YouTube

Three former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim launched the popular website YouTube, where individuals and companies can upload, view and share videos.

From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. By Composite image by user:Ianmacm,

Steve Chen had worked at Facebook for a few months before quitting to set up YouTube in 2005 with Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim.

YouTube's first headquarters sat above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California.

YouTube's early headquarters in San Mateo By Coolcaesar 

Three key experiences inspired the YouTube founders. Karim had had trouble finding footage online of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction and, later, of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. And Hurley and Chen had difficulty sharing a video shot at a dinner party in San Francisco in 2005.

The domain name YouTube.com was activated on February 14, 2005 and the site was developed months after.

The site as it appeared a few months after its launch By Source (WP:NFCC#4), 

Jawed Karim was the first person to upload a video onto the YouTube. The film entitled Me At The Zoo was uploaded on April 23, 2005 at 20:31. The 19-second video was shot by Karim's high school fiend Yakov Lapitsky and shows the YouTube co-founder at the San Diego Zoo. It has racked up over 70 million views as of June 2019.

During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the World Wide Web, hosting over 65,000 new video uploads.

Google bought the YouTube site on November 13, 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. It was a bold move for Google at the time, as YouTube was still a relatively new and unproven company.

Google has invested heavily in YouTube since the acquisition, and the platform has grown significantly as a result. Today, YouTube is the world's largest video-sharing website, with over 2 billion active users. It is also a major source of revenue for Google, generating over $28 billion in advertising revenue in 2022.

Peter Oakley, known as Geriatric1927 on YouTube, was the most subscribed YouTube account in 2006. In his channel he talked about his life experiences, such as growing up in the United Kingdom during World War II and experiencing the British interwar school system. Oakley passed away in 2014 at 86 years old.

Justin Bieber was discovered by chance when he was 12. His mom uploaded a video to YouTube of him singing in a talent contest, intending it just for his family. However, when music executive Scooter Braun clicked on it he was immediately impressed and signed him up.

The music video for PSY's "Gangnam Style" forced YouTube into an upgrade after it broke the video-sharing website's hit counter. Once PSY's tune reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, the view-counter could no longer work.

For three years, the music video for Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" was the most-watched clip of all time on YouTube. It became the first on YouTube to receive three billion, four billion, five billion and six billion views on August 4, 2017; October 11, 2017; April 5, 2018; February 24, 2019, respectively. Pinkfong's children's song "Baby Shark Dance" overtook "Despacito" as the most viewed video on YouTube on November 2, 2020, when the clip hit 7,042,967,886 views. 

The crown for the most disliked YouTube video of all time belongs to "YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind," a compilation video created by YouTube itself. This 2018 effort amassed a whopping over 20 million dislikes before YouTube made the dislike count private. The negative reception stemmed from viewers perceiving it as out of touch with what the YouTube community enjoyed.

Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego, who won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, learned how to throw properly by watching YouTube videos.

The word "YouTuber" was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.

As of 2018, China and North Korea both were permanently blocking accessing YouTube.

As of August 2018, the YouTube website was ranked as the second-most popular site in the world, according to Alexa Internet.

The Wizard of Oz

THE BOOK

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum originally published on May 17, 1900.

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from the first edition

The full name of the Wizard of Oz in Frank Baum’s book was Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

Writer L. Frank Baum chose "Oz" as the name of the fantasy land in his The Wizard of Oz stories while making up the stories for his children and their friends. He spotted a file cabinet marked O-Z, and impulsively named the magical land was "Oz."

In the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Emerald City is not green but is just a regular city, and everyone who enters it is forced to wear green-tinted glasses.

There was a popular 1902 Broadway musical adaptation whose success led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books that serve as official sequels to the first story.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.

THE FILM

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was famously adapted in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr. It was considered innovative because of its songs, special effects, and revolutionary use of the new Technicolor.

Theatrical release poster

The Wizard of Oz had its red-carpet premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The premiere was a star-studded event, with many of the film's cast and crew in attendance. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy Gale, arrived at the theater in a white gown and a blue ribbon in her hair. The other stars of the film, including Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr, were also there.

When The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, over ten thousand spectators showed up.

The role of Dorothy Gale, given to Judy Garland, was originally to be played by Shirley Temple or Deanna Durbin. The wizard role was written for W.C. Fields — but he turned it down when MGM Studios refused to pay his asking price.

In the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wore silver shoes. They used Ruby slippers in the movie to take advantage of the new Technicolor film.

The Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Tin Man

Due to the stubborn nature of French Bulldogs, Toto in The Wizard of Oz had to be recast as a terrier.

A cairn terrier named Terry was paid $125 a week to play the dog Toto in The Wizard Of Oz. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy was paid $500 a week.

A canine double played Toto when Terry was recovering from being stepped on by an actor.

The Cowardly Lion’s costume in The Wizard of Oz was made from a real lion skin.

The Cowardly Lion's facial makeup included a brown paper bag. Bert Lahr couldn't eat without ruining his makeup. Tired of eating soup and milkshakes, he decided to eat lunch and have his makeup redone.

The Wizard of Oz saved the lives of the "munchkins." In 1938, the Nazis plan was "exterminating undesirables," including those born with a physical impairment. Landing their roles allowed them to escape Nazi Germany and come to US. They couldn't speak English; their voices are someone else's.

The snow used in the Wizard of Oz was 100% pure asbestos.

The tornado in The Wizard of Oz is just a 35 foot (10.7 metres) stocking blown by artificial wind and dirt held up by a "gantry" on a set - the gantry cost more than the whole anticipated budget for the entire scene; $218,347.23 in today's money.

"Over the Rainbow" is a ballad composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg for The Wizard of Oz. It was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy. Arlen wrote its melody while on a drive with his wife.

"Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song. It was voted song of the century by the Recording Industry Association of America.

"Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut from The Wizard of Oz as it was deemed too long. It isn't even three minutes.

The Wizard of Oz received one negative review, from the New Yorker, whose film critic despised the film's "Vulgarity [of] raw, eye-straining Technicolor" and "Singer Midgets".

While The Wizard of Oz was considered a critical success upon release, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM's most expensive production at that time.

 Liza Minelli, daughter of Judy Garland, was once married to Jack Haley, Jr., son of Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in the same film. He was Minnelli’s second husband.

A blue and white gingham dress worn by 17-year-old Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz sold for $266,000 (£140,000) at an auction in 2005. The dress, which has a 27in waist and Garland's name sewn on the inside hem, was one of six made for the 1939 film.

The Wizard of Oz original camera negatives are stored 650 feet underground in a Kansas salt mine.

THE MUSICAL

Wicked is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz , which premiered on May 28, 2003 at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (published in 1995), itself a retelling of the classic 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Touring cast members in the curtain call at a show in Omaha, Nebraska, By Cornstalker

The writer of Wicked thought of Elphaba's name by using the initials of L. Frank Baum - L.F.B. = El-pha-ba.

In July 2017, Wicked surpassed The Phantom of the Opera as Broadway's second-highest grossing musical, trailing only The Lion King.

Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne for a series of books.

Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son Christopher Robin Milne. The writer bought the 18-inch-high toy bear from Harrods in London. It was a present in honor of Christopher Robin's first birthday on August 21, 1921.

Milne called the toy bear "Winnie" after a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo. The animal had been born in Canada but brought to London in 1914 as the mascot of a Canadian regiment. A Canadian soldier, Harry Colebourn, named him Winnie after his hometown Winnipeg.

Harry Colebourn and Winnie, 1914

The other part of the name, "Pooh," was based on a swan Milne and his family met on holiday.

Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story published in the London Evening News on December 24, 1925.

The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published on October 14, 1926.
Other stuffed animal toys owned by Milne's son were also incorporated into the story. The picture below shows some of the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie-the-Pooh"), Eeyore, and Piglet

Winnie-The-Pooh characters each represent a different mental disorder -- Eeyore - Depression, Pooh - Addiction, Tiger - ADHD, Owl - OCD.

Eeyore's name is based off the British Cockney dialect version of the phrase "hee-haw".

The Hundred Acre Wood in the Pooh books is strongly based on Ashdown Forest in Sussex.

Winnie-the-Pooh was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children's verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927).

All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. An ink drawing by Shepard of Winnie-the-Pooh playing Poohsticks with Piglet and Christopher Robin sold for more than £314,000 in 2014.

Pooh in an illustration by E. H. Shepard

The "real" Christopher Robin, of whom the "Winnie the Pooh" stories were inspired by, actually hated the books.

The first time Winnie the Pooh appeared in color was in 1932. He was drawn by Stephen Slesinger in his red shirt and featured on an RCA Victor picture record.

Parker Brothers introduced a 1933 board game called A.A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Game with the bear showcased in his red top.

