Random Facts We Can't Believe No One Told Us Before Now (13 items)

(#11) The Nazis Awarded Henry Ford With Their Highest Civilian Honor

On Henry Ford's 75th birthday, in 1938, he received what most people today would call a dubious honor. His "gift" was the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, the highest honor Nazi Germany could give to any foreigner.

Ford became the first American recipient of the award, created by Adolf Hitler in 1937. It was said that Hitler greatly admired Ford and tried to do with the Volkswagen Beetle what Ford did with the Model T.

To be fair to Ford, while he was anti-Semitic, he was also anti-war and refused to go to Germany to receive the honor. So the honor had to come to Dearborn, MI.
(#1) Dubai
- Place
Dubai is sandy. Go outside the gleaming city in the United Arab Emirates, and you'll find plenty of towering sand dunes - a hot spot for tourists. But when it comes to construction, Dubai cannot use desert sand, simply because it's too smooth.

So it imports sand. In many countries, the demand for sand has led to illegal mining and the rise of a "sand mafia." In 2014 alone, Dubai imported $456 million worth of sand, gravel, and stone.
(#12) The First-Ever Hot Air Balloon Passengers Were Barnyard Animals

Six years before French citizens decided to revolt against royalty, the world's first hot air balloon took to the air. In 1783, King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, and 130,000 French citizens watched as the balloon went aloft. The first passengers were barnyard animals, however, not humans. More specifically: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster flew over Versailles in an 8-minute flight.

The balloon landed in the woods safely, with the barnyard trio intact.
(#8) The Distance Between London And Moscow Is Shorter Than Between Sydney And Perth

London and Moscow seem to lie halfway across the world from each other. One is in the United Kingdom and the other in Russia, although both cities are located on the European continent. The distance between London and Moscow is 1,795.6 miles, or almost 2,890 km. A flight from London to Moscow takes approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes.

Sydney and Perth, on the other hand, are Australian cities but much further apart. The distance between the two is 2,444.5 miles, or 3,934 km. The approximate flight time between the two is a surprising 5 hours.
(#5) The Only Japanese Passenger on RMS 'Titanic' Was Shamed By His Country For Being Alive

Masabumi Hosono was an employee of the Japanese Transportation Ministry who traveled to Russia and then to England to study railway operations. He boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton, also called "the ship of dreams," before tragedy struck. When the Titanic went down, Hosono was on deck like all the other passengers looking for a way out. Suddenly, the officers announced that one of the lifeboats had space for two more passengers. Hosono became the second to jump in.

Initially, when he went back to Japan, he was hailed as a survivor and became a mini celebrity. Later, he was denounced as a stowaway, first by Archibald Gracie, a first-class passenger and Titanic survivor, and then by his own countrymen.

Hosono lost his job, and while he was eventually hired back, his career never really revived. The shame persisted until his death in 1939, and even after.
(#3) In 1989, An Asteroid Nearly Hit Earth

March 23, 1989 is celebrated as Near Miss Day - and for a good reason. On that day, the Earth had a close call when an asteroid half a mile across whizzed by us at a distance of 400,000 miles. This does not sound close, but Earth had been in that same spot a mere six hours earlier.

We didn't learn of the close encounter until nine days later. The closest call since then was in January 1991, when an asteroid approximately 30 feet wide passed within 106,000 miles of Earth.