Ed Sheeran bought a ticket to LA with no contacts. He was spotted by Jamie Foxx, who offered him the use of his recording studio and a bed in his Hollywood home for six weeks.
100 Mind-Blowing Him Facts
Johnny Cash took only three voice lessons before his teacher advised him to stop taking lessons and never deviate from his natural voice.
A man with severe OCD and a phobia of germs attempted to commit suicide with a gun to his head. Instead of killing him, the bullet eliminated his mental illness without any other damage.
Julius Caesar’s only son, Caesarion, was the last Pharaoh of Egypt. Even though Cleopatra swears he is Caesar’s son, Caesar never officially acknowledged him.
Helen Keller was related to Robert E. Lee. Her paternal grandmother was a second cousin to him.
Santa Claus was issued a pilot’s license by the U.S. government in 1927. They also gave him airway maps and promised to keep the runway lights on.
Tom Hanks had an asteroid named after him which was called “12818 tomhanks.“
Eminem’s mother filed an $11 million defamation lawsuit against him because of his lyrics about her. She settled for $25,000, and $23,354.25 of that went to her lawyer.
The first game to be played in space was Starcraft – Daniel Barry took it with him in 1999 on the Space Shuttle mission STS-96.
As a child, Jet Li performed with the Chinese National Wushu Team for President Nixon. Nixon asked him to be his bodyguard, but he declined.
Instead of an agent, Bill Murray uses a 1-800 number where you can leave a message for him if you want to cast him for a movie or event.
Rick Astley has his brand of beer. It was a collaboration between him and the Danish microbrewery Mikkeller; it’s a red lager with “a hint of ginger”.
Hugh Jackman often will tell the paparazzi where he is when he goes home to Australia so they can get their photos, then leave him alone for the rest of his visit.
In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack, but his horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death.
When Michael Emerson was cast for the major television show Lost, he was only intended to be on for three episodes. However, the producers were so impressed with him that they promoted him to a series regular.
All of the sweaters Mister Rogers wore on his show were hand-knitted by his mother. He said he loved wearing them because they always made him think of her.
Warren Buffett eats at McDonald’s every single morning and only orders one of three things. It never costs him more than $3.17.
Erotomania is a psychological disorder where the sufferer has delusions that another person is in love with him or her.
Deaf people are known to use sign language in their sleep. A case study of a 71-year-old man with rapid eye movement disorder and a severe hearing impairment showed him using fluent sign language in his sleep, with researchers able to get an idea of what he was dreaming about thanks to those signs.
King Henry VIII of England had servants called “Grooms of Stool”, who wiped him clean after he visited the toilet. Gross.
Armadillo shells are bulletproof. One Texas man was hospitalized when a bullet he shot at an armadillo ricocheted off the animal and hit him in the jaw. That’s a true animal tidbit.
Most Disney characters wear gloves to keep animation simple. Walt Disney might have been the first to put gloves on his characters, as seen in 1929’s The Opry House, starring Mickey Mouse. In addition to being easier to animate, there’s another reason for the gloves: “We didn’t want him to have mouse hands because he was supposed to be more human,” Disney told his biographer in 1957.
The inventor of the Internet regrets the URL setup. Tim Berners-Lee, who created the main software of the World Wide Web, admitted he regrets one thing: Adding “//” after “https:” in a web address. It was standard for programming but didn’t serve any real purpose, and when looking back in 2009, he said leaving it out would have saved time and space. We guess we can forgive him.
Louboutins’ iconic red soles were inspired by Andy Warhol. The 60s pop artist’s drawing Flowers caught the eye of the famous designer which gave him the idea to add the infamous sole to his designs.
Tom Hanks was not paid for Forrest Gump. This may be surprising for one of his most iconic roles, but Tom Hanks did not receive a set fee for this film. Instead, he signed an agreement that entitled him to percentage points from the film’s profit. Ultimately, his part in the film’s earnings netted him at US$40 million.
Sylvester Stallone landed in the I.C.U. While filming Rocky. Stallone wanted to make sure the boxing scenes looked authentic in Rocky IV, so he instructed Dolph Lundgren to hit him. A punch to the chest landed Stallone in intensive care for four days.