Christopher Robin was credited with killing 28 Wehrmacht soldiers in World War II's Battle of the Bulge.

Christopher Robin in 1928

Winnie Ille Pu, the 1958 Latin translation of Milne's book, is the only book in Latin ever to appear on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

The hyphens in the original Winnie-The-Pooh name were dropped when Disney bought the rights to the characters.

17-year-old Kenny Loggins wasn't going to be able to record his song "House at Pooh Corner" because Disney was enforcing their copyright to Winnie the Pooh. Upset, he mentioned this to his girlfriend, only to find out her father was the CEO of the Disney corporation– he soon got permission.

A Disney movie about Pooh, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, was made in March 1977.

A live-action movie entitled Christopher Robin, was released in 2018. It explores A.A. Milne's creation of Winnie-the-Pooh.

The Winnie-the-Pooh media franchise has generated more revenue ($76 billion) than Marvel Cinematic Universe ($35 billion) and Harry Potter ($32 billion) combined.

Christopher Robin's toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City. The other original Pooh animals can also be seen there; except for Roo who was lost around 1930.

Sources Daily Express, Beliefnet

Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer animated fantasy comedy adventure movie directed by John Lassiter. 

It was the first Disney/Pixar animated movie and the first animated movie to be completely done with computers instead of hand-drawn animation. 

Wikipedia

At Pixar, Lasseter created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities, and the 1988 short Tin Toy – a story told from the perspective of a toy, referencing Lasseter's love of classic toys—would go on to claim the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first computer-generated film to do so.

In the 1990s, Disney approached Lasseter about creating a Christmas special follow-up to Tin Toy, called A Tin Toy Christmas. Originally the film was going to only be six minutes long, but Lasseter asked for 30 minutes. Peter Schneider, former President of Walt Disney Studios, then green-lit a full-length feature instead.

Pixar made the movie while Disney packaged it and sold the reels of the movie to movie theaters. 

Toy Story was released on November 22, 1995. Due to tension between Pixar and Disney over whose film it really was, Toy Story had two premiers, one hosted by Disney and one hosted by Pixar chairman Steve Jobs. Disney invited actors and other Hollywood celebrities, Jobs invited people from the tech industry.

“Toy Story” wasn't the original film title. During production, the crew used the working name “Toy Story” - which they decided to keep - but other titles for the film included "Toyz in the Hood", "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", "I'm With Stupid" and "Did Not, Did Too."

Toy Story had many rejected titles when looking for an official one, some of these including "Toyz in the Hood" and "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", in the end however they went with Toy Story which was originally just a temporary placeholder name during the creation of the project.

Director John Lasseter revealed that his own childhood toys inspired the characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. 

John Lasseter (left) holding the action figure of Buzz Lightyear,

In the film's first test, Buzz Lightyear was originally called Tempus From Morph. It was later changed to Lunar Larry and then Buzz Lightyear to honor Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Comic actor Tim Allen is the voice of Buzz Lightyear, but Jim Carrey was one of several people considered for the role. Billy Crystal was originally offered the part of Buzz, but he declined. Crystal later said in an interview that it was the biggest mistake of his career.

Sheriff Woody Pride is voiced by Tom Hanks in the feature-length films and short films. Tom Hanks' brother, Jim Hanks, provides the voice for Woody in the Toy Story video games, short films, toys and basically anything that isn't the Pixar movies.

Woody was based on a pull-string Casper doll Lassiter once owned. He was originally a spooky-looking ventriloquist doll and was mean to the other toys. Disney felt a ventriloquist would be too scary for children, so Lasseter changed him to a pull-string toy. He also gave Woody a different, much nicer personality.

Woody as he appears in Toy Story 3

The Space Ranger took inspiration from the superior GI Joe action figure that the young Lassiter moved on to when he grew bored of his pull-string Casper doll.

Woody’s owner Andy was named after and based on Andy Luckey, the son of legendary animator Bud Luckey, Pixar's fifth employee and the creator of Sheriff Woody Pride. 

In all three Toy Story movies the number 95 is sprinkled throughout several scenes. The number is a reference to 1995, when the first film was released.

In their most productive week, the Pixar team animated 3½ minutes of the film Toy Story.

The toys never blink both eyes at the same time, instead blinking one eye at a time. It's an animation trope called ‘Offset Blink’. 

