Add your Trivia post for the day

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 28 Nov 2019 05:28

In restaurants during the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, a waiter would stand up on a table every 30 minutes to call out the new prices.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/518399/hyperinflation-go ... ites-money

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 28 Nov 2019 05:30

Bill Gates succeeded in his mission to build a toilet to help combat the sanitary crisis across multiple parts of Africa and India. Costing $350, its powered by worms, and doesn't require to be hooked up to a sewer system.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/bill-gates-foundation-hel ... ?r=US&IR=T

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 28 Nov 2019 05:34

The actors who played the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939) were paid less than half of what Toto the dog made on the film.

https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/movies/the-actors-who ... -than-toto

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 28 Nov 2019 05:36

The longest match in the history of cricket took place in 1939. England and South Africa took part in a single match that lasted 14 days.

https://www.sportsrec.com/447913-funny-facts-about-the-sport-of-cricket.html

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 28 Nov 2019 05:41

Oskar Speck; a German man who paddled by folding kayak from Germany to Australia from 1932-1939 only to be arrested as a POW upon arrival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Speck

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:30

At the start of the 1539 siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, their leader, Suleiman I, was so sure of his victory that he boasted that he would be having breakfast in Vienna cathedral within 14 days. 14 days later, the Austrians sent him a letter, telling him his breakfast was getting cold.

https://explorethearchive.com/austria-gave-the-ottoman-turks-the-greatest-taunt

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:32

Methamphetamine production creates a cat-urine-like smell which is why meth cooks will keep cats as a scapegoat for the smell

https://www.ksl.com/article/30713038/4-ways-to-spot-a-meth-house

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:36

Van Tassell, Wyoming (Population 14) is the least populous town in the least populous county of the least populous state in the U.S.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Tassell,_Wyoming

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:39

In 2013, a wild pig at a Port Hedland, Australia campsite made the news after drinking 18 cans of a camper's beer, getting into a fight with a cow, and eventually passing out under a tree.

https://countryrebel.com/pig-steals-18-beers-from-campers-ge ... ith-a-cow/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:42

There's a thunderstorm named Hector the Convector that forms nearly every day from September through March on the Tiwi Islands in Australia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_(cloud)

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 29 Nov 2019 08:45

70 percent of the world’s Macadamia Nuts came from one tree in Australia. All of Hawaii’s macadamias share distinctive markers with a tiny wild grouping of trees in Gympie, suggesting that all of the state’s modern crops were likely cloned out of a single Australian tree.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/macadamias-came-from-o ... reddit.com

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:16

Unicorns really did exist at one point dating back to around 29,000 years ago

https://www.thecut.com/2016/03/unicorns-real-but-ugly.html

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:23

The term "Nazi" was in use before the rise of the NSDAP/Hitler as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. "Nazi" was a hypocorism of the German male name Ignatz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Etymology

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:27

In 1959, police were called to a segregated library in S. Carolina when a 9yr-old Black boy refused to leave. He later got a PhD in Physics from MIT, and died in 1986, one of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The library that refused to lend him books is now named after him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_McNair

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:31

The trials for Rocket Mail. Since 1810 inventors have tried to deliver mail via artillery, and later rockets. In 1959 the US navy fired a cruise missile filled with mail from a submarine to a Naval base in Florida. Despite enthusiasm by the Postmaster General it was a one time thing.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mail-delivery-rocket-never-took-180963557/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:35

The modern self-opening drink can was conceived in 1959 by an engineer who went on a picnic, forgot his can opener, and was forced to open his beer with a car bumper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drink_can#History

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:37

During the opening ceremony of Ottawa international Airport’s new terminal in 1959 a USAF F-104 Starfighter did a supersonic flypast. The resulting sonic boom shattered nearly all the glass in the airport and caused significant structural damage, delaying the opening for another year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Macdonald%E2%80%93Cartier_International_Airport

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 30 Nov 2019 06:42

Sir Jack Brabham who finished the 1959 Formula One race on foot when his car ran out of fuel with 500 yards to go. He pushed the car the rest of the way to clinch the title.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/1084 ... -foot.html

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 01 Dec 2019 05:28

During the siege of Leningrad, a group of Russian botanists holed up in a secret vault starved to death rather than consume the greatest collection of seeds they were guarding for a post-apocalyptic world.

