Mario got his name from the Nintendo office’s landlord

Mario Segale rented a warehouse to the then budding videogame company, Nintendo as they were working on a videogame called ‘Donkey Kong’. Unfortunately, the starting up company was behind on its rent which awarded a visit from Segale.

After a promise from Nintendo’s president that the rent would be paid, Segale simply left. Legend has it that this encounter gave the developers an idea to rename the character ‘Jumpman’ as ‘Mario’ and the rest is history. 

For more cool facts on the world’s favorite plumber, click the Source below!

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How do you make kid-friendly gas masks? Mickey Mouse shaped!

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese pilots dropped a bomb on the Pearl Harbor military base, which is one of the main reasons that drove the United States into World War II. After this incident, many Americans feared that the Axis would attack their soil.

To protect its population, the government distributed gas masks to the state of Hawaii. Unfortunately, there were only adult-sized masks. Children had trouble wearing the large gas masks and many were terrified of the safety device’s look.

As a solution, gas masks were created and issued shaped as Mickey Mouse! The masks were designed in mind so that children would wear them at all times and carry them as a game. This gave the potentially scary situation of a chemical attack a lighter and more comfortable feeling. Fortunately, the 1000 Mickey masks that were made never had to be used!

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Many states practiced forced sterilization of "undesirable" people as recently as the 1970's!

This movement was based on a scientific theory called eugenics. Eugenicists believe that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism are inherited traits. People following this movement proposed that in order to improve the society’s gene pool, the people who exhibited those traits should be sterilized. 

There were 31 states that had a government run eugenics program. Between 1929 and 1974, in North Carolina alone, there were 7,600 people who got sterilized. For the past 9 years, North Carolina lawmakers have been trying to compensate the victims by giving them from $20,000 to $50,000 per person even though they accept that what they’ve done has affected way more than the compensation can cover.

The source mentions the case of Elaine Riddick, who became pregnant after being raped at age 13 in 1967. North Carolina's eugenics board ordered the hospital to sterilize her immediately after giving birth. She is one of the few victims of this that have come forward to talk about what was done to her. She's suing North Carolina for $1 million.

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Ella Schuler was so old she couldn’t put her real birthday on Facebook!

Mrs. Schuler was born in 1897 in Fontenelle, Nebraska and lived until 2011! At one point she was named the oldest woman in Kansas and the seventh oldest living person in the world. At the age of 113 she attempted to make a Facebook, but was unable to list her actual age because it would not go back before 1900! While Mrs. Schuler was extremely old, she was actually still a ways away from the record. 

Mr. Peanut man's real name is Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe

He was named and created in 1916 by the winner of a contest to create the company logo for 'Planters'. He was a 14 year old boy named Antonio Gentlie, who submitted a drawing of a Peanut man along with the elaborate and classy name. Later on, an artist added on a monocle, top hat, cane, and spats to the drawing. His image is so iconic that, 90 years after he was introduced, Planters conducted an online contest to change Mr. Peanut's image and the people voted for no changes at all! 

Mr. Peanut was finally given a voice, 94 years after his creation, by Robert Downey Jr. How cool is it that Iron Man voices Mr. Peanut? Apparently they wanted an elegant accent for the character. Kevin Dillon voices Peanut Butter Doug, a stunt double for Mr. Peanut. Check the video to see Mr. Peanut's double

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