While Toy Story 2 was in production, an employee accidentally deleted the film. Luckily, a pregnant animator had a copy on her home computer since she wanted to work while taking care of her new baby.

The Etch a Sketch's appearance in Toy Story 2 increased sales of the product by 20% and saved The Ohio Art Company from financial ruin.

Sources NME, IBTimes

Titanic

RMS Titanic was a British luxury passenger liner which was built by Harland and Wolff ship builders, in Belfast, for the White Star Line company. Before she sailed, many people thought it would be almost impossible for ships of this design to sink.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912

FEATURES  

RMS Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m). Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m).

At 78 feet 8 inches (23.98 m) high and 15 feet 3 inches (4.65 m) long, weighing over 100 tons, RMS Titanic's rudder was so large that it required steering engines to move it.

The Belfast slipway from which the Titanic was launched in May 1911 — 11 months before the liner sank — was smothered in 22 tons of soap and tallow to ensure a smooth passage. The launch took just 62 seconds.

The Titanic actually started off having enough lifeboats – they removed a bunch to make the ship look less cluttered.

The most expensive first class tickets on the Titanic were $4350 (or £870) in 1912 money. That's over $100,000 today.

Provisions for the 2,229 passengers and crew on board RMS Titanic when she sailed in April 1912 included 200 barrels of flour, 40,000 fresh eggs, 2.75 tons of tomatoes and 100,000lb of fresh meat, poultry and game. Those in 1st and 2nd Class ate their main meal in the evening; 3rd Class passengers, were served their ‘dinner' at midday.

The famous Grand Staircase, which connected Boat Deck and E Deck

MAIDEN VOYAGE 

Titanic's maiden voyage began at noon on Wednesday, April 10, 1912 when the liner left Southampton on the south coast of England. It called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading west to New York.

The life boat drill planned for April 14, 1912, was cancelled.

The Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean at 11.40 PM on April 14, 1912 and began to sink. 

The route of Titanic's maiden voyage. By Prioryman

The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It had been adopted as the international signal for distress earlier in 1912. 

At 12:50 a.m. EST on April 15, 1912, junior wireless operators at Cape Race, Newfoundland, received a report from the Virginian that they were trying to reach Titanic, but had lost communication. Titanic's last signals at 12:27 a.m. were "blurred and ended abruptly."

There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, and an estimated 1,517 died - only 306 bodies were recovered.

"Untergang der Titanic", as conceived by Willy Stöwer, 1912

Of the estimated 1,517 people who died on the sinking of RMS Titanic more than a third were from Southampton.

As the Titanic went under, the band played ragtime until the ship's bridge dipped underwater, then the bandmaster led his men in the Episcopal hymn, "Autumn". The male passengers formed up on deck and under the leadership of New York real estate tycoon Colonel John Jacob Astor sung the Welsh hymn "Nearer thy God to Thee". 

John Jacob Astor IV in 1909. 

A priest on the Titanic refused a lifeboat and instead, stayed behind to hear confessions and give absolution to those on the ship.

Colonel John Jacob Astor (1864-1912) was the richest person to die when the Titanic sank: he was worth an estimated $ 90 million (around $2 billion, or £1.5 billion, today). The year before he had caused a scandal when, as a 47-year-old divorced man, he married a teenage socialite. She survived the disaster at sea and four months later gave birth to their son.

Irish Titanic passenger Jeremiah Burke sent a good bye message in a bottle during the sinking. It subsequently washed up near his home, where his handwriting was recognized by his mother.

According to models, Titanic should have tipped over about an hour into the sinking, killing practically everyone. Miraculously a rare coal fire during the voyage required coal to be shifted to the opposite side of the ship, creating a list that offset the incoming water during the sinking.

The first pictures of the wreck of the Titanic were released on September 4, 1985, 73 years after it sank. The American-French expedition used a submarine 2.5 miles beneath the surface.

The bow of the wrecked RMS Titanic, photographed in June 2004

The 1985 discovery of the Titanic stemmed from a secret United States Navy investigation of two wrecked nuclear submarines, according to Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who found the infamous ocean liner. When Ballard announced a mission to find the Titanic, it was a cover story for a classified mission to search for the lost nuclear submarines. They finished before they were due back, so the team spent the extra time looking for the Titanic and actually found it. 

