20 Now-You-Know Facts That Got Us Keyed Up

By:
20 Now-You-Know Facts That Got Us Keyed Up

Papers can be a lot of work. You have to make sure you use the right word, get the tense correct, and sometimes even go back and edit your whole paper. But what if you're just too lazy to do all that? Well, then you might take a page out of Jack Hetherington's book. Jack was a physicist who in 1975 co-authored a paper with his cat simply to avoid having to change every instance of “we” to “I” in the document himself – back then, he'd have to, like, manually re-type everything on a typewriter. So, wisely, he took the easy way out. But he's not the only one with that kind of creative approach to removing obstacles… US Army Captain Moffatt Burriss once tricked an ENTIRE PANZER CORPS into surrendering, by pretending that he and two other guys were there on behalf of higher powers to accept their surrender. Now THAT is efficiency. 

Men’s buttons are on the right to allow access to their weapon.

Men's and women's clothes buttons are on opposite sides due to historical tradition. CRACKED.COM Men needed quick access to their weapon using their right hand, while wealthy women were dressed by servants with the button configuration being flipped for easier access by the servants.

Smithsonian

An engineer designing WWII airplane wings quit to become the first supermodel.

One of the first supermodels was a mechanical engineer who designed airplane wings during WWII. CRACKED.COM Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker quit her engineering job after being passed over for a promotion and began writing copy for в movies, where she was encouraged to go into modeling.

Telegraph

One proposed method of space travel involves moving the Sun through the galaxy.

The first person to theorize dark matter proposed traveling space by moving our Sun with an engine. CRACKED.COM Fritz Zwicky wanted the US to pursue a nuclear fusion powered stellar engine that would propel our Sun, drag- ging the planets with it. Не warned that if we didn't, the Russians would.

Kurzgesagt

A baseball player bowled a perfect game at the World Series of Bowling.

Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts bowled a 300 at the World Series of Bowling. B BOS T CRACKED.COM The 25-year-old base- ball player bowled a perfect game in 2017, just days before he was awarded an MLB Gold Glove.

Sports Illustrated 

The CIA operated a civilian airline from 1950-1976.

The American passenger and cargo airline 'Air America' was secretly operated by the CIA. AIR AMERICA AIR AMERICA NICHEA CRACKED.COM It supplied and sup- ported covert opera- tions in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, including provid- ing support for drug smuggling in Laos.

LA Times

You can’t whisper in a moose hunter’s ear in Alaska.

It's illegal to whisper in another person's ear if they are hunting moose in Alaska. CRACKED.COM Concentration is key, so it is best to wait until after you are done hunting to have a conversation. It's also illegal to feed an alco- holic beverage to one of them-a moose, that is, not the hunter.

Connect2Local

The Aztecs used a weapon that struck fear in the heart of the conquistadors.

The Aztecs used obsidian weapons which were capable of decapitating horses with just one swing. CRACKED.COM The macuahuitl was a wooden club embedded with a ring of obsidian blades. The weapon was so effective and fearsome that Spanish conquista- dors would faint from what they saw on the battlefield.

Famsi

Dogs have two noses which allows for extra smelling.

Dogs have a second nose, called Jacobson's Organ, located at the back of the nose. CRACKED.COM This double smelling system allows some trained dogs to sniff out bladder, kidney and prostate cancer with a 95% accuracy.

CNN

Charles Dance shares something in common with his “Game of Thrones” character.

Charles Dance has a lot in common with his Game of Thrones character. CRACKED.COM Tywin Lannister was married to and had three children with a woman named Joan- na, before her death. Dance was also married to a wom- an named Joanna, with whom he had three children before their divorce.

Plymouth Herald

18th century Catholics LARPed as dogs because they couldn’t be in the Freemasons.

Catholics started a secret society in 1738 where they acted like dogs. GRACKED.COM When the Pope banned joining the Freemasons, a group of Catholics started 'The Order of the Pug' in which initiation involved wearing a collar, walking on all fours, and kissing a pug statue's butt.

Vintage News

Family Video only went out of business thanks to Covid.

Family Video outlasted chains like Blockbuster, only shutting down because of the Covid pandemic. CRACKED COM They own the real estate where their stores are lo- cated and they own all of the media they rent out so they keep all of the profits. In early 2021, Family Video closed all their 248 remain- ing stores.

Variety

The US Postal Service enjoyed a free show by The Postal Service.

The band The Postal Service was sent a cease and desist letter by the United States Postal Service. CRACKED.COM After negotiations, the USPS allowed the band to use their name in exchange for playing a free show at their national confer- ence.

Ars Technica

A physicist was too lazy to change “we” to “I” in a paper, so he made his car the co-author.

A cat was named co-author in a physicist's paper in 1975 because of a grammar typo. CRACKED.COM Jack H. Hetherington made his cat named F.D.C. Wil- lard the co-author of a pa- per because he'd acciden- tally written We instead of I throughout the ра- per and didn't feel like changing it.

Atlas Obscura

One US Army Captain tricked a unit of 15,000 Germans to surrender.

A German Panzer unit surrendered to a single US Army Captain during WWII. CRACKED.COM US Army Captain Moffatt Burriss, along with just two others, came across a Pan- zer Corps of 15,000 men. Burriss went straight to the unit's leader and informed him that they were there to accept his surrender.

Task and Purpose

Sign up for the Cracked Newsletter

Get the best of Cracked sent directly to your inbox!

Recommended For Your Pleasure

Forgot Password?