The elite fighting unit of Ancient Thebes was the “Sacred Band of Thebes”, a force comprised of 150 Gay Male Couples who crushed the Spartans in multiple military engagements.
In the late 1980s, young punk rockers in Cuba…
In the late 1980s, young punk rockers in Cuba, known as “los frikis,” chose to inject themselves with the AIDS virus so they could live in a sanitarium and be free from constant police-state harassment. And today, two survivors still live in the now-abandoned facility.
Moments after Neil Armstrong took his first steps…
Moments after Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon, he dropped a bag of trash on the surface of the moon and kicked it underneath the lunar module.
Piggly Wiggly revolutionized grocery shopping in 1916…
Piggly Wiggly revolutionized grocery shopping in 1916 by allowing customers to select their own items, “To have no store clerks gab and smirk while folks are standing around ten deep to get waited on.”
Trees are able to communicate with each other through…
Trees are able to communicate with each other through an underground network known as the ‘wood-wide web’. This system allows trees to loan sugar to neighboring trees, send warning signals about injury or disease, nurture their own offspring, and donate resources to conserve the forest.
Many MLB managers yell random things at umpires…
Many MLB managers yell random things at umpires during “arguments” (such as complaining about wine they had an Italian restaurant or how bad their team is) in order to fire up their team while not getting thrown out of the game.
Some languages don’t have the relative directions right…
Some languages don’t have the relative directions right/left. They instead use cardinal directions, for example: “It’s on the southern edge of the table.”
In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, the US military…
In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, the US military launched a ring of 480million needles into orbit around the earth. It was hoped they would more reliably bounce radio signals back to earth in case the Soviets cut through undersea cables. Multiple clumps of these needles are still up there.
Ancient Roman philosophers sported different styles…
Ancient Roman philosophers sported different styles of beards to distinguish which school of philosophy they belonged to.
In 2012, a Cleveland woman, arrested for a traffic…
In 2012, a Cleveland woman, arrested for a traffic infraction, was ordered to stand for 2 days holding a sign that read “Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.”