Superman used to leap places instead of flying. Superman’s flying was only a somewhat recent development. In the 1940’s, Superman would only leap onto tall buildings. Thinking it looked silly, the animators of Superman’s first animated show requested permission to give him flight. Superman’s been flying high ever since.
Armadillos have bulletproof shells. One Texas man was even hospitalized after shooting an armadillo – the bullet ricocheted off the animal and struck him in the jaw.
A waffle iron inspired one of the first iconic Nike shoes. Nowadays, running shoes have a wide range of different technology and materials. However, that wasn’t the case back in the 1950s. Bill Bowerman of Nike wanted to make a lighter running shoe that could be worn on different surfaces. As such, the idea of using a waffle texture sole came to him during breakfast with his wife. Check out the waffle sole on the recently retired Nike Tailwind ‘79.
Brad Pitt injured his Achilles heel while playing Achilles. In the historic hit Troy, Pitt played the Greek hero Achilles. However, he might have gone too deep in character: he injured his Achilles heel tendon during a battle scene, which took 2 months for him to recover from.
Hitler’s nephew betrayed him. William Hitler attempted to blackmail his uncle with threats regarding his paternal grandfather being a Jewish merchant. After this failed, he fled Germany and wrote an article for Look magazine titled ‘Why I Hate My Uncle’. It was after this that William joined the US Navy.
A man was once saved by a sea lion. During a suicide attempt, a man by the name of Kevin Hines survived jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. However, during his jump, he had broken his back thus causing him to drown. A nearby sea lion witnessed this and swam beneath the man to keep him afloat until the coast guards arrived.
Charles Darwin’s pet turtle outlived him. The turtle named Harriet lived 124 years after Darwin’s death. It was 176 years old by the time it passed away.
A man once set a record by putting on over 260 t-shirts. After the 20th shirt, Ted Hastings required assistance until the 260th shirt. Around 150 shirts in, his team was concerned about his ability to breathe due to the amount of fabric hugging him. In the end, he was able to beat the previous record of 257 shirts.
Russell Horning is famous on the Internet as the Backpack Kid. Russel was born and raised in Georgia. He gained popularity after Rihanna gave him a shoutout on Instagram in 2016. He is also known for creating the floss dance.
Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. is Snoop Dog’s real name. The famous rapper takes his celebrity name from his mother. According to him, his mother stated that it was because he looked like Snoopy from the iconic Peanuts franchise.
The fastest man in the world is not physically perfect. Usain Bolt suffers from scoliosis. However, he states that as long as he continues to keep his core and back strong, it does not bother him much.
The man with the longest beard in the world died from his beard. In 5767, the man who held this title was trying to run from a fire at the time. Due to his beard’s length, he tripped over it which caused him to die in the fire.
A man once hired someone to slap him to avoid checking Facebook. Maneesh Sethi hired a woman to slap him in the face every time he tried checking Facebook at work. He paid the woman $8 an hour.
Anatidaephobia is the fear of being watched by a duck. A person with Anatidaephobia fears that somewhere in the world, a duck or a goose is watching him/her.
A sound engineer once got accidentally high on LSD while cleaning an old radio. When Eliot Curtis tried to restore an old Buchla Model 100 synthesizer, he ended up tripping on 50-year-old LSD. He only noticed a crystalline substance that had gathered on the radio, which he wiped off. Since he found it in a dark closet at a university, the psychedelic components were preserved. The LSD residue dissolved in his hands and got him into a 9-hour trip. How’s that for wild funny facts?
An Australian engineer once sued his ex-boss for farting on him. In March 2017, David Hingst sued his ex-boss for repeatedly farting on him in his former job. He sought 1.8 million Australian dollars ($1.28 million) worth of damages. His boss would fart on him 5 to 6 times a day, but his former supervisor insists he only ever did it once or twice.
It took Rubik a month to solve his cube. With 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations, who could blame him? Aside from the irony, what puts this in funny facts is how the current record-holder for the fastest time to solve a Rubik’s cube finished it in 4.22 seconds.
