Fun facts about people in history and other weird celebrity facts!
Since 1979, Jadav Payeng aka The Forest Man of India has been planting trees every day on the island of Majuli and Jorhat. In that time, he has built a forest reserve covering 1,360 acres and now that place has its own ecosystem. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/26/572421590/hed-take-his-own-life-before-killing-a-tree-meet-india-s-forest-man
The Ainu people of Japan carved libation sticks, which were originally thought to be mustache lifters to keep the man’s hair out of the way while drinking sake, but their actual purpose is to help send prayers to the gods during religious ceremonies. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/238703
In 2012, a Cleveland woman arrested for a traffic violation was ordered to share her crime by holding a sign for 2 days that read ‘only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.’ – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/11/13/165027763/convicted-idiot-driver-who-passed-school-bus-holds-her-sign-of-shame
In 2015, a teenager named Bud Weisser was arrested for trespassing in a secure area at the Budweiser Brewery located in St. Louis. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://fox2now.com/2015/12/04/bud-weisser-arrested-for-trespassing-at-budweiser-brewery/
Dan Aykroyd has both Tourette’s and Asperger’s and was born with webbed toes and two different colored eyes. He also has an obsession with police and ghosts, which is how the idea of Ghostbusters came to be. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.montgomeryacademyonline.org/blog/dan-aykroyd-battling-with-aspergers-and-tourettes1651/
Muhammad Ali’s star on the Hollywood walk of fame is not on the sidewalk. It is on the wall of Kodak/Dolby theater because of his request that the name of Muhammad not be walked on. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/06/04/muhammad-ali-hollywood-star/85426914/
Bob Graham, the former Governor and Senator of Florida, worked 408 ‘work days’ starting in 1974 as part of his political campaigns. He performed various jobs in Florida for a full eight-hour workday, including working as a barber, “pooper scooper”,bellhop, tomato picker, etc. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://postonpolitics.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2013/03/05/bob-graham-weighs-in-on-scotts-speech-crists-switch-daughters-potential-congress-bid/comment-page-1/
There were Shingon Monks who successfully mummified themselves alive via a practice called Sokushinbutsu, meaning “a Buddha in this very body”. Only 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
When Steve Madden, founder and CEO of the footwear company, was convicted of fraud and forced to resign, he created a new consultant position for himself that paid him $700k a year while in prison. – WTF Fun Facts
A Louisiana school principal resigned by text after being arrested standing in the middle of a street for public intoxication. He was found outside a strip club where he refused to pay his bill, all while he was on a school trip to Washington D.C. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.klfy.com/news/top-stories-news/louisiana-principal-resigns-after-being-arrested-at-strip-club-while-on-school-field-trip/
In 1912, Jim Thorpe, an American Indian, won two Olympic gold medals with a mismatched pair of shoes taken from the garbage. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe
In 2012, Choi Gap-bok escaped from prison by squeezing his body through a 5.9″ tall and 17.7″ wide food slot when the guards were sleeping. He is a yoga practitioner and applied skin ointment to his body in order to slip out. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/choi-gap-bok-prison-escape_n_1919866
The anthropologist Grover Krantz, who was infamous for believing in Bigfoot’s existence, donated his body to the Smithsonian on the condition his dogs were kept close to him. The museum honored his request. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: http://remains417.rssing.com/chan-35265043/all_p3.html
Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire at the exact middle of his life, down to the day. He lived 18,565 days and on day 9,283 (Jan 27, 1984) his hair caught on fire during a Pepsi commercial shoot. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/michael-jackson-burned-filming-commercial-1984-article-1.2511008
Mark Zuckerberg created an AI assistant for his home named Jarvis, after the butler in Iron Man, that is voiced by Morgan Freeman. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38390798
In 1294, Pope Celestine V was elected after a two-year impasse. He was a monk and hermit before being elected and passed an edict allowing Popes to abdicate, which he did a week after issuing the decree and ~5 months as Pope. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Celestine_V
In the 1820’s, a Cherokee named Sequoyah invented a writing system with 85 characters that was considered by many superior to the English alphabet. It could be learned in a few weeks and within a couple years majority of the Cherokees could read and write. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah
Former Uruguayan President José Mujica spent over 12 years in prison. He escaped and was recaptured twice, and then confined to the bottom of an old, emptied horse-watering trough for more than two years. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xd5adw/president-chill-jose-pepe-mujica-uruguay-0000323-v21n5