I Have Four Words For These 18 Facts: "Thanks, I Hate It"

1.In 1986, a lake exploded. Lake Nyos in Cameroon released a sudden burst of CO2, suffocating 1,700 people and over 3,500 livestock.

Aerial view of Lake Nyos in a valley surrounded by lush hills. The lake is calm and expansive, with a few patches of vegetation around it
Eric Bouvet / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

2.Veterinarians sometimes give cows magnets to eat to collect the metal in their bodies and make them less susceptible to "hardware disease."

Cows stand close together in a grassy field, with one black cow in the center looking directly at the camera
Catherine Falls Commercial / Getty Images

3.In the 1500s, there was a dancing plague in Germany that claimed nearly 400 lives. People couldn't stop dancing and would eventually collapse from exhaustion or heart attack.

People dancing in a historical scene outside a building, with onlookers and a preacher gesturing. A dog is in the foreground
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

4.Woodpecker tongues wrap around their brains to protect them while they peck.

Illustration of a bird head: side view and top view, showing details of the beak and feather patterns
Dorling Kindersley / Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley RF

5.In the 1800s, dentures were often made from the teeth of deceased soldiers.

Antique set of upper and lower dentures on display
Science & Society Picture Librar / SSPL via Getty Images

6.There's a haunted chair in England called the Busby's Stoop Chair that is said to bring death to anyone who sits on it.

Wooden rocking chair by a dimly lit fireplace in a rustic room, featuring BBC Archive logo

7.In Taos, New Mexico, 2% of residents are known as "hearers" of a mysterious low-frequency hum. Not everyone can hear the hum, and when audio equipment was set up, nothing was detected.

Ancient pueblo buildings under a blue sky with mountains in the background
Miroslav_1 / Getty Images/iStockphoto

8.Lake Natron, a lake in Tanzania, is so alkaline that it calcifies animals.

Animal skull with large horns partially submerged in muddy water
Sergey Uryadnikov / Alamy Stock Photo

9.There's a document called the Voynich manuscript written in an unknown language in the 1400s. Nobody knows what it says, and both scholars and codebreakers can't figure out the text.

Illustration of a large, intricate plant with two root systems, accompanied by mysterious handwritten text
Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

10.The inventor of the Pringles can was buried in one.

Tube of Pringles Original chips with the logo featuring a mustached face wearing a bow tie
Pa Images / PA Images via Getty Images

11.Bobbit worms live on the sea floor, can grow up to 10 feet, and can saw a fish in half.

Underwater image of a bobbit worm protruding from sandy ocean floor, showing its iridescent, segmented body and antennae
Stephen Frink / Getty Images

12.In the 1840s, doctors didn’t wash their hands between autopsies and childbirth, leading to a high infant mortality rate.

Two figures in a dramatic scene: one stands over another who is lying in bed, suggesting a moment of contemplation or farewell
Smith Collection / Getty Images

13.There's a book called Chronicles from the Future written by a man in 1922 who alleges he went into a coma and his conscience went to the year 3096. The book is his detailed description of the future.

Three young men in white shirts and pants with silver ties stand indoors. Their belts feature large emblem buckles, and sparkles fill the background
Hollywood Records / Via youtube.com

14.Giant holes are opening up in Siberia, and nobody knows how or why.

A large hole in a grassy landscape, possibly a natural formation or sinkhole. PBS NOVA logo is in the top left corner
Nova PBS Official / Via youtube.com

15.There's an unverified legend of an arcade game called Polybius that was installed in several arcades in the 1980s that people would line up to play and report nightmares and hallucinations afterward. Apparently, "men in black" would come to collect unknown data from the machines.

Text reading "POLYBIUS © 1981 SINNESLÖSCHEN INC. CREDITS 0" on a black background

16."Spider rain" is a phenomenon in Australia where millions of spiders seemingly fall from the sky and coat the ground in a thick web.

Fields covered in spider webs near trees and water, as shown in an Inside Edition segment
Inside Edition / Via youtube.com

17.Speaking of terrifying rain, over four days in 1994, it rained a gelatinous goo in Washington that made people really sick. These were known as the Oakville blobs, and none of them remain. There is no documentation that they existed aside from eyewitness accounts.

18.There's an unexplained light called the Joplin Spooklight in Missouri that shows up on an old dirt road. People have reported feeling really cold when they see the light, almost as if it passes through them.

Image with text: "The Mysterious Joplin Spooklight," student tour, and a quote about freezing and seeing something in a tree
KOAM News Now / Via youtube.com