History

Bizarre Fact #161:
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India tested its first nuclear bomb in 1974.

Bizarre Fact #162:
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Ishi had made it very clear before he died that he did not want to be autopsied. However, his wishes were ignored and his body was autopsied and the brain removed and sent to the Smithsonian, where scientists were collecting brains for a study of brain size and race. After 83 years, the Smithsonian is finally returning the brain of Ishi to his closest relatives so they can bury his remains.

Bizarre Fact #163:
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Ishi was believed to be the last of the Yahi, a tribe of Native Americans living in California that were wiped out by disease and massacres. In the early part of the twentieth century (1911), he became a sensation when he wandered out of the woods near Oroville. Ishi was taken to the University of California at San Francisco where he lived and worked (as a janitor) in the anthropology museum, helping researchers to document the Yahi language, until his death from tuberculosis in 1916. His name, Ishi, was given to him by the anthropologists. Linguists believe it was his tribe's word for "man."

Bizarre Fact #164:
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Ishi's remains will be given to representative of the Redding Rancheria and the Pit River Tribe, two Native American groups from Northern California. Ishi was actually a Yahi-Yana Indian. Smithsonian officials decided that the two tribes were the closest living relatives and truly represented the Yana descendants.

Bizarre Fact #165:
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It is a well known trivial fact that Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the moon. However, many do not know that he stepped onto the moon with his left foot.

Bizarre Fact #166:
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It is estimated that a few years after Columbus discovered the New World, the Spaniards killed off 1.5 million Indians.

Bizarre Fact #167:
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It took 20,000 men 22 years to build the Taj Mahal.

Bizarre Fact #168:
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It took 214 crates to transport the Statue of Liberty from France to New York in 1885.

Bizarre Fact #169:
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It was only after 440 A.D. that December 25 was celebrated as the birth date of Jesus Christ.

Bizarre Fact #170:
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Jahangir, a 17th-century Indian Mughal ruler, had 5,000 women in his harem and 1,000 young boys. He also owned 12,000 elephants.