SURVIVORS

There are many remarkable stories of various victims and survivors including a man called John Harper who journeying on the Titanic to preach at the Moody Church in Chicago. When it sunk he found himself amongst 1500 others swimming frantically in the water. As he did so he drifted towards a young man who had climbed up on a piece of debris. Harper asked him between breaths, "young man, are you saved?" the man replied that he was not. The men drifted apart in the darkness before a wave brought them within speaking distance of each other and again a quickly weakening Harper yelled to him "Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." At that John Harper slipped into his watery grave but the young man was rescued by the S.S. Carpathia.

Four years later the young man stood up in a Christian Endeavor meeting in New York and proclaimed in tears, "I am John Harper's last convert." 

Arrival of Titanic's survivors at New York (artist concept)

Charles Lightoller, the second officer of the Titanic, who survived by swimming from the sinking ship to a capsized raft, later in life sailed his civilian craft to Dunkirk and helped evacuate over 130 men.

Richard Norris Williams survived the Titanic sinking, but spent over 6 hours waist deep in freezing water and the rescue doctor recommended amputation of both his legs. He refused and proceeded to win his first tennis tournament a few months later and became Wimbledon doubles champion in 1920. 

Frank Goldsmith, Jr., a Titanic survivor who later lived near Navin Field (Tiger Stadium) in Detroit, never took his children to baseball games because the roar of the crowd reminded him of the screams of people dying in the freezing water.

Charles Joughin, Chief Baker on the RMS Titanic, helped passengers board lifeboats (forcibly boarding those who thought it safer to stay on the ship), drank half a bottle of liqueur, then threw chairs overboard for use as flotation devices, rode the side of the ship down while it sunk. He spent 3 hours in the -2°c waters before he was rescued alive and survived. 

The occupants of the lifeboats of the RMS Titanic included a musical toy pig, two mysterious "orphans" and a Pekingese dog called Sun Yat Sen.

The chairman and MD of the White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay (1862-1937), was the highest-ranking official to survive the Titanic disaster. The 1997 Titanic movie depicted him as a coward and, in 2012, his descendants spoke out for the first time to clear his name and reject claims that he had escaped on the first lifeboat and even dressed as a woman to secure his rescue.

The last remaining survivor of the Titanic went on to live to 97. At two months old, Millvina Dean was the youngest aboard the liner when it sank in 1912. Her mother and brother also survived, but not her father.

MOVIES 

The earliest Titanic-based movie,  Saved from the Titanic, was released just 29 days after the sinking. It featured an actress who was actually on the Titanic and survived. For her role, she wore the actual outfit she had on the night it sank. The actress suffered a mental breakdown shortly after its completion. No copies of this film remain.

The 1958 British film A Night to Remember is still widely regarded as the most historically accurate movie portrayal of the sinking.

The biggest budget movie portrayal of the sinking was James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic, which was released in the US on December 19, 1997. It became the highest-grossing film in history up to that time, as well as the winner of 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cameron.

Wikipedia

Five weeks into the 1997 Titanic movie's run, 7% of all American teenage girls had seen the film twice.

Even when adjusted for inflation, the 1997 movie Titanic cost 50 per cent more than the original ship.

The 1997 movie Titanic goes on longer than the actual sinking of the RMS Titanic.

The collision scene of the Titanic hitting the iceberg in the 1997 Titanic movie is the same length as it took for the actual collision- 37 seconds.

When filming the 1997 movie Titanic they only built the port side of the ship. Scenes showing the starboard side were flipped in post production. As a result of this everything on the starboard side of the ship, from lettering to the buttons on costumes, had to be backwards during filming.

Kate Winslet, who played Rose in the 1997 Titanic movie, hates the song "My Heart Will Go On," and said it makes her feel "like throwing up."

FUN TITANIC FACTS 

Futility: or The Wreck of the Titan, a novella about an ‘unsinkable' ocean liner called Titan that crashed into an iceberg and sank without enough lifeboats was written by Morgan Robertson in 1898 — 14 years before the Titanic sank.

'The Just Missed It Club' was for people who almost sailed on the Titanic. Two weeks after it sank, it had 118,337 members.

On April 15, 1912, a steward who hadn't yet heard about the Titanic sinking spotted an iceberg smeared with red paint and snapped a photo.

There are still over 100 unidentified victims from the Titanic.

The underwater wreckage of Titanic will disappear by 2030. It's being 'eaten away' by a microorganism "Halomonas titanicae". Also known as the "steel-munching bacteria', they have a special liking towards metals.

Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express

Star Wars

DEVELOPMENT 

The original Star Wars movie was a science fantasy film written and directed by American filmmaker George Lucas. He began writing a 13-page film treatment that later formed the basis of Star Wars on April 17, 1973.

Wikipedia

Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) auditioned for the role of Han Solo and after he got back from the audition, he pushed his close friend Mark Hamill, who was sleeping on Englund's couch at the time, to audition for Luke Skywalker.

In 1977, 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the "Star Wars" franchise that they gave away all of the movie licensing and merchandising rights to George Lucas in exchange for his $500,000 directorial fee.

THE MOVIES  

The Star Wars movies are said to have been inspired by Akira Kurosawa's films Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress.

The franchise began with the release on May 25, 1977 of the film Star Wars (later subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981), which became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon.

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)

If it weren't for the unexpected blockbuster status of Star Wars, production company 20th Century Fox likely would have gone bankrupt. Instead, at peak popularity, the franchise earned them $1.2 million a day.

Marcia Lucas, George Lucas' then wife, was the reason for major changes to the original Star Wars film. Princess Leia's good luck kiss, Obi Wan's death and re-editing the trench run to increase tension were all her ideas. She won the Academy Award for editing the film while George did not for directing.

Star Wars was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy.

By the time filming on Return of the Jedi started in 1982, Star Wars was a gigantic pop culture phenomenon. To maintain secrecy, producers claimed to be shooting a horror movie called "Blue Harvest" and even had caps and T-shirts made for the crew.

According to the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, Steven Spielberg was Lucas' first pick to direct Return of the Jedi. Spielberg declined because of his Directors Guild of America membership. (Lucas had left the guild over disagreements about "The Empire Strikes Back.") Lucas hired Welsh director Richard Marquand, who was non-union at the time.

Return of the Jedi was once titled "Revenge of the Jedi." George Lucas changed the name because he thought a Jedi wouldn't seek revenge. Posters were distributed bearing the "Revenge" logo but were ultimately pulled.

Return of the Jedi was the first film to use the THX sound-system standard in theaters.

A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005 and a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

On May 19, 1999 when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released into theaters, an estimated 2.2 million full time employees missed work in America to watch the movie. it cost the US an estimated $293 million dollars from lose of productivity.

THE CHARACTERS 

The first character to speak in 1977's Star Wars is C3PO.

James Earl Jones recorded all of his Darth Vader lines for Star Wars in 2.5 hours. He was paid $7,500

The name of R2-D2 was taken from the parlance of sound men in the film industry. It means the second reel of the second dialogue track.

The name Jedi is said to have come from “Jidai Geki” (“period dramas”) which was the name given in Japan to films about samurai.

The little green Jedi knight Yoda's name comes from the Sanskrit word 'yoddha' meaning warrior.

Yoda's face (and particularly his eyes) are said to have been modelled after the appearance of Albert Einstein.

In The Phantom Menace Yoda has three toes. But in three later films he has four.

In early drafts of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda was actually named "Buffy."

Yoda, as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back. (WP:NFCC#4)

Darth Vader’s name was partially inspired by one of George Lucas’ high school classmates, Gary Vader.

Darth Vader's breathing was recorded by putting a microphone inside a regulator on a scuba tank.

Jabba's slithery noises when he moves were made by sound designer Ben Burtt running his hands through a cheese casserole.

The growls and snarls of the rancor creature in Return of the Jedi were actually made by a dachshund.

Bodyguards were hired to protect the Chewbacca actor from Bigfoot hunters while shooting in the Pacific Northwest.

Carrie Fisher complained her Princess Leia outfits in the first two Star Wars films didn't show "she was a woman." That led to the famous gold bikini Leia wears as Jabba's prisoner in Return of the Jedi.

Carrie Fisher had never met James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader) had never personally met until in 2014 when they both appeared in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Anthony Daniels (as C-3PO, a humanoid protocol droid in the service of General Leia Organa) is the only actor to have appeared in all the episodic films in the Star Wars series.

FUN STAR WARS FACTS 

During the scene in which Luke Skywalker gets out of his X-wing fighter after blowing up the Death Star, he accidentally calls Princess Leia 'Carrie' (her real first name).

Alec Guinness agreed to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars only after his initial salary was doubled, and that he would receive 2.25% of all gross royalties paid to George Lucas, and never have to make a publicity appearance. 

Star Wars was released in the Navajo Language, the first motion picture to be translated into a Native American language.

