The “Hundred Flowers Campaign” of 1956 China, allowed and encouraged people to speak freely and openly express their opinions about the communist regime. After a year, the campaign was withdrawn the Chinese government imprisoned those who spoke critically about them.
Although, John D. Rockefeller…
Although, John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world, occasionally, he served as janitor at his church.
There was a radioactive energy drink…
There was a radioactive energy drink called Radithor on the US market between 1918-1928. One prominent user was buried in a lead coffin. That user was Eben Byers.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union…
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian basketball team couldn’t afford to participate in the 1992 Olympics, so the Grateful Dead funded the team’s expenses, and the team wore tie-dye uniforms.
When the video game market crashed…
When the video game market crashed in 1983 revenues fell by an astounding 97%, causing many pundits to predict that video games were just a fad and that no one would ever play video games again.
‘Desire paths’ is the term…
‘Desire paths’ is the term for the paths that are naturally created by people’s footfalls when they walk around paved paths. Some universities and hospitals have avoided these by waiting to see where they formed naturally, then paving over established desire paths.
Ancient Roman Joke Pen
While excavating for Bloomberg’s headquarters, archaeologists have discovered a ancient Roman stylus inscribed with (roughly) “I went to Rome, and all I brought you was this pen.”
Navajo was once in danger of losing…
Navajo was once in danger of losing a lot of speakers, but the Navajo nation set up programs to teach the language as well as many bilingual schools. Now there are even institutes, community colleges, and technical universities with classes in the Navajo language.
Dwayne Stafford is the man…
Dwayne Stafford was the man who became a legend by sneaking out of his jail cell and beating Dylan Roof, the shooter of a church in Charleston, SC. He then began a GoFundMe account, and earned enough money for bond, and the legend grew. According to Stafford’s lawyer, Stafford was accused of roughing up and robbing someone outside of a gas station he frequented. No one was seriously hurt, but the incident landed Stafford in the county jail, where he served 1,5 year while awaiting trial before finally being bonded out.
If the asteroid that killed…
If the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs arrived just 30 seconds later, it would have landed in deep ocean water which would have absorbed much of the force of the impact. The resulting extinction would have been less severe, many dinosaur species would have survived, and humans would not exist.