the theme to ‘Batman’ on a flight from London but since he couldn’t write music he kept running to the bathroom to record himself on a tape recorder whenever he had a new idea, causing the flight attendants to think he was a junkie.
In 1975 $10 million worth of Huey helicopters had…
In 1975 $10 million worth of Huey helicopters had to be pushed off the flight deck of the USS Midway and into the sea to make way for the emergency landing of an aircraft with Vietnamese evacuees on board.
In 1986, nurse Sandra Clarke could not stay with…
In 1986, nurse Sandra Clarke could not stay with a patient who asked her to stay. When she returned, the patient had died alone. In 2001, she was key in starting No One Dies Alone, a program where volunteers sit with terminal patients who have no one else. The program is now world-wide.
In 1850 Dmitri Mendeleev walked almost a thousand…
In 1850 Dmitri Mendeleev walked almost a thousand miles to Moscow so he could apply for the University of Moscow. Although he was not accepted, he walked to St. Petersburg where he was accepted, And with that education he developed the periodic table of the elements.
A chimpanzee has been observed wearing a piece…
A chimpanzee has been observed wearing a piece of grass into her ear, with no apparent function. After other members of her group started imitating her, researchers realized to be in presence of the first fashion statement observed in other animals.
A Russian child lived with a pack of dogs…
A Russian child lived with a pack of dogs for two years after he gave the dogs food. In return the dog pack protected him and made him pack-leader. He later relearned language and served in the Russian Army.