# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 342
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6831 "2023-06-29T13:13:25Z")
I just confirmed this on Wikipedia, February of 1865. It was actually from a website about factoids. Just google February 1865. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6832 "2023-06-29T13:19:54Z")
You’re right, but there is conflicting information about this online though. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6833 "2023-06-29T13:25:24Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > a website about factoids. [🤣](https://www.wral.com/story/4470081/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20there%20was%20a,between%20the%20years%201700%2D2035.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6834 "2023-06-29T13:27:06Z")
Did anything unusuall happen with the moon in February 1865? I am not just makeing stuff up. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6835 "2023-06-29T13:27:38Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > This is of course wrong. [Doubly wrong, in fact.](https://www.wral.com/story/4470081) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6836 "2023-06-29T13:48:24Z")
Today I learned that the margin of victory in the [very first basketball game ever played](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball#The_first_basketball_game), in 1891, was one point. The final score was 1-0. The only goal was scored by [William R. Chase](https://basketballplayers.omeka.net/exhibits/show/william-r--chase/chase-biography). Of course the rules were different then. For one thing, there was no backboard. For another, the basket was an actual peach basket with the bottom still in it, nailed to a balcony. When a point was scored, they had to stop the game so a janitor with a ladder could fish out the ball. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6837 "2023-06-29T14:00:40Z")
Snoop Dog was NOT in NWA. NWA was a rap group that was established in 1988, but broke up in the early 1990’s. It turns out that Dr. Dre discovered Snoop Dog when he was with NWA, and Dr.Dre actually collaborated with Snoop Dog on his first solo album, “Chronic” in 1991. You know, the one that started the DEEZ NUTZ craze. Snoop Dog was from California, and did get famous with his first hit song “Gin and Juice, Laid-back” while NWA was together. I was absolutely conviced for 30 years that Snoop Dog was actually in NWA. This assumption is similar to the “Mandella Effect” which is a collective psychological belief that something is true, when it is actually false. Everyone thought that Nelson Mandella died in the 1980’s, and were collectively surprised to learn that he was elected president of South Africa in the 1990’s. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6838 "2023-06-29T14:04:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The wedding number came from an article in the new, July-August, [Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/luxury-wedding-planners-industrial-complex-cost/674169/). A staff writer there is a former wedding planner to the wealthy. An interesting transition. I was curious as to the difference between the average wedding cost and the median wedding cost. This article claims that the median wedding cost is about $10,000 less than the average cost. > **[Median vs. Average Wedding Cost - Silk Stem Collective](https://silkstemcollective.com/median-and-average-wedding-cost/)** > > $26,720 was the average wedding cost – but 3 in 4 couples spent less than $20,000. We explain how the big spenders skew the average. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6839 "2023-06-29T14:14:46Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > Everyone thought that Nelson Mandella died in the 1980’s, and were collectively surprised to learn that he was elected president of South Africa in the 1990’s. Everyone? Come on ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6840 "2023-06-29T14:40:02Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > Snoop Dog was NOT in NWA. > > NWA was a rap group that was established in 1988, but broke up in the early 1990’s. > > It turns out that Dr. Dre discovered Snoop Dog when he was with NWA… I don’t have a [Snoop] Dog in this fight, but it looks to me like you just said that Snoop Dog was NOT in NWA, followed by saying that Snoop Dog WAS in NWA. You can’t have it both ways. And from the sentence construction, you haven’t simply accidentally left out a “not” or something. So which is it? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6841 "2023-06-29T14:42:07Z")
The sentence is ambiguous but I think he’s saying that Dre discovered Snoop when Dre was in NWA. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6842 "2023-06-29T14:47:04Z")
TIL that all of the Nazi uniforms in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade were not replicas but real. I’d feel weird as an extra wearing one, I have to admit. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6843 "2023-06-29T14:52:44Z")
Snoop Dog was NOT in NWA. For 30 years I THOUGHT Snoop Dog WAS in NWA. I was wrong. I just chalked it up to the “Mandella Effect”. I assumed that when Dr. Dre discovered Snoop Dog, he invited him to join the group, NWA. Snoop Dog did not. I remembered on 'Yo-MTV-RAPS" Dr. Dre was being interviewed about Snoop Dog, and how he discovered him. This was the origin of my assumption that Snoop Dog was in NWA. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6844 "2023-06-29T15:16:34Z")
According to the creator of the show WKRP in Cincinnati Hugh Wilson, Gordon Jump was chosen for the role of radio station owner because of his resemblance to [Jerry Blum, the real manager of an real radio station](https://www.metv.com/stories/rip-jerry-blum-the-real-radio-station-president-who-inspired-the-big-guy-on-wkrp-in-cincinnati). Wilson based the story of the famous episode called “Turkeys Away” on an actual incident Jerry Blum claimed had happened at radio station in Texas where turkeys were tossed from a moving truck with disastrous consequences. Blum allegedly spoke the iconic line “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly”. How much of this is the absolute truth is open to question, but that episode happened to air as the first episode of the show on a new night with MASH as a lead-in. The show had been on the verge of being cancelled, this was an attempt to save it, and the incredible success of this episode did just that. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6845 "2023-06-29T15:33:24Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > Snoop Dog was NOT in NWA. > > For 30 years I THOUGHT Snoop Dog WAS in NWA. > > I was wrong. > > I just chalked it up to the “Mandella Effect”. > > I assumed that when Dr. Dre discovered Snoop Dog, he invited him to join the group, NWA. > > Snoop Dog did not. > > I remembered on 'Yo-MTV-RAPS" Dr. Dre was being interviewed about Snoop Dog, and how he discovered him. > > This was the origin of my assumption that Snoop Dog was in NWA. Ah, I misunderstood. I thought the “he” in the last sentence I quoted from you referred to Snoop Dog, not Dr. Dre. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6846 "2023-06-29T15:37:27Z")
> [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > For 30 years I THOUGHT Snoop Dog WAS in NWA. > > I was wrong. Yeah, I get it. For a long time I thought Chris Rock and Kid Rock were the same person, also know as “the Rock.” ---
**Author:** ![kwintenstraler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kwintenstraler/32/10698_2.png) [@kwintenstraler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kwintenstraler)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6847 "2023-06-29T15:43:17Z")
Re: Mandela effect. Specific false memories can sometimes be shared by a large group of people. This phenomenon was dubbed the “Mandela effect” by [paranormal] researcher Fiona Broome, who reported having vivid and detailed memories of news coverage of [South African]anti-apartheid leader [Nelson Mandela] dying in prison in the 1980s, despite Mandela actually [dying in 2013]decades after his release and after serving as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. So, instead of saying a lot of people remember wrong, she proposed that this could be proof of the existence of parallel realities… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6848 "2023-06-29T16:19:28Z")
Or, you know, that people were remembering something that actually happened, but just confusing Steven Biko and Nelson Mandela. There was a movie about Biko, starring Denzel Washington. Here’s an interesting fact I found out about yesterday: toothed whales (like dolphins, pilot whales, orcas, etc) have an organ above their jaws amusingly called a “Melon.” It is believed this organ is used to focus and modulate sound waves for the purpose of echolocation. In sperm whales, it’s called the “junk,” because whalers thought it was useless, as distinct from the spermaceti reserve directly above it. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6849 "2023-06-29T16:23:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > There was a movie about Biko, starring Denzel Washington. There also was the famous song “Biko” by Peter Gabriel from 1980. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6850 "2023-06-29T16:23:51Z")
Moderating: I think that’s enough about the Mandela effect in this thread. Moving on… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=341) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=343)