The founder of Match.com lost his girlfriend to a man she met on Match.com. It may seem like another one of the darkly funny facts – but when his girlfriend left him for a man she met on his site, Gary Kremen didn’t even break a sweat. According to Match.com founder, Kremen knew his project was successful when his girlfriend left him for another man through Match.com.
The man with the longest beard tripped and died because of it. Hans Steininger once became famous for having the world’s longest beard at almost 5 ft long. However, he became even more famous for dying because of his beard. One of the morbidly funny yet unfortunate WTF facts: he tripped on his beard during a fire, which made him fall downstairs and break his neck.
A pharaoh once bathed his slaves in honey to keep bugs away from him. Whenever King Pepi II would get bothered by insects, he would command that one of his servants be covered in honey to lure the bugs away from him.
Antonio López de Santa Anna held a state funeral for his leg after it was amputated. After being injured in battle, Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna buried his amputated leg with full military honours. Before you go all the WTF facts on us: It was a part of him, guys.
A headless chicken survived for 18 months. Mike The Headless Chicken, also known as Miracle Mike survived for 18 months without his head. According to scientists, his brain stem and jugular remained intact, and a clot prevented him from bleeding to death. His owner would feed him through a dropper and his trachea. Eventually, though, he choked to death.
Dr. Seuss said he expected to spend about a week writing The Cat in the Hat. However, it took him a year and a half.
The U.S. flag was designed by a 17-year-old for school. In junior high school, Bob Heft designed the U.S. flag. He made a 50-star flag for the class project. However, the U.S. only had 48 states at the time, so Heft got a B minus for his work. However, his prediction that two more states would be added ended up being true. Heft wrote 21 letters and called the White House 18 times. Eventually, President Eisenhower called to tell him his design would be used. The design for the current U.S. flag was made official on July 4, 1960.
The longest ear hair in the world may be longer than your actual hair. At 25 cm, the world record for the longest ear hair in the world belongs to Radhakant Bajpai of India. His wife highly disapproves of the hair, but he believes it brings him good luck and refuses to get rid of it.
The oldest stripper started at 60 years old. Age is just a number, and Bernie Barker proved it to a tee. The former real estate agent) got into stripping in 2000 when he was 60. To him, stripping was a way to get in shape after beating prostate cancer. Throughout his career, he won over 40 contests. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 66 in 2007.
Liam Neeson portrayed Oskar Schindler. The Irish actor delivered a captivating performance as the courageous and compassionate Schindler, earning him critical acclaim and establishing him as a leading Hollywood actor.
Spielberg was inspired by survivors’ stories. The director was deeply moved by the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, which drove him to bring their stories to the screen with the utmost respect and sensitivity.
In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack mid-race. His horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death.
Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. A Swedish politician nominated him in 1939 as a joke and subsequently withdrew his nomination.
The inventor of the Frisbee became one after he died. After Walter Morrison died and was cremated in 2010, his family turned him into the very toy he invented in 1955. It was known as the Pluto Platter before Wham-O renamed it the Frisbee.
John Quincy Adams once had a pet alligator. The alligator was gifted to him by a French general, and it lived in one of the bathrooms at the White House.
OJ Simpson was originally cast to play Terminator, but the studio was afraid that no one would buy him as a remorseless killer.
The Titanic wreckage was discovered during a top-secret mission to search for sunken nuclear submarines. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic wreckage, originally went to the US Navy to request funding to develop an advanced robotic submersible that would allow him to search for the wreckage. The navy liked his idea but decided to use it to search for two lost US nuclear submarines. The mission finished early, and Ballard was able to use the extra time to discover the lost ship.
The FBI had a 1,427-page file on Albert Einstein. When Albert Einstein moved from Germany to the US in 1933, he was already an internationally renowned physicist. One year before that, the FBI began keeping tabs on him because he was outspoken against various social issues, such as nationalism and racism. Later, Einstein took a stand, particularly against the US nuclear ambitions, which led the head of the FBI to become deeply suspicious of him and even label him as a communist.
Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone let his fans vote on what he should change his middle name to. The famous Home Alone child star has faded away a little into obscurity these days, but he’s still manageing to stay relevant. In November 2018, he asked the world to give him a new middle name, as his name was “something dumb.” Out of a wide range of ridiculous finalists, he ended up changing his middle to his full name and is now officially known as Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin!
