Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to his Harry Potter glasses. He had an allergy to nickel, and they were quickly replaced with hypoallergenic specs. Also, did you know that his glasses had no lenses? This was to prevent reflections from anything happening behind the scenes. The glass lens was added in post-production.
100 Mind-Blowing Behind Facts
The Ethiopian calendar is 7.5 years behind the Gregorian calendar because it has 13 months.
A mason in 1700s Jerusalem left his wooden ladder behind after doing some work on a church, and now it can’t be moved without the agreement & permission of six different Christian leaders.
During the first live iPhone presentation, Steve Jobs had to frequently switch phones behind his desk. Otherwise, it would run out of RAM and crash.
Your tonsils can grow back if there is tissue left behind during the removal process. Sometimes it’s accidental; other times, it’s left on purpose.
Beavers don’t live in dams. Technically, beavers live in a lodge that they build behind a dam, within a deep pool of water.
Someone left a family photo on the Moon. When Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke landed on the Moon in 1972, he decided to leave behind a photo of himself, his two sons and his wife. The photo remains on the Moon to this day.
The Golden Girls was supposed to have a different theme song. That’s right: Instead of Andrew Gold’s iconic “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the show’s producers wanted to use Bette Midler’s song “Friends,” according to Jim Colucci, author of the book Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorised Look Behind the Lanai. But the rights to the Divine Miss M’s song were too expensive, and the rest is sitcom history.
Cleveland was once the country’s fifth-largest city. Data from the 1920 U.S. census indicates that Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the most heavily populated cities in the country, behind only Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City.
Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs. People have been playing baseball since the mid-19th century. In the early days, umpires would officiate the games while reclining in a rocking chair located 20 feet behind home plate. By 1878, the National League also declared that home teams must pay umpires $5 per game.
May 20, 1873, is the “birthday” of blue jeans. According to the Levi Strauss company, this was the day that Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, the innovators behind the sturdy blue jeans we all love, got a patent on the process of adding metal rivets to men’s denim work pants. The pants were called waist overalls until 1960 when baby boomers began calling them jeans.
A shrimp’s heart is in its head. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you can’t choose between following your head or your heart? Well, it seems shrimp have an evolutionary advantage when it comes to tough decisions. Kidding aside, one of the fun facts about shrimps is that their hearts are literally in their heads. Specifically, it is found in the thorax just behind the head – but they are covered in the same shell segment.
The sound of the automatic doors opening on the U.S.S. Enterprise is made by a toilet. One of the fun facts about the rich world of Star Trek is the story behind the U.S.S. Enterprise’s doors: The distinct sound is the sound of a Russian train’s toilet flushing.
The foil seals on medicine bottles were placed due to poisoning incidents. The Tylenol poisonings of 1982 were a widespread crisis that involved U.S. consumers dying or falling ill from Tylenol. It was later found that the bottles had been laced with potassium cyanide. To restore the faith of the public in the product and the company, Johnson & Johnson patented the seal to prevent further tampering incidents. This is also the thought behind the “Do not accept if seal is broken.” warnings that we see with other products.
The Russians showed up 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics. It was no sweat, though: back then, the Olympics lasted for 6 months. The Russians showed up late to the 1908 London Olympics because they were using the Julian calendar, which is 2 weeks behind the Gregorian calendar already used by the rest of the world.
Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs. Baseball has been around since the 19th century. However, in the early games, umpires would sit in a rocking chair 20 feet behind the home plate.
More monopoly money is printed annually rather than actual currency. The U.S. government prints around $974 million annually to replace old money. However, the company behind the beloved board game prints over $30 billion worth of fake money annually.
Polar bears charge at a group of walruses while hunting. They attack those who are crushed or left behind during the mass panic. Seeing a polar bear directly attack its prey is considered rare according to observations and studies.
Sunglasses were not originally designed to protect your eyes from the sun. The original idea behind this was so that Chinese judges could hide their facial expressions in court. Today, they mainly serve as protective eyewear and as well as fashionable accessories.
The Netherlands has to import criminals to fill up their jails. Since 2004, the Netherlands’ crime rate has only gotten lower and lower. In 2013, a prison shut down because there were no criminals to put behind bars. This low crime rate makes this country one of the safest places on the planet.
The Simpsons creator intended for Homer Simpson to be Krusty the Clown. If you follow The Simpsons, you’ll notice how Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown look almost identical. Simpsons creator Matt Groening was planning to reveal Homer Simpson behind all that clown makeup. However, to avoid the plot from getting too complex, he scrapped the idea.
The snow in The Wizard of Oz is asbestos. The famous poppy-field scene in The Wizard of Oz is blanketed by calming snow. However, it wasn’t so calming behind the scenes. The material they used for the fake snow was poisonous asbestos.
The film explores the concept of legacy. Through their adventures, the characters contemplate the impact they will leave behind and what they want to be remembered for.
Peyton List has a passion for photography. When she’s not in front of the camera, Peyton List enjoys capturing moments behind the lens, showcasing her eye for photography on her social media platforms.
In the early days of baseball, umpires sat in rocking chairs behind home plate.