https://www.rbth.com/blogs/2014/05/12/the_men_who_starved_to ... eeds_35135

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 01 Dec 2019 05:35

Boris Yeltsin made a unplanned stop at a grocery store in Texas after visiting the Johnson Space Center. He was so amazed by what they had in the store compared to the USSR, it lead him to leave the Communist party and tried make massive economic reform in Russia.

https://www.nhregister.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article ... 759129.php

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 01 Dec 2019 05:38

‘The Drinking Man’s Diet’ was the 1960s ancestor to Atkins and paleo. It was based on the observation that alcoholics drank thousands of calories per day and actually lost weight. It became one of the most popular diets of the decade, selling 2.4 million copies. The author lived 98 years.

https://timeline.com/drinking-mans-diet-carbs-82a38400bfff

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 01 Dec 2019 05:40

A 1960's "Panic" that teens were getting high off Peanut Butter and Mayo

https://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/peanut_butter_and_mayonnaise_panic

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 02 Dec 2019 05:06

Ninjas avoided garlic or any pungent food to prevent their body odour from being detected by the enemy when hiding.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-did-ninjas-eat

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 02 Dec 2019 05:09

Elvis Presley's manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, prevented Elvis from touring outside of the US (except for 3 shows in Canada in 1957) because Parker was, among other things, an illegal alien from the Netherlands and was suspected of murder.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/colonel-parker-manage ... 108042206/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 02 Dec 2019 05:12

In addition to "pig latin" there is an actual phrase called "dog latin", which is effectively the creation of fake phrases made to sound like Latin, the most common example of which is probably "Biggus Dickus."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Latin

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 02 Dec 2019 05:16

The oldest living spouse of a UK Prime Minister, Clarissa Eden, was married to Anthony Eden who was a Prime Minister in the 1950's. She is currently 99 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarissa_Eden

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 02 Dec 2019 05:19

Colour toilet paper was trendy in the past. In the 1950s, people would even coordinate their toilet paper with their bathroom colour scheme. It reportedly died down when concerns about the safety of pastel dyes for the skin and the environment gained traction.

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/colored-toilet-paper-history-255476

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 05:52

A furlong is the length of an acre, and a chain is the width.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furlong

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 05:55

Former NBA star and actor Shaq (Shaquille O'Neill) is a cop now.

https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/shaq-sworn-deputy/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 05:58

The Spirit of St. Louis, which was the first aircraft to make a transatlantic flight in 1927, needed 450 pounds of fuel to make the entire journey. The Saturn V meanwhile, burned through 20 tons of fuel, or 40,000 pounds, per second.

https://interestingengineering.com/50-amazing-details-about- ... nniversary

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 06:00

Iceland used to be called Snowland, until a subsequent settler arrived and changed the name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naddodd

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 06:03

Beetle wings were used in embroidery for dresses during the Victorian Era

https://www.fashionologiahistoriana.com/costume-history-lege ... r-garlands

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 06:08

During World War I, George Samson, a recipient of the Victoria Cross, was given a white feather (a symbol of cowardice) while dressed in civilian clothes and on his way to a public reception in his honour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_feather

One example was Private Ernest Atkins, who was on leave from the Western Front. He was riding a tram when he was presented with a white feather by a girl sitting behind him. He smacked her across the face with his pay book and said, "Certainly I'll take your feather back to the boys at Passchendaele. I'm in civvies because people think my uniform might be lousy, but if I had it on I wouldn't be half as lousy as you".

Private Norman Demuth, who had been discharged from the British Army after he had been wounded in 1916, received numerous white feathers after he returned from the Western Front and decided that if the women who handed them out were going to be rude to him, he was going to be rude back. One of the last feathers that he received was presented to him while he was travelling on a bus next to a lady sitting opposite him. She handed over the feather and said, "Here's a gift for a brave soldier". Demuth replied, "Thank you very much - I wanted one of those". He then used the feather to clean out his pipe, handed it back to her and remarked, "You know we didn't get these in the trenches". The other passengers became angry with the woman and started shouting at her, much to Demuth's amusement.

Supporters of the campaign were not easily put off. A woman who confronted a young man in a London park demanded to know why he was not in the army. "Because I am a German", he replied. He received a white feather anyway.

Perhaps the most misplaced use of a white feather was when one was presented to Seaman George Samson, who was on his way in civilian clothes to a public reception in his honour. Samson had been awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the Gallipoli campaign.

emason · Post by **emason** » 03 Dec 2019 07:34

bazza4338 wrote:The Spirit of St. Louis, which was the first aircraft to make a transatlantic flight in 1927, needed 450 pounds of fuel to make the entire journey.

