10 peculiar yet interesting facts that most people in the world are unaware about

Did you know this super random thing?

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and just wanted to whip out a random fact that you know, but have no idea how? Well, if that is the case don't worry because you are not the only one. When user u/kalmilaga7 posted a question on Reddit that said, "What's a random fact you're just waiting to bust out?" Everyone went all out, right from someone commenting how frogs use their eyes to push their food down their throat when they swallow to someone else saying that magnolia trees are so old that they evolved before bees and we're pollinated by beetles. So what are you waiting for? Get ready to dive into this madness of random facts about all things you can imagine and more, as we've found the top 10 for you!

1. Legally lethal

So, in the early 20th century, a Guy named William J.A. Bailey dropped out of Harvard and started producing an energy drink called Radithor. Important to this story is the fact that he had no medical license and was not a chemist. To make Radithor, he dissolved radium tablets in water until he had an equivalent dose of 1 microcurie of Radium 226 and 228. Since the FDA wasn't interested in medical quackery at the time and there were no regulations against this, he broke no laws. Things were going great for him until Eben Byers, a pretty well-known golfer, got prescribed the stuff by a sketchy doctor and started taking several doses per day for a few years. The radioactive poisoning gave him several types of cancer. The FDA then finally stepped in and shut him down, but he just relocated shop and started a new radioactive substance-based company. Byers died in 1928 and was buried in a lead-lined coffin. In 1965 researchers dug him up to study his remains but found him emitting ridiculous amounts of radiation. For reference, a normal person is constantly emitting 4k-5k becquerels at any given time. Byers' corpse was emitting 225k. And Bailey never even got sued, he went on to write all kinds of patents and headed up the electronics division of IBM during WWII. u/fishshake

2. At least both have great pastries!

In the towns of Baarle-Nassau (NL) and Baarle-Hertog (BE) you can find Dutch enclaves inside Belgian enclaves inside a Dutch village. The map looks really wild. In these two towns, the border even goes through the middle of the houses and shops. For this case they created the "front-door" rule, meaning your house belongs to the country your front door is in. In the cases where the border runs right through the front door, the property owners can choose which country they belong to. Edit: fixed town to town. u/TheBassMeister

3. Respect the sharks

Sharks are older than the North Star. As in, there were sharks around before the star was formed. Sharks evolved 450 million years ago, and Polaris is about 70 million years old. u/cheesywhatsit Polaris fun facts, it’s a supergiant that will only be yellow for a few thousand years. It’s actually a triple-star system. It only became the North Star “recently” in the early Middle Ages. It will be the closest true north in the year 2100. In the 91st century, we will have a different North Star. u/RantMannequin

4. Silence of the Lambs

This one’s not very fun. So Scott Glenn, the actor who played Jack Crawford in Silence of the Lambs, didn’t return for the sequel Hannibal and then was recast as Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon. The reason was that Glenn was given an audio tape by FBI agent John Douglas as a form of research for his character. The tape was an audio recording of the toolbox killers raping and torturing a 16-year-old girl. When Glenn asked why, Douglas said, “Now you’re part of my world”. Glenn was, understandably, traumatized and thus didn’t want to return for the sequels. u/PBfilms

5. It's all about the eyes

Generally speaking, our eyes are the healthiest they’ll be when we are around age 10. Starting around age 40, we’ll start to notice that we have difficulty seeing/reading objects that are within “working distance” (about 16” from our eyes). That’s called presbyopia, and why most of our parents hold their phones or reading material as far as their arms extend. Then, if we live long enough, we’ll eventually deal with some type of eye condition. Most likely, that eye condition will be Cataracts, Macular Degeneration, and/or Glaucoma. Of course, there are numerous other eye conditions out there. Protect your eyes, people. Wear sunglasses, see your eye doctor, and eat your veggies. u/greenweezyi

6. Guns and wars

In the early American colonies, someone was executed for bewitching a gun. In 1651, Henry Stiles was killed by a fellow militiaman, Thomas Allyn, when a musket he was holding misfired during a training exercise. Following this, Allyn was charged by the courts with “homicide by misadventure” and was made to pay a fine. At the time of his death, Stiles was living with another couple, Thomas and Lydia Gilbert. It is believed that Stiles was Thomas’s employer and that Lydia was his housekeeper. Three years after the accident, following a series of witchcraft accusations against Lydia, court records show that she was then tried for “procuring the death of Henry Stiles.” Allegedly, her supernatural abilities caused the gun to discharge and kill her employer. In the end, the fine given to Allyn was refunded, and Lydia Gilbert was sentenced to death by hanging. While there is no written record of the execution being carried out (many such records are lost), it is known that Thomas Gilbert left the community shortly after the trial, so it’s extremely likely she was hanged. u/E_streak

7. The deadly combination: sports and studies

Moe Berg was an American baseball player in the 1920s in the major league. You’ve never heard of him because he was a relatively moderate player. He’s not one of the best players in history by any means, but he is regarded as the most educated holding multiple degrees from Ivy League colleges. The government saw his knowledge and high education, as an excuse to travel for their advantage and hired him as a WW2 spy. He never married but lived a very interesting life of secrets. Before his death in the 1970s, he said he would write an autobiography and finally tell his secrets. He died soon after and never wrote it. There is a biography written about him the limited info the FBI could give. It’s called “The Catcher Was A Spy” very cool read. u/PracticalYak2743

8. Rome wasn't built in a day

The Roman Empire absolutely didn't fall in the year 476 a.d. because the eastern part was just fine and that was Rome as much as the west. There is no real reason to call it The Byzantine Empire and not "The Roman Empire". The last part of the Empire kept existing well after the year 1000, a lot of stuff that we associate with medieval times happened when the Roman Empire was still there and even had first-hand influence. We think of them as non-Romans because rulers in the West, like the HRE, had all the interest to push the idea that they were the successor of Rome. And you cannot be the successor of someone who is still around. They spoke mostly Greek, but they did so even when the Western part was there. Their culture appears different but the Roman culture of the West would have evolved too and appeared very different from the one of Caesar and Cicero. We have the image of Rome fixed as it was about that period, plus the Lorica segmentata of the late I Century AD because it looks cool (And it really does), but it was as culture-changing as any other in the world. It could be considered to have really fallen in 1453 when the last territories of the Eastern Empire were lost if we really have to put a date on what was an ongoing process. u/anamorphicmistake

9. It's London (Eye) baby!

The London Eye takes half an hour to do a full rotation. It travels at 0.33 meters per second. However, if there's an emergency it can be put to double speed and reversed, so you are never more than 8 minutes from getting back to the ground no matter where you are. I was a ride operator there and had to do an emergency return once. Only I forgot to stop it before I put it in reverse and ended up causing quite a few people to throw up from the capsules trying to level themselves. u/Skoodledoo

10. Columbus got it right

People knew the world was round before Columbus. Columbus didn't prove the world was round, he proved it was bigger around than previously thought. The idea that prior to Columbus people thought the world was flat is an invention of the Victorians. We know people thought the world was round from art, religious artifacts, and historic writings. The argument that maps showing the edge of the world prove that they thought the world was flat is false, it was a stylistic and artistic way for mapmakers to show the edge of the known world (aka all the sea monsters and here there be dragons bit). Everyone at the time understood that. u/L6b1