Weird Facts

On August 20, 1975, brothers Michael McQuilken (18) and Sean McQuilken (12) were hiking with their sister and others at Moro Rock, a popular granite dome in California’s Sequoia National Park.

As storm clouds gathered, their hair suddenly stood on end from electrical charge in the air. Finding it amusing, they posed for photos taken by their sister. Minutes later, lightning struck as they were descending from Moro Rock.

Sean was directly hit by part of the bolt, while Michael was knocked down and affected by the strike. Sean suffered third-degree burns on his back and elbows, with smoke coming from his back. Michael felt himself lifted off the ground. They both survived, though another nearby hiker didn’t.

In 2013, 67-year-old Sabine Moreau from Solre-sur-Sambre, Belgium, set out to pick up a friend at Brussels’ Gare du Nord station, a journey of less than 90 miles. She programmed her GPS and began driving.

Due to a navigation error, or possibly user error in following it, she continued for about two days, reportedly crossing five international borders and possibly driving through France, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia before reaching Zagreb, Croatia, roughly 900 miles from her starting point.

She reportedly stopped several times for fuel and short rests in her car. She finally realized something was wrong when she arrived in Zagreb and realized she was no longer in Belgium. By that time, her son had already reported her missing to the police.

On May 19, 1902, a massive coal-dust explosion ripped through the Fraterville Mine in Tennessee. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, it instantly killed 190 of the 216 men and boys working that day.

A group of 26, including miner Jacob Vowell and his 14-year-old son Elbert, barricaded themselves in a side passage to escape deadly gases. As their air ran out, Vowell used his notebook to write a final letter to his wife Sarah Ellen. He told her of their faith, asked her to raise their other children well, requested that he and Elbert be buried together beside their late son Eddie, and said goodbye to the family.

In 1989, a four-year-old boy named Li Jingwei was abducted from his village in Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, China. A neighbor lured him away with the promise of seeing cars, then handed him to traffickers who sold him to a family more than 1,800 kilometers away in Henan Province.

For over three decades, Li lived without knowing his real name, exact age, or birthplace. He carried detailed memories of his childhood village and obsessively drew maps of it from memory throughout his life. In December 2021, he posted a hand-drawn map online showing key landmarks including a school, bamboo forest, and pond.

In December 2011, in Zamboanga City, Philippines, a mixed-breed dog named Kabang saw two young girls, her owner’s daughter Dina, 9, and cousin Princess, 3, about to be hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street. Kabang bravely jumped in front of the vehicle, knocking it over and taking the worst of the impact herself. The children escaped with only minor bruises, but Kabang suffered severe injuries when her snout and upper jaw were crushed by the motorcycle wheel.

About 6,000 people have actually bought insurance policies that pay out $10 million if they can prove they were abducted by aliens. A Florida company has been selling them since 1987.

The world’s first floating hotel opened off the coast of Australia in 1988, and later sat abandoned in North Korea before being demolished in 2022.

The Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort, also known as the John Brewer Floating Hotel, opened on 9 March 1988, anchored about 70 km off Townsville, Australia, over the Great Barrier Reef.

Designed as a luxury seven-storey resort with roughly 200 rooms and suites, it faced storms, high costs, and logistical issues and closed after about a year. It was towed to Vietnam in 1989 and operated as the Saigon Floating Hotel from November 1989 to August 1996, before Hyundai Asan bought it in 1998.

More than 200 years ago, sailors are believed to have left goats on a Brazilian island that has no fresh water. The goats not only survived, they multiplied. Scientists still don’t fully know how, and a researcher said he had never seen them drink seawater.

Their survival despite the lack of known freshwater sources turned them into a scientific puzzle. Brazilian authorities and researchers began studying the animals as a potential “genetic treasure” for traits linked to adaptation to water scarcity.