15 Facts About Mr. Rogers, Geese, And Sailors
![15 Facts About Mr. Rogers, Geese, And Sailors](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/1/842081_320x180.jpg)
The first time I changed someone's life was on the night of my eighteenth birthday, at the party of my best friend, Masha. We were there to cheer her up after the worst day of her life—her mother and her boyfriend had just broken up in front of her eyes. She had been crying all afternoon and she didn't have the guts to host the party. But we weren't there for Masha—we were there as friends with our own problems; Masha was the one who got us invited to this stupid party.
So, like a true friend, I hugged Masha and tried to cheer her up. I told her something that stopped her from moping around and practically made her hop around the room. It was as if I turned the light in her eyes back on.
What did I tell her, you might be wondering? It was this list of fifteen facts:
Despite all my rage, I’m still just a baby in a cage.
![Babies were suspended in cages outside apartment windows in 1930s London. CRACKED.COM Infants were commonly hung outside apartment windows in Baby Cages so that they could get enough fresh air and sunlight. The cages became popular in London in the 1930s among apartment dwellers without access to backyards.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/6/842096.jpg)
Howard Hughes refused to live through a “Kramer” experience.
![A billionaire bought a casino just because their neon sign was keeping him up at night. GRACKED.COM Billionaire Howard Hughes bought the small Silver Slipper casino for the sole purpose of moving its trademark neon silver slipper. Visible from Hughes' bedroom, it had apparently kept him awake at night.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/3/842093.jpg)
Hendrix was not cut out for the army.
![Jimi Hendrix was discharged from the army due to sleeping and masturbating on duty. CRACKED COM Hendrix enlisted after being given a choice between that or jail in 1961. Не was discharged a year later, his discharge documents reading: Behavior problems ... little regard for regulations, apprehended masturbating in platoon area while supposed to be detail.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/4/842094.jpg)
Contestants were stranded on an island for a reality show that was canceled immediately.
![Contestants on a reality show spent months on an isolated island without knowing the show was canceled. CRACKED.COM After surviving a year-long experiment on an isolated island in 2016 for a British reality TV show Eden, 10 contestants learned that the show had been canceled after just 4 episodes.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/2/842092.jpg)
Disney spends an absurd amount on explosives.
![The Walt Disney Company is the second largest purchaser of explosive devices, right behind the U.S. military. CRACKED.COM The Walt Disney Company is the largest consumer of fireworks in the world, with extravagant firework displays occurring every night. Disney keeps its numbers top secret, but some estimate they spend between $45,000 to $50,000 on explosives per show.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/5/842095.jpg)
Murray thought “Kung Fu Hustle” put American comedy to shame.
![Bill Murray suggested a day of mourning for American comedy when Kung Fu Hustle came out. GRACKED.COM There should have been a day of mourning for American comedy the day that movie came out, Murray said, because it was the supreme achievement of modern comedy.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/7/842097.jpg)
Superhabitable planets may be different from Earth, in a good way.
![There are hypothesized planets better suited for life than Earth called Superhabitable Planets. CRACKED.COM Where do we sign up to be the first group rocketed off of this Godforsaken hellhole? René Heller and John Armstrong suggest a planet could be non-Earth-like, yet more suitable for the emergence of life than Earth.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/0/842090.jpg)
Mr. Rogers got a surprise visit from an old friend when he was inducted to the Hall of Fame.
![Mr. Rogers was inducted into the TV'Hall of Fame by a man who appeared on his show as a boy. CRACKED.COM In 1981, Jeffrey Erlanger appeared on Mr. Rogers' TV series where he described to the audience what it was like to be handicapped and in a wheelchair. 18 years later, Jeff surprised Mr. Rogers with an appearance during his induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/1/842091.jpg)
It’s not us, games actually WERE harder when we were kids.
![NES games were made to be difficult to recoup losses on game rentals. 1 CREDIT INSERT+ oo COIN GRACKED GOM NES games like Battletoads were made so hard because Nintendo was losing money on video game rentals. If they took a long time to beat, people would have to buy the games instead. See? We knew we weren't bad at video games.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/7/842087.jpg)
An interesting trade offer led sailors to basically dismantle their own ships.
![Sailors removed nails from their ship when they learned that Tahiti women would trade sex for iron. CRACKED.COM English sailors on the HMS Dolphin in 1766 discovered that native women on islands would offer a trade too good to pass up, and began pulling nails out, causing loss of the ship's structural integrity.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/9/842089.jpg)
It bankrupted a city to recover all the bodies in the river thanks to the cartel.
![Marsella in Columbia was eventually bankrupted by the cost of recovering corpses from the River of Death. CRACKED.COM The Cali Cartel murdered so many people and dumped their bodies in the Cauca River that the local municipality was eventually bankrupt by the cost of recovering corpses and conducting autopsies.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/8/842088.jpg)
Geese are great at weeding mint.
![Domestic geese are used in weeding mint fields. CRACKED.COM The geese hate mint but love the plants that compete with it. Livestock like cows, goats and sheep were used for the same reason, but tended to trample the mint in the process.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/6/842086.jpg)
An Italian man was hoisted by his own petard, or rather slammed into it.
![A man stole rubber padding to use as a sled, and then slammed into the barrier he stole the padding from. GRACKED.COM In 2008, a man named Mr. Monk at a ski resort in Italy stole a rubber padding used on a barrier to stop people at the bottom of a sledding hill. Не used the padding to sled down the hill, hitting the barrier that he stole the padding from and died.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/4/842084.jpg)
Average students have their own scholarship, thanks to Letterman.
![David Letterman created a scholarship for the average С student. CRACKED.COM File this under things we wish we knew in high school. Letterman recognized that it's not all about marks, some are extraordinary and amazing in other ways.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/5/842085.jpg)
Stethoscopes made it less uncomfortable for a religious doctor to treat women.
![The stethoscope was invented because a doctor was uncomfortable putting his ear on women's chests. CRACKED.COM A highly religious physician, Rene' Laennec, discovered that the new stethoscope was superior to the normally used method of placing the ear over the chest, particularly if the patient was overweight.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/3/842083.jpg)