21 Facts That Would Give the Readers Goosebumps

There are many strange facts and stories, that can shock someone to the core. From the story of the notorious killer to the hidden area in France’s catacomb, you would find it all.  Here is a list of 21 facts that would surprise the readers;

1. In 2004, Parisian police were training in a restricted area of the Catacombs, an underground burial in France. There, they found a sign “Building site, no access.” The police went deeper into the area, they found a camera. When they followed the camera, that led them to the cavern transformed into a theatre with big chairs, screen, and movie bundles. After going deeper into tunnels, the police officers found a restaurant and bar setup. Till now, no one knew who turned the cavern into a restaurant and bar. The only thing that found was a suspicious note, ‘Do not try and find us.’

2. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s lead singer Ronnie Van Zant predicts his death many times. He told people countless times that he would not live long and die before his 30^th birthday. Van Zant then died in a plane crash before his 30^th birthday with his shoes on. 

The story is more frightening as the band released the album just a few days ago before the plane crash. The crash also got the lives of three more band members, the cover art shows that the band was engulfed in the flames. Their album includes the song ‘The Smell’, the band’s label then decided to withdraw the chilling cover art and released a new image of the band with a black plain background. 

3. Do you ever think that why Oreo signifies the filling in the cookies as “creme” but not “cream”? Actually, FDA does not allow to use of cream for any product that does not contain dairy, then Nabisco used the work Creme for Oreo cookies. Vegans would love to hear that the creme does not contain any dairy, and is completely vegan. The company removed all the ingredients which can contain animal or dairy products in 1997. 

4. In 1980, the New Jersey State Assembly voted the song Born to Run as the state’s official song. Springsteen was named as New Jersey Pop Music Ambassador to America. The bill failed when they realized that Springsteen was actually singing to run away from New Jersey.

5. Dolphin calves are born tail first rather than head first so that they don’t drown. Dolphins normally give birth to one calf at a time, their pregnancies span around 10 and 18 months.

6. Richard Lee McNair is a convicted murderer who managed to escape from prison three times. At first, he was arrested in North Dakota in 1987. He stole the lip balm from the guard and jump out of the window. After getting caught again, he again tried to escape.  In 1992, McNair broke out of the North Dakota state through the ventilation system. He was recaptured in 1993 and sent to a high guard prison in Louisiana, police thought that he would remain there. He escaped from jail in 2006 and managed to go to Canada, where he was caught again and is still in jail now. 

7. Sonkajarvi, a town in Finland, holds an annual wife-carrying championship in which the husbands have to carry their wives through hurdles. The prize is the beer that is equal to the wife’s weight, many other countries also adopt this traditional sport. 

8. Just like some people are right-handed and some are left-handed, some are right or left eared. Most people hear from the right ear and if stimulus passes through both sides, the brain would prefer that person hear through the right ear. 

9. The Family Feud host had a strange habit of kissing female contestants, that laud him the name The Kissing Bandit. When the showrunners asked him to stop, he said he kissed women to wish them luck. He asked the audience and they voted in his favor. So, he kept kissing women who come on his show. In 1981, Dawson kissed Gretchen Johnson when she appeared on the TV show, they got married in 1991. They remained together until the death of Dawson in 2002. 

10. In Alaska, wood frogs do not pee for the whole winter season, which is almost eight months. Wood frogs recycle urea, which is a major waste of urine into nitrogen. That keeps the frog to stay alive in hibernation, the recycled nitrogen protects the frog’s internal system and to live life again after the winter season. 

11. If you think you knew how big countries are, you might be wrong. Gerardus Mercator created the map in 1596, it was revealed that areas shrink on maps according to their distance from the equator.

12. People are angry about how Turning Red is giving awareness to children about periods. Disney has released a story, The Story of Menstruation in 1946 to depict periods as hygienic rather than menstruation. People were against the showcase of menstruation on media at that time. Apart from that, the white color of menstruation was shown rather than the red color. 

13. In August 2003, Brian Wells, a pizza delivery man entered a bank in Pennsylvania. He give the teller a note demanding $250000 in 15 minutes and showed his body that he had a bomb. The teller tells him that it is not possible to open the vault, he gives Wells $8000 and left the bank. He was caught by Police after 15 minutes, he said he was forced to do this. Wells was killed by the explosive collar on his neck after a few minutes. All the incident was live when he was instantly killed. After that, an investigation was launched by the Police, they found a scavenger hunt note in his car and followed it to find out about the robbery. In 2007, the FBI concluded that other people were behind the robbery and Wells served as a pawn in the robbery. But, he did not know that the collar around his neck was real. 

14. President William Howard Taft was an instructor at the University of Yale in 1913. He was a sports fan as well, the school built a specific chair to accommodate him, he was 355 pounds at that time. When the university made the special chair and all the other arrangements, he lost 80 pounds by eating healthy food in his diet and skipping fatty food. 

15. Schoolhouse Rock, which was a children’s show known for teaching kids maths, history, and more subjects. The show was created by David McCall, whose son had a difficult time memorizing tables but remember his favorite songs.  

16. In the past, Irish women drink Guinness in Pregnancy with the belief that fiber levels contain folic acid. Now, it is not recommended to drink this as there are no proven benefits, but some women still drink beer. Back in the day, women were given non-alcoholic beverages in the hospital as lactation stimulants. 

17. Beatrix Potter, the children’s book author who wrote classics has a journal. Her mother did not like what she writes, Potter started to write in code due to her mother, which was so complex that no one could crack it. Until a 13-year-old cracked the code that was monoalphabetic substitution cipher code. The journal was later translated and then published.  

18. You should be careful when you step foot on the ground. The peacock katydid can change its appearance to look like dead leaves. But if it senses danger, its wings can show eyespots. If that is not enough, peacock katydid can recognize and remember what the insect actually looks like.

19. In recent times, scientists have discovered the huge galaxy that ever existed, 100 times bigger than the Milky Way. That galaxy is named Alcyoneus, after the Greek primordial god of the sky’s son. That galaxy stretches over 16 million light-years in space and away from earth approximately 3 billion light-years. 

 20. Donald Henry Gaskins was a killer and was popular due to his nickname “Pee wee”. He was named Pee wee due to his short stature and appearance. Marsh was caught on multiple charges and in jail killed the fellow prisoner to receive respect from other inmates. Gaskins was in and out of jail many times, he killed people as a habit. Without any fear, he kept killing more and more people. He even got himself hired as a Hitman to fulfill his killing streak. People in his town thought that he is just making up and not dangerous. Finally, he was convicted of his crimes and sentenced to jail in 1993. According to reports, he killed almost 100 to 150 people.

21. William Shakespeare’s wife’s name was Anne Hathaway. An interesting thing is that when they got married, Shakespeare was 18 years old and Anne was 26. They had unusual age differences according to that very time.