The Apollo missions have left 96 bags of poop, pee, and vomit on the moon. Back in 1969, mankind made history by walking on the moon for the first time. That wasn’t the only first that happened on that momentous trip – it was also the first time literal trash was dumped on the moon. Subsequent voyages to the moon followed suit, leaving behind all their unwanted trash, but it turns out that’s all for a good reason – the returning spacecraft don’t have enough fuel to carry all that weight back!
Every year 22,000 tons of dust is blown from the Sahara Desert to the Amazon Rainforest. Long, long ago, the Sahara Desert used to be a lake, and the dust and sand left behind are rich in phosphorous. This is quite fortunate, as this phosphorous-rich dust is carried through the skies to the Amazon rainforest, which is surprisingly in need of fertilizer. The rainforest loses just about as much phosphorous as it gains because it all gets washed away through streams, creeks, and the Amazon River.
Rabbits can see behind them without moving their heads.
Harry Potter is the third most-read book in the world, coming behind only The Holy Bible and The Holy Quran.
General Motors made the first self-driving car model. Elon Musk wasn’t the brain behind autonomous cars. In 1939, General Motors was able to create a model for a self-driving car that relies on electromagnetic fields and magnetized spikes on the roads.
The Firefox logo isn’t a fox. Well, sort of. There is a common misbelief that because the browser is named Firefox, the logo must be a fox. This is both correct and incorrect at the same time, and it’s all Mozillas fault! The cute furry creature in the logo was originally a red panda. Over time, though, the team behind the browser changed their tune and began to call it a fox after all. So is it a fox or a red panda? Depends on who you ask!
Steve Jobs used sleight of hand at the first iPhone presentation. The first iPhone presentation happened six months before the iPhone was set to hit the market. At that time, the phone was too buggy to use, so Steve Jobs often had to switch phones behind his desk. Otherwise, it would run out of RAM and crash.
Your tonsils could grow back if there was tissue left behind during the removal process. Sometimes it’s accidental; other times, it’s left on purpose.
Hackers uncovered a flaw in Hotmail’s security in 1999, which allowed access to any Hotmail email account by entering “eh” as the password. This crippling flaw was deemed to be “the most widespread security incident in the history of the web.” The group that took responsibility for the flaw’s exposure, known as Hackers Unite, claimed that they didn’t want to destroy anything by leaking it but rather wanted to draw seemingly much-needed attention to Microsoft’s failing security systems. Experts believe that the ability to access any email account with a simple password was unintentionally left behind as a “backdoor” by Microsoft’s engineers, something Microsoft has never admitted. Instead, they merely palmed it off as an “unknown security issue.”
Throughout history, different cultures around the world have experienced time in different ways. In the Western world, we tend to think of time as linear and flowing from left to right. But this isn’t the case for everyone. Language affects how people conceptualize time, particularly the spatial metaphors they use to describe and map it. Those who read languages that flow from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew, generally view time as flowing in the same direction. The Aymara, who live in the Andes Mountains in South America, consider the future to be behind them, while the past is ahead. In their view, because the future is unknown, it’s behind you, where you can’t see it. Some Indigenous Australian cultures, which rely heavily on direction terms like north, south, east, and west in their languages, visualise the passage of time as moving from east to west. If they’re facing north, for example, the past would be to their right, or east, whereas the future would be to their left, which would be west.
New clocks are set at 10:10 for a reason. If you’ve bought a new clock or watch recently, you may have noticed that the default setting was 10:10, give or take a few minutes. There are various theories behind this particular choice of time, but really, it all comes down to aesthetics. Setting the time to around 10:10 allows the hands of an analogue clock to be displayed in a neat, symmetrical way that doesn’t obscure any logos in the centre of the clock’s face. Clocks were once set to 8:20, and occasionally still are, but the hands’ downward angles can make it look like the timepieces are frowning.
Over 80% of attacks are financially motivated (Verizon): For the last several years, Verizon’s reports on the hacking and cybercrime landscapes have revealed the number one motivator for attacks is finances. In 2020, the number of financially motivated attacks far outweighed the number of attacks prompted by reasons like espionage. The most common figures behind hacking attacks are those in the organised crime world. Organised criminal syndicates account for around 80% of all attacks. Verizon notes only around 5% of attacks in North American organisations in 2020 were motivated by espionage, while 3% were motivated by grudges, often involving former employees.
Tiny Tribute: Two mice fighting over a slice of cheese is London’s smallest statue. The tale behind this small artwork is rather heartbreaking. During the construction, two of the monument’s constructors fought over a sandwich that was later discovered to have been consumed by a mouse.
US Airports Make Big Money from Loose Change: According to the Department of Homeland Security, airline passengers leave behind thousands of dollars in coins each year at U.S. airport screening checkpoints. In the most recent year studied, the Transportation Security Administration collected $517,978.74 in unclaimed money (mostly coins) from passengers who emptied their pockets while going through the security line. These funds get deposited into a special fund so that collection and spending can be easily tracked. After some time, this money is used for civilian airport security expenses.
Google, of course, is the biggest search engine in the world. But right behind it is YouTube, which is bigger than Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask combined.