7 Australia sells sand to Arab nations
Everyone pictures Arab nations as hot places with lots of camels and sand, since most of them are deserts. However, to your surprise, most of the sand in Arab countries is exported and it is a lucrative business to do so. Australia is a major exporter of sand to Arab countries and Germany recently followed suit.
The global market for sand is around $89bn and has given rise to sand mafias that strip tropical beaches of sand in a single night.
Image Source: www.toptenz.net
8 A woman survived jumping off Empire State Building
The Empire State Building in US was once the tallest building in the world. It is 86 storey high and if some poor soul happens to fall off the top, it is pretty much done for that fellow. However in 1979, Elvita Adams, took a ticket to the observation deck on the top, climbed the railings and jumped off the roof.
She however survived and was brought into the hospital in full consciousness. Now you may how she survived. Well a strong gust of wind pushed her towards the ledge of 85th floor and she landed on it and fractured her hip. She did try to jump again, but security caught her and brought her back inside.
In 2007, a window cleaner managed to survive a 47 storey fall off the building, thanks to sheer luck.
Image Source: www.history.com
9 Cleopatra lived closer to modern times than to Pyramids
Pyramids are old as anything. They were built around 2,500 BC, 1,000 years before Moses lived. Just to tell you how old they are, Egypt’s queen Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first Pizza hut opening than to the pyramids.
She reigned from 69-31 BC and the first Pizza hut opened in 1958, the gap between the two being around 2,000 years. However, the pyramids were built 2,450 years before Cleopatra was born, making her closer to the Pizza hut rather than Pyramids.
Image Source: www.dribbble.com
10 Do you know how many people Chernobyl disaster killed?
April 26, 1986 is a date that history will never forget, as a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded and humanity witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in its history. 31 people died instantly and it poisoned millions of square miles of land which won’t be habitable for atleast 10,000 years to come.
The WHO at that time estimated 4,000 deaths due to radiation and after 31 years, we are still guessing the number of people killed due to this disaster. UN estimates 16,000, while the Ukraine National Commission for Radiation Protection calculates 500,000. No matter the numbers, Chernobyl is the second biggest and deadliest disaster in human history after the Floods in China in 1931 which may have killed over 4 million people.
Image Source: www.theatlantic.com