15 Very, Very Good Facts That Made Our Mothers Proud
![15 Very, Very Good Facts That Made Our Mothers Proud](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/9/848229_320x180.jpg)
The world is a very odd place, but it has its uses. I have used my powers to make myself very rich and I am quite pleased with that. I do not need much in this life; a comfortable home, a wife who loves me (just as I love her, so that's good), food on the table, wine in front of me, a few pretty women at my beck and call. What more could a man ask for? The one thing I don't like about the world we live in is how many people are stupid. There must be some way I can exploit this, to get rich from the stupidity of others! But what form would this exploit take? I know I am smart, but there must be something more than just being smart ...
There must be ....
Yes ...
Yes ...
... I know! I also need to learn things. To start with, let's look at this list of fifteen facts …
A 50% stake in Domino’s was sold for a Beetle in 1961.
![The co-owner of Domino's Pizza traded his stake in the business for a car. S Domino's Domi NOT 09 5133 BEM TAXI 0745 THE CRACKED.COM Brothers Tom and James Monaghan bought Domi- Nick's for $500 in 1960, and a year later James sold his 50% stake for a Volkswagen Bee- tle. When Tom retired 38 years later, his 93% stake was worth $1 billion.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/6/848246.jpg)
Carl Sagan was hired to study how a nuke would go off on the moon.
![Carl Sagan was hired in the U.S.'s Cold War plan to drop a nuclear bomb on the moon. CRACKED.COM Sagan was hired to study how exactly the mushroom cloud would expand on the moon, so that they could make sure it would be clearly visible from Earth.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/5/848245.jpg)
FedEx was saved by a lucky trip to Vegas.
![The founder of FedEx saved the company by gambling its last $5,000 in Vegas. FedEx Corporati CRACKED.COM Frederick W. Smith took the $5000 and flew to Las Vegas and played Black Jack over the weekend with the re- maining company funds, leaving with $32,000.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/4/848244.jpg)
Daylight Saving Time almost got an innocent kid pinched for a bomb threat.
![Daylight Saving Time almost got a high school student arrested for calling in a bomb threat. GRACKED.COM The actual bomb threat came in an hour after an honor student called the school's automated phone line, but due to Daylight Saving, the time of his call matched up with the bomb threat.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/3/848243.jpg)
The match was invented after the lighter.
![Lighters were invented before the match. CRACKED.COM The first lighter was a converted flintlock pistol, invented in the 16th cen- tury. It wasn't until 1826 that John Walker invent- ed the first match in En- gland.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/2/848242.jpg)
Dr. Seuss proved he could write a book with just 50 words.
!['Green Eggs and Ham' was written by Dr. Seuss on a bet. CRACKED.COM The co-founder of Random House, Bennett Cerf, bet Se- uss $50 in 1960 that he couldn't write a book with 50 or fewer words. 'Green Eggs and Ham' went on to be Seuss' best selling work, using exactly 50 words.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/1/848241.jpg)
A guy who couldn’t play guitar created Fender.
![The inventor of Fender guitars didn't know how to play them. CRACKED.COM Despite designing the Telecaster and Strato- caster, and inventing the solid-body electric bass guitar, Lawrence Leoni- das Leo Fender was an engineer, not a musician.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/0/848240.jpg)
Mr. Rogers swam nude.
![Mr. Rogers was an avid skinny dipper. CRACKED.COM It was very important for Mr. Rogers to maintain his weight - 143 lbs, to be ex- act, which to him meant I love you - so he swam laps nearly every morning at various clubs that al- lowed nude swimming.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/9/848239.jpg)
The original purpose of Play-Doh was to clean wallpaper.
![Play-Doh was originally made to be wallpaper cleaner. Play CRACKED.COM Cincinnati soap compa- ny Kutol made the com- pound to clean the soot off of walls in homes heated by messy coal burning fires.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/8/848238.jpg)
Antarctica has the world’s loneliest ATM.
![The most southern ATM in the world is in Antarctica. GRACKED COM The McMurdo Station ATM is 840 miles from the South Pole. Banking conglomerate Wells Far- go installed the machine in 1998 for the small com- munity of 250 scientists.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/7/848237.jpg)
You couldn’t get toilet paper in grocery stores for three weeks thanks to Johnny Carson.
![A Johnny Carson joke caused a three week shortage of toilet paper in CRACKED.COM Carson had proclaimed that there was a toilet paper shortage in America's super- markets, so the next day his audience did what any sane shopper would do: they bought every square the store could spare.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/6/848236.jpg)
A girl without a vagina was impregnated after being stabbed.
![A girl in Africa born without a vagina became pregnant after being stabbed. CRACKED.COM After experimenting with oral sex, the 15-year-old was stabbed in the abdomen by a jealous former lover. It is theorized that this injury en- abled the sperm in her stom- ach to travel to her repro- ductive organs.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/5/848235.jpg)
Cockfighting predates domesticated chickens.
![Chickens were initially bred for cockfighting before food. CRACKED COM Cockfighting began in Southeast Asia with the Red Junglefowl, which was interbred with India's Gray Junglefowl for the specta- cle of their fighting prow- ess back in 4000 ВС.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/4/848234.jpg)
The inhabitants of the Canary Islands spoke in whistles.
![The aborignal inhabitants of the Canary Islands 'spoke' a language made entirely out of whistles. CRACKED.COM The Guanches commu- nicated using a whistled form of the Guache lan- guage that died out around the 17th century, long before the arrival of Spain.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/2/848232.jpg)
There used to be psych meds in 7 Up.
![7 Up soda used to contain psychiatric medication. CRACKED COM When it was introduced in 1929, the formula included lithium citrate, a mood-sta- bilizing drug popular in the late 19th century and still used today for people with bipolar disorder.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/3/848233.jpg)