During his time as a Congressman and later the US President, John F. Kennedy donated all of his salary to charity.

2. The word ‘retarded’ only came into popular use during the 1960's because it was considered far less offensive and more politically correct than labeling someone a ‘moron’, ‘idiot’ or ‘imbecile’.

3. Samuel L. Jackson's performance as a crackhead in the movie Jungle Fever was so acclaimed that the 1991 Cannes Film Festival created a special "Supporting Actor" award just for him.

4. The book 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau is often seen as a 'bible' for self-sufficiency enthusiasts. However, while many picture Thoreau as a hermit in the woods, his cabin on the lake was about a mile from town, where he would often go to visit his mother, who did his laundry for him.

5. Seth MacFarlane once had to show an early episode of Family Guy to a pair of Rabbis because Fox executives thought it was anti-Semitic. Despite the Rabbis' approval, it wasn't broadcasted for 3 years after it was completed.

In 1923, a jockey named Frank Hayes suffered a fatal heart attack and died mid-race. His body somehow remained on the horse and crossed the finish line in first place. He had never won a race before in his life.

7. Kevin Mitnick as a hacker was believed to be so dangerous that he was placed in solitary confinement for fear of being able to "start a thermonuclear war by whistling into a payphone."

8. During the American Revolution, many untrained American soldiers used bayonets only to cook meat over fires rather than using them for close combat. After receiving bayonet combat training from a Prussian general, the American Army was able to win an entire battle without firing a shot.

9. The poison from the “Mother-in-law’s Tongue” plant (Genus Deiffenbachia) can result in the person affected by it to temporarily lose the ability to speak.

10. Dalmatians used to run alongside horse-drawn fire trucks acting as a barking siren to clear crowds. This is the reason for their positive reputation with firefighters.

Dragonflies are one of the most efficient killers in nature, capturing their prey more than 95% of the time.

12. More than 90% of the monarch butterfly population has vanished in the last 25 years.

13. In 1944, British military intelligence submitted a full plan to kill Hitler during one of his routine, solitary walks. It was never carried out. Why? Hitler was such a poor strategist that the British realized his replacement could, in all likelihood, do a better job of defending Germany from the Allies if he died.

14. Winston Churchill found so much enjoyment and relaxation in laying bricks that he joined and paid dues in the Bricklayer's Union. He even inquired in a letter "is there is a rule regulating the number of bricks which a man may lay a day?…and what are the restrictions on overtime?"

15. For months after returning from long stays in space, some astronauts will still let go of an object in mid-air fully expecting it to float.

Soon after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Ed McMahon enlisted in the Marine Corps and entered flight training. Though unable to enter combat in WWII, he flew 85 combat missions in the Korean War and earned 6 air medals. He retired in 1966 with the rank of colonel.

17. Motion sickness occurs due to confusion between perceived movement and actual movement. The brain's conclusion is that one of the senses is hallucinating due to poison ingestion and thus the brain induces vomiting to clear the supposed toxin.

18. Deuterium, one of the ingredients for nuclear fusion, is readily found in seawater and viewed as a potential fuel for a fusion reactor. A gallon of seawater can produce as much energy as 300 gallons of gasoline.

19. The American government had a "Conscience Fund" where people could send money if they felt guilty. The largest sum ever received was in 1909 when someone mailed in $18,669 (US$ 490,000 in 2015).

20. The 1982 movie Poltergeist used real skeletons as props because they were cheaper than plastic skeletons.

The Voyager missions were timed to take advantage of a unique planetary arrangement that allowed flight time to Neptune to be reduced from 30 years to 12. This alignment occurs once every 175 years.

22. Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker started the world's first terraforming project on Ascension Island in 1850. The project has turned an arid volcanic wasteland into a self-sustaining and self-reproducing ecosystem made completely of foreign plants from all over the world.

23. During the Greece's fight for independence in 1826-27, a Turkish garrison in Acropolis was besieged by Greek fighters. When the Turks ran low on bullets, they began to cut the marble columns to use the lead within as bullets. The Greeks sent them ammunition saying: "Here are bullets, don't touch the columns."

24. A company named Ray's Sausage spent over $20,000 in improvements to their sausage making business in Cleveland, Ohio due to constant complaints about foul odor. It was years before anyone realized the horrific truth: the odors were actually coming from the rotting victims of serial killer Anthony Sowell.

25. 'Yak-Shaving' is the term for getting sidetracked by multiple other tasks before finally being able to complete what you originally started out to do.