The Roman emperor Domitian took great pleasure in being secluded in his room for hours and catching flies and stabbing them with pens

Domitian’s reign came to an end in 96 when he was assassinated by court officials. The same day he was succeeded by his advisorNerva. After his death, Domitian’s memory was condemned to oblivion by the Roman Senate, while senatorial authors such as Tacitus,Pliny the Younger and Suetonius published histories propagating the view of Domitian as a cruel and paranoid tyrant. Modern history has rejected these views, instead characterising Domitian as a ruthless but efficient autocrat, whose cultural, economic and political program provided the foundation of the peaceful 2nd century.

The name "Snickers" for the popular candy bar was named after a horse that the Mars family owned

Snickers is a brand name candy bar made by Mars, Incorporated. It consists of nougat topped with caramel and peanuts, enrobed in milk chocolate. Snickers has annual global sales of $2 billion.
In the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Ireland, Snickers was sold under the brand name Marathon until 1990. More recently, Snickers Marathon branded energy bars have been sold in some markets.

Gilbert N. Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Prize 35 times, but he never won.

Gilbert N. Lewis is known for the discovery of the covalent bond and his concept of electron pairs; his Lewis dot structures and other contributions to valence bond theory have shaped modern theories of chemical bonding. Lewis has successfully contributed to thermodynamics, photochemistry, and isotope separation, and is also known for his concept of acids and bases.

G. N. Lewis was born in 1875 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. After receiving his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University and studying abroad in Germany and the Philippines, Lewis moved to California to teach chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Several years later, he became the Dean of the college of Chemistry at Berkeley, where he spent the rest of his life. As a professor, he incorporated thermodynamic principles into the chemistry curriculum and reformed chemical thermodynamics in a mathematically rigorous manner accessible to ordinary chemists. He began measuring the free energy values related to several chemical processes, both organic and inorganic.

In 1916, he also proposed his theory of bonding and added information about electrons in the periodic table of the elements. In 1933, he started his research on isotope separation. Lewis worked with hydrogen and managed purify of heavy water. He then came up with his theory of acids and bases, and did work in photochemistry during the last years of his life. In 1926, Lewis coined the term “photon” for the smallest unit of radiant energy. He was a brother in Alpha Chi Sigma, the professional chemistry fraternity.

Though he was nominated 35 times, G. N. Lewis never won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. On March 23, 1946, Lewis was found dead in his Berkeley laboratory where he had been working with hydrogen cyanide; many postulated that the cause of his death was suicide. After Lewis’ death, his children followed their father’s career in chemistry.

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The harmonica John Lennon used during "Love me Do" was shoplifted.

It was on the 4 September session that, according to McCartney, Martin suggested using a harmonica for the Love Me Do song. However, Lennon’s harmonica part was present on the Anthology 1 version of the song recorded during the 6 June audition with Pete Best on drums. Also, Martin’s own recollection of this is different, saying: “I picked up on ‘Love Me Do’ because of the harmonica sound”, adding: “I loved wailing harmonica — it reminded me of the records I used to issue of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. I felt it had a definite appeal.” Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee would be an influence on Bob Dylan, who, in turn, would later influence the Beatles.

Lennon had learned to play a chromatic harmonica that his Uncle George (late husband of his Aunt Mimi) had given to him as a child. But the instrument being used at this time was one stolen by Lennon from a music shop in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 1960, as the Beatles first journeyed to Hamburg by road. Lennon would have had this with him at the EMI audition on 6 June as Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby”, with its harmonica intro, and a hit in the UK in March 1962, was one of the thirty three songs the Beatles had prepared (although only four were recorded: “Bésame Mucho”; “Love Me Do”; “P.S. I Love You” and “Ask Me Why”, of which only “Bésame Mucho” and “Love Me Do” survive and appear on Anthology 1). Brian Epstein had also booked American Bruce Channel to top a NEMS Enterprises promotion at New Brighton’s Tower Ballroom, in Wallasey on 21 June 1962, just a few weeks after “Hey Baby” had charted, and placed the Beatles a prestigious second on the bill. Lennon was so impressed that night with Channel’s harmonica player, Delbert McClinton, that he later approached him for advice on how to play the instrument. Lennon makes reference also to Frank Ifield’s “I Remember You” and its harmonica intro, a huge number one hit in the U.K July 1962, saying: “The gimmick was the harmonica. There was a terrible thing called “I Remember You”, and we did those numbers; and we started using it on “Love Me Do” just for arrangements”. The harmonica was to become a feature of the Beatles’ early hits such as “Love Me Do”, “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You” as well as various album tracks. Paul Mc­Cartney recalled, “John expected to be in jail one day and he’d be the guy who played the harmonica.” 

Martin came very close to issuing “How Do You Do It?” as the Beatles’ first single (it would also re-appear as a contender for their second single) before settling instead on “Love Me Do”, as a mastered version of it was made ready for release and which still exists in EMI’s archives. Martin commented later: “I looked very hard at ‘How Do You Do It?’, but in the end I went with ‘Love Me Do’, it was quite a good record.” McCartney would remark: “We knew that the peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do ‘How Do You Do It’.”