Having "a bad feeling about this" is a popular phrase that's popped up in all the Star Wars films.

George Lucas was dissatisfied with the inconsistent and poor sound quality in movie theaters at the time. He co-founded THX (Tomlinson Holman eXperiment), a high-fidelity audio/video reproduction standard for movie theaters, in order to ensure that the audio in Return of the Jedi would be heard as it was intended. THX helped to set a new standard for movie theater sound quality and continues to be used in theaters today.

Ackbar's famous line in Return of the Jedi "It's a trap!" was originally "It's a trick!" The line was changed in post-production after a negative test-screening.

The word Ewok is never said in Return Of The Jedi.

The design of the Millennium Falcon spacecraft was based on a hamburger.

George Lucas approved of Mel Brooks’ 1987 Star Wars parody Spaceballs and signed off on a fair use agreement. The only condition was that no Spaceballs merchandise would be made to compete with Star Wars merchandise. This is why there’s never been any Spaceballs figures, cereal, or flamethrower.

George Lucas made the working title of Star Wars Episode II "Jar Jar's Great Adventure" to troll the cast and crew, even labeling the script as such in the original drafts.

Multiple Star Wars lead actors have struggled with a habit of making their own sound effects for fight scenes. When, for instance, Ewan McGregor was cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, he found himself unable to stop mimicking the sounds of his lightsaber to the point where multiple takes needed to be re-shot. 

The world's first organised Star Wars Day was celebrated at a cinema in Toronto, Canada on May 4, 2011. The reason for choosing that particular date was the pun: "May the 4th be with you", in reference to the popular phrase in Star Wars: "May the Force be with you." May 4th has since been embraced by Lucasfilm as an annual celebration of Star Wars.

The Star Wars theme was written purposely on the same key as the 20th Century Fox fanfare (that used to appear before the movie started) so that there will be a continuous feeling and a smooth entry to the film for the viewers.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton, once wrote an entire song in the Huttese language from Star Wars. It was the song that played in Maz's Kantina in The Force Awakens.

In 2013, Star Wars was dubbed in Navajo, making it the first major film to be dubbed in a Native American language.

Sources: IMDb, My San Antonio, Daily Express

Star Trek

DEVELOPMENT 

Star Trek was created as a TV series in 1966 by Gene Roddenberry. He sold it as a western, but in space, and modeled it on Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, with each episode combining an adventure with a morality tale.

Title used for the first season Wikipedia

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first wrote for the series Highway Patrol under the pseudonym "Robert Wesley" as he was still in the LAPD at the time.

The original name for the starship in Star Trek was "Yorktown," not "Enterprise".

THE SHOWS 

The first episode of Star Trek aired on September 8, 1966, was titled "The Man Trap." In the episode, the crew visit an outpost to conduct medical exams on the residents, only to be attacked by a shapeshifting alien creature seeking to extract salt from their bodies.

Many of the pipes seen in the starship on the original Star Trek series had the label "G.N.D.N." which stood for "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothin…"

The Star Trek Transporter (teleportation) was created due to save money and episode length on showing the ship land on the planet as the original plan.

In the first Star Trek series, stardates were bogus—the writers were told to pick any combination of four numbers plus a percentage point.

Because of TV censorship, actress Mariette Hartley was not allowed to show her belly button on Star Trek [episode #78 "All Our Yesterdays" in 1969] but later Gene Roddenberry got even when he gave Hartley "two" belly buttons in the 1973 sci-fi movie Genesis II.

The original Star Trek ran for only three series from 1966-69 before it was cancelled. In only became cult viewing when it was repeated after the 1969 moon landing.

After the first series was cancelled William Shantner, who played Captain James Kirk, was out of work and had to live in a camper van.

"Spock's Brain" was the first episode of the third season.

Reruns and syndication from 1969 were a huge success creating a cult following which led to Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.

The canonical reason for most of the alien races to be humanoid in Star Trek is an ancient humanoid species seeding the oceans of many worlds with DNA codes 4.5 billion years before the start of the series, directing the evolution of life towards a physical pattern similar to their own.

The Star Trek theme has lyrics. Gene Rodenberry exercised an option to write lyrics for composer Alexander Courage's instrumental theme because he wanted half of the royalties. The lyrics were never used on the TV series.

THE CHARACTERS 

Spock was originally supposed to be a Martian, but Gene Roddenberry changed his home to the fictional Vulcan because he feared humans will already land on Mars during the show‘s runtime and make it look outdated.

