These Random Fun Facts have been hand-picked to make you laugh out loud. Unsolved mysteries, uniformed sightings, and even certain occurrences that may seem frightening, but you can’t help but laugh them off are all among them.
Although these occurrences seem to be too strange to be real, when their veracity is established, panic and incredulity ensue. The following facts show why our planet is such a strange place where everything is conceivable.
1. In 1973, a truck driver struck the lone tree in a 400-kilometer stretch. In essence, the guy was driving across an empty desert with just one tree — and he struck it!
Until a drunk truck driver knocked it down in 1973, the Ténéré Tree was the world’s most remote tree. The tree was one of the last to grow in the Sahara Desert before it became as arid as it is now. For decades, the tree remained alone.
A well was dug near the tree during the winter of 1938-39. The tree’s roots were found to reach the water table, which was 33–36 meters (108–118 ft) below the ground surface.
The tree was toppled down by a Libyan truck driver in 1973. It’s unclear how he managed to strike the tree, which was the sole one in 400 kilometers of barren desert. After that, the tree was sent to the Niger National Museum in Niamey, Niger.
The tree has been replaced by a metal sculpture of the wonder tree in its original location. [Source]
2. By sowing acres and acres of land with potatoes and closely protecting them with soldiers, a French military doctor got the French people interested in potato farming. Farmers came in and took potatoes to plant on their own fields while the guards were off duty, as he had predicted.
Although we have only recently been aware of the term “reverse psychology,” its usage may be traced back to the 18th century. It was also utilized by none other than Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the man who first popularized the potato as a food source.
He is also in charge of the sugar extraction from beets. He was one of the first to research food preservation techniques, including refrigeration.
Returning to reverse psychology, Parmentier utilized it on the public to persuade them to embrace potatoes as a food source. Despite the fact that the potato was designated an edible food source by the Paris Faculty of Medicine as a result of Parmentier’s work, the general public had a difficult time accepting this statement.
As a result, Parmentier devised a number of PR stunts.
Growing potatoes on a huge scale and putting guards all around the potato field was one of his most well-known pranks. This created the sense that the patch was maybe growing something important.
The guards were instructed by Parmentier to take any money given by the locals and then retire at night to steal the potatoes. His plan worked like a charm. Farmers arrived and stole potato plants to put in their own plots.
Other pranks included throwing potato bouquets to the monarch and queen and arranging banquets for important individuals like Benjamin Franklin that featured mainly potato meals. [Source]
3. Because the stable worker got to name him and didn’t know how to pronounce potato, one of the three greatest racehorses who ever lived and a foundation sire of thoroughbreds as we know them today was called “potooooooo,” or “pot-8-o’s.”
Potoooooooo, also known as Pot-8-Os, was an 18th-century thoroughbred and one of the most incredible horses ever. He had won approximately 30 races and is the forefather of many of today’s thoroughbreds.
His name is the most amusing aspect about him. It was intended to be “Potatoes,” but a little mishap earned him the moniker “Potoooooooo.”
Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, bred Potoooooooo. The earl desired the name “Potatoes” for the horse. As a result, he ordered the stable lad to write “Potatoes” on the horse’s food container.
Now, since the stable lad didn’t know how to spell “potatoes,” he scribbled “Potoooooooo” on the feeding bin, which is “Pot” followed by eight Os.” The Earl was so taken aback by this unusual spelling that he adopted it.
As a result, the horse’s name became known as “Potoooooooo” or “Pot8O’s.”. [Source]
4. People were so alarmed when John Hetherington, the creator of the top hat, wore one in public for the first time that many ladies collapsed and children screamed. Hetherington was found guilty of breaking the king’s peace and fined £500.
The top hat is said to have been invented by an Englishman named John Hetherington. On January 15, 1797, he made quite a stir when he first donned a top hat.
People had never seen a headgear like it before that time. People were terrified when Hetherington appeared on the public roadway wearing his silk hat.
Many ladies passed out when they saw the headgear, children cried in terror, and dogs barked! A throng gathered around him, and a few people were injured.
Hetherington was hauled before the Lord Mayor, who accused him of breaking the king’s peace and inciting a disturbance. On all counts, Hetherington was found guilty and fined £500. [Source]
5. Liberia’s general election in 1927 was the most manipulated, with the winner receiving 2,43,000 votes despite just 15,000 registered voters.
Former Liberian President Charles King has been inducted into the Guinness World Book of Records for being a part of the most crooked election ever recorded in history!
In Liberia’s general elections in 1927, King defeated his opponent, Thomas Faulkner. Faulkner got just 9,000 votes, whereas King received 243,000.
Although this seems to be a significant victory, the total number of registered voters at the time was just 15,000 people. This implies that since Faulkner got 9,000 votes, he was a clear winner, and the remaining 6,000 votes would have gone to King.
However, King cheated and got 243,000 votes, despite the fact that there were only 15,000 voters. [Source]