The first aircraft to fly non-stop across the Atlantic was a Vickers Vimy piloted by John Alcock and Arthur Brown in 1919 - eight years before The Spirit of St. Louis.

Charles Lindbergh made the first trans Atlantic solo flight in 1927, becoming only the 19th person to cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane.

The first aircraft to cross the Atlantic (with stops) was a Curtiss flying boat, also in 1919 - two weeks before the Vickers Vimy.

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 03 Dec 2019 07:36

Yes - the original post left out the word "solo".

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 05:57

One of the few historically reliable accounts of Pocahontas describes her doing naked cartwheels to entertain settlers.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-24-me-16637-story.html

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 06:00

All raindrops have a speck of dirt inside them. Raindrops can only form when they have something to condense on to, thus the need for a particle of dirt.

https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/videos/anatomy-raindrop

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 06:02

"The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" was written to spread awareness of disappearing Gothic architecture. For this reason, the book contains unnecessarily elaborate passages describing the settings of various scenes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 06:04

There’s a famous scene in the 1931 film “The Public Enemy” where James Cagney smashes a grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s face. Clark’s ex-husband loved that scene so much he would repeatedly buy tickets and watch it over and over again, getting shushed when his laughter got too loud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cagney#1930%E2%80%931935:_Warner_Bros.

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 06:06

The First sporting event ever filmed was in 1894 James "Gentlemen Jim" Corbett fought Peter Courtney in 6 one-minute rounds at Thomas Edison's Black Maria studio. This small piece of Round 1 is all that remains and is the oldest surviving footage of a sport being filmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk8Rdii_yog

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 04 Dec 2019 06:09

The reason we put candles on cakes originated with the Greeks offering moon shaped cakes to the lunar goddess Artemis. To create the radiance of the moon and her perceived beauty, Greeks lit candles and put them on cake for a glowing effect.

https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-we-blow-out-birthday-candles

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:16

After World War 2, Japanese insurance companies started putting in one-year exemption clauses in their policies, so that people who would sign in must wait one year before killing themselves to get the money. As a result, the suicide rate spiked on the thirteenth month of the contract.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/09/ja ... ay/323787/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:18

The British phrase 'blowing smoke up my a*se' comes from 1700s London: the banks of the Thames were lined with bellows that were used to perform a 'smoke enema' on drowned Londoners in an attempt to save them. It was not effective.

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/saving-lives-with-a-puff-of-smoke/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:21

An Inmate sued himself for $5 Million dollars for committing a crime that went against his religious beliefs -- He demanded the State pay the damages because he had no money himself

https://www.deseret.com/1995/4/9/19168705/inmate-sues-himself-for-5-million

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:23

When Sean Connery departed the role of James Bond, Dick Van Dyke was asked to consider taking over. When Van Dyke reminded Bond producer Albert Broccoli of his famously bad English accent from 'Mary Poppins,' Broccoli replied: "Oh, that's right—forget it!"

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bp/van-dyke-dick-van-dyk ... 53932.html

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:25

There was a conspiracy theory that Jimi Hendrix faked his death and became Morgan Freeman

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/morgan-freeman-jimi-hendrix/

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 05 Dec 2019 06:29

Hurd’s Deep. The deepest point in the English Channel that was used as a dumping spot for years. Following WWI, it was routinely used for dumping of munitions and scuttling of ships until 1974. Between 1946 and 1973, 28,500 barrels of radioactive waste were dumped there as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurd%27s_Deep

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 06 Dec 2019 05:50

Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave, who was thrown overboard when his ship was torpedoed and sunk in WW1. He was picked up by another ship, which was also torpedoed and sunk. He then swam to third ship, which was also torpedoed and sunk. He survived the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenman_Wykeham-Musgrave

https://www.quora.com/Who-in-history-survived-the-most-shipw ... en-wrecked

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 06 Dec 2019 05:52

Project 100,000. A controversial Vietnam War era program by the US DoD to draft 100,000 low-IQ men a year for the Vietnam War. Dubbed, “Macnamara’s Morons” more than 5,000 were killed in the war, 3x the rate when compared to other soldiers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000

bazza4338 · Post by **bazza4338** » 06 Dec 2019 05:55

A man figured out how to hack the lottery in 4 different countries, and won 14 different times, and he got away with it.

https://thehustle.co/the-man-who-won-the-lottery-14-times