Trish Vickers, a blind author, wrote 26 pages of her first novel without realising her pen had run out of ink. The local police force used their forensic lab to find the missing words, and the book was published on the day of her death.
Facts
Upon joining Black Sabbath in 1979….
Upon joining Black Sabbath in 1979, Ronnie James Dio began using the sign of the horns. The previous singer in the band, Ozzy Osbourne, was rather well known for using the “peace” sign. Dio, not wanting to copy Osbourne, chose to use the sign his grandmother always made.
Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS attempted to claim the “devil horns” hand gesture for his own. According to CBS News, “Simmons filed an application on Friday, June 16, 2017 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark on the hand gesture he regularly uses during concerts and public appearances — thumb, index and pinky fingers extended, with the middle and ring fingers folded down. According to Simmons, this hand gesture was first used in commerce — by him — on Nov. 14, 1974. He is claiming the hand gesture should be trademarked for “entertainment, namely live performances by a musical artist [and] personal appearances by a musical artist.” Simmons abandoned this application on June 21, 2017.
In 2013, NASA’s Mars Curiosity…
In 2013, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover hummed Happy Birthday to itself by vibrating its sample-analysis unit to obtain the musical tune, but did so only on its first “birthday”.
In 2014 two chemists co-authored a paper…
In 2014 two chemists co-authored a paper describing all those consumer products appropriately labelled as “chemical free”. The paper was blank.
In Italy and Portugal the installation…
In Italy and Portugal the installation of a bidet in a bathroom has been mandatory since 1975.
The unofficial Russian book….
The unofficial Russian book “The Last Ringbearer” describes The Lord of the Rings trilogy from Sauron’s point of view and portrays Mordor as the good guys.
Dagen H
The most logistically complex event in Sweden’s history was when Sweden switched their entire traffic system from the left side of the road to the right side in a single day in 1967 called “Dagen H”.
In 1749 a scientist, Emilie du Châtelet…
In 1749 a scientist, Emilie du Châtelet, feared that bearing a child at 42 would be the last thing she did. She worked furiously on a magnum opus that would eventually change the world of physics. Within days of completing her work, she gave birth to a daughter and died soon after.
In 1967, due an argument with…
In 1967, due an argument with their bishop everyone in a small Italian village renounced Catholicism and converted en masse to Greek Orthodox.
In the 1930s, farmers in New Zealand…
In the 1930s, farmers in New Zealand had an unusual problem: when they put their trousers out to dry, they had a tendency to explode.
A popular herbicide- sodium chlorate – would cause anything on which it had been spilled to explode when even a small amount of heat was applied.