Vulcan was a fictional planet that Roddenberry created specifically for Spock. He wanted to create a planet that was similar to Earth in many ways, but also had some key differences. For example, Vulcans are logical and rational, while humans are often emotional and irrational. This contrast between Vulcans and humans was one of the things that made Star Trek so popular.

Initially, NBC asked Gene Roddenberry to get rid of the "guy with the pointy ears" because they were worried about his "satanic" appearance. Luckily, Roddenberry refused to cut Spock from the show.

Spock was originally going to have red skin, but the idea was scrapped because the makeup looked like blackface on a monochrome television.

Spock's famous Vulcan salute, ‘Live long and prosper', was inspired by a priestly blessing Leonard Nimroy saw as a child, when he attended a synagogue service with his father.

Leonard Nimoy released multiple albums, including a two sided record titled Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy. One side featured him singing songs as Spock; the other side featured songs related to his personal interests.

Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy, as seen in the pilots of Star Trek

Contrary to common belief, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) never uttered "Beam me up, Scotty" in Star Trek.

Gene Roddenberry never gave Captain Kirk a birthplace more specific than the state of Iowa. In 1985, when trying to find a theme for its annual festival, the town of Riverside voted to proclaim itself the future birthplace of the Starfleet officer. Roddenberry gave the town his blessing.

Lieutenant Uhura's name means “freedom” in Swahili. When Nichelle Nichols read for the part of a communications officer in Star Trek, she had a copy of Robert Ruark's Uhuru with her. When Gene Roddenberry heard what the word meant, he changed the character's name to Uhura.

James "Scotty" Doohan was badly wounded during World War II losing fingers on one hand. To hide this Star Trek used a hand double but his injury can be seen when he carries Tribbles in the famous episode.

Because the character of Montgomery Scott in Star Trek inspired so many students to pursue careers in engineering, the Milwaukee School of Engineering presented James Doohan with an honorary degree in engineering.

Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) is an anagram of “I scrap Star Trek wit”.

Michael Dorn (Worf) has appeared more times as a regular cast member than any other Star Trek actor in the franchise's history, spanning 5 films and 272 television episodes.

The Klingons were created by screenwriter Gene L. Coon, and first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy". They were named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, who served with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Majel Barrett was the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the Star Trek. series. Barrett died on December 18, 2008, aged 76, as a result of leukemia. She recorded an entire library of phonetic sounds before her passing which allowed her voice to be used as the computer for future generations.

In 1993, Stephen Hawking became the only person to portray himself on Star Trek when he appeared in "Descent," the 26th episode of the sixth season of The Next Generation, He features in a scene playing poker with Newton, Einstein and Data.

THE MOVIES 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the first movie set in the Star Trek universe. It was made in 1979 by Paramount Pictures.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture's final production cost was approximately $46 million. It earned $139 million at the worldwide box office, falling short of studio expectations, but enough for Paramount to propose a less expensive sequel.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" is not a quote from some ancient philosopher or legal code. It is a quote from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Kim Cattrall, while filming Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country, posed for photos on the Enterprise bridge wearing nothing but Vulcan ears. Fearing harm to the franchise, Leonard Nimoy had the pictures destroyed.

FUN STAR TREK FACTS 

The majority of Star Trek takes place within the Milky Way galaxy, however there are some episodes and movies that feature characters traveling to other galaxies.

Enthusiastic Star Trek fans are usually called Trekkies. The word was first used by science fiction editor Arthur W. Saha when he saw people wearing fake Vulcan ears at a convention in 1967.

By pop culture geek - Flickr: Star Trek Federation Officers,

English comic actor and writer Stephen Fry's dissertation in his final year at Cambridge University was titled "Apollonian And Dionysian Themes In The Plots Of Star Trek." He once said: “Most of human history and art can be expressed in Star Trek plots.”

There is no word for “hello” in Klingon. The nearest is nuqneH, meaning “What do you want?”

The UK group T'Pau, best known for their 1987 hit "Heart and Soul", was named after a Vulcan high priestess on Star Trek. Their frontwoman Carol Decker was watching an episode when the character appeared, and when she suggested the name, the band went for it.

The phrase "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it" did not originate in Star Trek, but instead in the parody song "Star Trekkin'",

The first man to have his ashes taken into space was Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in 1992. Those ashes were brought back to earth but 7gm of them were scattered in space five years later.

Source Daily Express