20 Get-Em-While-They’re-Hot Facts That Really Preheated Our Ovens

We’ll never be as cool as the French director that dueled a film critic with fencing sabres.
20 Get-Em-While-They’re-Hot Facts That Really Preheated Our Ovens

As humans, we enjoy this list of interesting facts for their inherent entertainment value. Some of the facts are absolutely ridiculous. Some are so weird that we don't even know where to begin. But we'll get there. First, let's begin with a question: what is a fact? You may say that something is a fact when it is indisputable and has been verified through scientific means, or it is an established historical fact, or maybe you'll claim that a fact is something that is undeniably true, but what does that even mean? How do we decide what is true and what is false? Is it all about what we enjoy, or is it about the objective truth of what happened in the past? Is it about our beliefs? Is it about our feelings? Is it about our needs? Is it about our desires? Now, I know that a lot of people are going to think that the following list of facts is ridiculous and unbelievable, and perhaps they're right.

Before its discovery, Antarctica was referred to as Australia.

Antarctica used to be called Australia until modern-day Australia stole its name in 1824. CRACKED.COM Before this, Australia was called New Hol- land. This left the con- tinent nameless for 65 years, until its current name was adopted in the 1890s.

Iceberg

The US was unsuccessful in segregating English pubs.

The US military tried to segregate pubs in England during WWII, but it backfired. C Ю 340 white loss THE ALEX ALET GRACKED.COM Bamber Bridge hosted American servicemen, and when the white officers de- manded one pub be desig- nated for black service- men, the locals made all the town's pub for Black soldiers only in protest.

BBC

“Slaughterhouse-Five” was inspired by Vonnegut’s time as a POW.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five was inspired by his time serving in WWII. CRACKED.COM After being captured by Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, he was a POW in Dresden and sur- vived the bombing of the city by hiding in a meat locker in a slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned.

The Atlantic

The Nobel committee snubbed Einstein for a decade.

Albert Einstein wasn't interested in accepting his Nobel Prize. CRACKED.COM Не never received a Nobel Prize for relativity, and he did not attend his prize giving for services to theoretical physics. Не chose to contin- ue with a lecture tour of Ja- pan because he simply no longer valued it.

The Guardian

“Scarface” was edited to get an R rating, and then those edits were reversed.

Brian DePalma undid the edits he made on Scarface hoping no one would notice. CRACKED.COM After making edits and ар- pealing to the MPAA for an R rating, director Brian De- Palma felt that the cuts he made were so minor no one would notice if he put them back in, so he did.

CBR

A judge was called to be on the jury of a case he was presiding over.

A judge named Keith Cutler was summoned to be a juror on a case he was presiding over. CRACKED.COM When he applied to be ex- cused from jury service he was initially declined and was told to write to the resident judge, to which he replied: I am the resident judge.

BBC

A Daisy Cutter bomb dropped in a forest could create a 300 foot helicopter pad.

There was a bomb designed to blast helicopter landing pads in thick forests. CRACKED.COM The Daisy Cutter was a bomb specifically designed to cre- ate landing pads in Vietnam. The blast would level a 300+ feet circle while leaving the ground itself relatively unaf- fected.

National Museum

The Church of Scientology was sent thousands of all-black faxes to use up their ink.

Anonymous sent thousands of all-black faxes to the Church of Scientology to deplete their ink cartridges. Fax Cupalatnito - - - - SAMSUNG Modo RA Risoluzione Contrada - Facilidade Ink in SF-100 M 1-10 Yas Impai evolution Rapporto ABC DE Auto 1 2 3 Ricanta/Volume Fax Inkjet CHE MIO Apit CRACKED COM 4 5 6 Anonymous has a long his- tory of messing with the Church, including creating a Google bomb so that a search for dangerous cult would yield the main Scientology site at the top of the results page.

New Yorker

A shroud made from cannabis was used in a tomb from 400 BCE.

A cannabis shroud was discovered in a 2,400-year-old tomb. CRACKED.COM Discovered in 2016, this was the first incidence of a cannabis burial shroud. The tomb also contained 13 complete cannabis plants, suggesting that it was locally grown along the Silk Road.

NPR

North Koreans watch South Korean TV in secret thanks to an analog broadcast.

South Korea maintains an analog TV broadcast near the North Korean border. CRACKED.COM Despite having completed the transition to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, South Korea still uses the analog broadcast for North Koreans watching South Korean TV in secret.

RFA

The largest non-nuclear explosion started with a cigarette.

A discarded cigarette caused one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever. ENSTON GRAGKED.COM The Texas City disaster of 1947 is generally considered to be the worst industrial acci- dent in U.S. history and resulted in nearly 600 fatalities.

Local

The $16 paid for Manhattan would be more than enough to buy it back, if invested.

With 8% interest, the amount supposedly paid to the Native Americans for Manhattan could buy it back today. CRACKED.COM If the Native Americans real- ly did sell Manhattan to the Europeans for $16 in the 1600s, today it would be worth enough for them to buy back all of Manhattan and still have $222 Trillion dollars left over.

Saving Advice

There were many Cleopatras, but only one hot enough for the history books.

The name 'Cleopatra' was popular for female royalty in Egypt. CRACKED.COM There are seven princesses with the name that sat on the throne. The last among them, Cleopatra VII, is the most famous, thanks to her romantic dalliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

History Extra

Bill Gates created a business that counted traffic.

Bill Gates' first business was 'Traf-O-Data! GRAGKED.COM This was a company that created ma- chines that recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road.

Grasshopper

The Oxygen catastrophe killed most life on Earth 2.5 billion years ago.

Most organisms on the planet were wiped out due to too much oxygen. CRACKED.COM Around 2.5 billion years ago, the Oxygen catastro- phe occurred, where the first microbes producing oxygen using photosynthe- sis created more free оху- gen than most life was ac- customed to.

NCBI

Parents of the last WWI POW accepted a con man as their missing son.

A con man convinced people that he was the last POW from World War 1, Oskar Daubmann. CRACKED.COM The parents of the real Oskar Daubmann ac- cepted the impostor as their son, despite his different eye color and lack of known fa- cial scar.

Museum of Hoaxes

A French director dueled a film critic with fencing sabres.

In 1949, French director Willy Rozier challenged a critic to a duel over comments he had made. CRACKED.COM Rozier won the duel (fought with rapiers, to first blood) in front of jour- nalists and photographers. The film was a hit - and footage of the duel is in- cluded on the film's DVD.

Le Duel

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