Babe Ruth put chilled cabbage leaves under his hat to keep him cool while playing baseball.
The first computer mouse wasn’t made from plastic. Back in 1964, Doug Engelbart invented the first-ever computer mouse! Back then, it was made out of wood. It was rectangular and featured a little button on the top right. He called it a mouse because the cord coming out of the back reminded him of the tiny rodents.
Mark Zuckerberg is color blind. The founder of Facebook purposely chose a blue colour scheme because he has red-green colour blindness! To him, blue is the richest and most prominent colour that he can see.
Surrender? Never! Lt Hiroo Onoda served with Japan’s army in the Philippines during World War Two. He was ordered not to surrender, so he didn’t, until 1974. His wartime boss was sent to get him. He returned home a hero.
Two significant car crashes. On 13 December 1931, Winston Churchill was struck by a car while crossing Fifth Ave in New York City. He had looked the wrong way before crossing the street and was dragged for several yards, sustaining bruises, sprains and cuts. In the same year, a 19-year-old British aristocrat named John Scott-Ellis was driving a red Fiat in Munich and almost hit the future Führer, Adolf Hitler. Scott-Ellis jumped out of his car and apologised, and Hitler only suffered minor bruises. They shook hands, and Scott-Ellis later remarked, ‘For a few seconds, perhaps, I held the history of Europe in my rather clumsy hands. . . [Hitler] was only shaken up, but had I killed him, it would have changed the history of the world.’
Flatulent flair. The role of a jester in the medieval royal court was to entertain the king. Henry II had a particular fondness for his fool, Roland, who had a special talent for flatulent performance. Each Christmas he performed an act known as ‘One jump and whistle and one fart’. Henry was so delighted with Roland’s farting that he gave him a manor in Suffolk, with 30 acres of land.
Downfall by chicken. Having adopted the identity of John Palmer and posing as a horse trader in Yorkshire, highwayman Dick Turpin instigated his demise by murdering hunting associate John Robinson’s game-cock on 2 October 1738. When Robinson angrily responded, Turpin threatened to also kill him, which brought the incident to the attention of three local justices.
Out with their eyes! Henry, I permitted two of his granddaughters to be blinded and have the tips of their noses cut off after their father blinded the son of another baron. Their mother, Juliane, was so enraged she rebelled against Henry and attempted to kill him with a crossbow. She missed, leapt off her castle tower into the moat and made her escape.
Slow down! On 28 January 1896, Walter Arnold drove his ‘horseless carriage’ through Paddock Wood, Kent, at a reckless 8mph – four times the 2mph speed limit. He also had no man with a red flag preceding him, as required by law. Arnold was chased down by a police officer on a bicycle, and later fined £4 7s, of which 10 shillings was for speeding – the world’s first recorded speeding ticket.
Tux, the Linux mascot, is a penguin, but have you ever wondered why it’s a penguin? The answer depends on who you ask: Linus recounts a story in which he was bitten by an angry penguin, infecting him with a (made-up) disease called “penguinitis”. Others say its selection was due to Linus’ fondness for the animal and/or its unsuitability as a corporate logo.
Linux Torvalds’ love for scuba diving led him to create an open-source platform designed to help divers in a wide variety of ways.
James Hughes was the first person to call Tux, Tux. According to him, it was an acronym for Torvalds UniX.
When Torvalds Declined an Offer from Apple: In the early 2000s, a significant moment in tech history unfolded when Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc., extended an offer to Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, inviting him to join Apple’s team and contribute to the development of OS X. However, Torvalds declined this enticing proposal. This decision ultimately solidified Torvalds’ dedication to the open-source principles of Linux and its community, as he continued to lead the development of the widely acclaimed Linux kernel.
An Asteroid Named in Honor of Linus Torvalds: Linus Torvalds, the renowned creator of the Linux kernel, received a unique and celestial honour when an asteroid was named after him. This astronomical recognition symbolizes his significant contributions to the world of open-source software and technology. The asteroid named “9793 Torvalds” serves as a testament to Torvalds’ enduring impact on the tech industry and the global community of Linux enthusiasts, solidifying his legacy not only on Earth but also among the stars.