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Luis Suarez was banned for more than 28 matches in three years!

The uruguayan football player Luis Suarez has a personal record of controversies. Without counting the usual matches lost by yellow or red cards, Suarez was banned seven matches for biting Otman Bakkal when he was playing for Ajax, then he got hit for eight more matches for a racial incident with Evra and ten more matches add for biting the Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanović.

Also, in the quarter-final against Ghana, the score was 1–1 at the end of regulation and the game went into extra time. Late in extra time, Ghana sent a free kick into the box; Suárez blocked Stephen Appiah's shot on the goal line. He then blocked Dominic Adiyiah's goalbound header with his hands to save what would have been the game winner and was sent off. Asamoah Gyan hit the crossbar with the ensuing penalty kick and Suárez, who had stopped to watch, celebrated the miss before heading down the tunnel. Uruguay won the shootout 4–2 and advanced to the semi-finals.

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The accent that Mike Myers used for the character Shrek came from the accent that his mother would use when she was telling him bedtime stories when he was a child

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The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella."

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A man was trapped under his dead 224 lbs wife for 3 days after she fell down the stairs on top of him

"In 1903, in Liverpool, England, an elderly man was following his 224-pound wife up some stairs in their house when she lost her balance and fell backward, hit her head on the floor and died instantly.

The husband lay trapped under his dead spouse for three days. When friends finally found the couple, he was dead, too."

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Beatosu and Goblu are two non-existent Ohio towns that appeared on Michigan's official highway map as a reference to the University of Michigan and their rivals, Ohio State University.

Beatosu and Goblu are two non-existent Ohio towns that were inserted into the 1978–1979 official state of Michigan map. The names refer to the slogan of University of Michigan fans ("Go Blue!") and a reference to their archrivals from the Ohio State University (OSU).
Peter Fletcher, a Michigan alumnus and chairman of the State Highway Commission, inserted the fake towns of "Goblu" (near the real town of Bono, Ohio off State Route 2) and "Beatosu" (near Archbold, Ohio, just south of Interstate 80/Interstate 90/Ohio Turnpike at exit 25). In a 2008 interview, Fletcher explained that a fellow Michigan alumnus had been teasing him about the Mackinac Bridge colors: green and white, the colors of Michigan State University. Fletcher noted that the bridge colors were in compliance with federal highway regulations, so he had no choice in that matter; he did, however, have more control over the state highway map. Fletcher said that he thus ordered a cartographer to insert the two fictitious towns.

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Claire Danes has a swing in her apartment. "My parents had a swing, a trapeze and a trampoline in their apartment, I was inspired by that"

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Halle Berry used to date New Kid on the Block Danny Wood. They broke up because the band thought she was a groupie.

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In 1926, a waiter in Budapest committed suicide. He left his suicide note in the form of a crossword and the police had to get help from the public to solve it

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Actor Sylvester Stallone once had a job as a lion cage cleaner

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Kermit the Frog was named after Kermit Scott, a childhood friend of creator Jim Henson, who became a professor of philosophy at Purdue University

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Teflon was accidently discovered by scientist Dr. Roy Plunkett while he was conducting a coolant gas experiment in 1938

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On 2009 Hugo Chavez outlawed Coke Zero in Venezuela because he considered a threat to health

Even though this product is sold in more than 50 countries, the Government of President Hugo Chavez decided to ban the soft drink in their country "to preserve the health of Venezuelans".

Even though they didn't give precise details about the dangers, it could be related to the sodium cyclamate which have been related to cancer in previous studies. However, Coke Inc. assured this ingredient is safe.

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During World War II, condoms were used to cover rifle barrels from being damaged by salt water as the soldiers swam to shore

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Before winning the lottery, this guy survived 7 near-death accidents including a plane crash!

Frano Selak, is a Croatian music teacher with plenty of anecdotes to tell. It all started in 1962, when a train going to Dubrovnic when his train ended up in a frozen river after jumping the rails. A broken arm and hyphotermia were the consecuences for Frano. Seventeen people died.

He survived a plane crash a year later, after a door flew open and 19 people died. He then survived to a bus sunk in a river, his car's engine exploding, another car burning, being run over by two different buses and finally his Skoda falling to a precipice.

In the end he won around 1 million dollars with his first ever lottery ticket. As a pensioner, he decided to give the money away to his friend and family.

What do you think?

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There is a very very similar story to Life of Pi published before!

The New York Times reported in 2002 on the similarities between the book by Yann Martel on which the movie is based and "Max and the Cats", by Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar, published in 1981. The book tells the tale of "a Jewish youth who survives a shipwreck and ends up sharing a lifeboat with a panther".

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When Black Jack Ketchum was hung back in 1901 in Clayton New Mexico, the noose actually ended up taking his head off.

The head had to be sewn back on so Black Jack could be buried properly

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