Here are some random facts for you . . .
1. Vikings didn’t wear helmets with horns. It comes from a performance of Wagner’s opera “The Ring” in 1876. The costume designer made horned helmets for the Vikings in the show, and the image stuck.
2. The Buffalo Sabres drafted an imaginary Japanese guy in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL draft. It’s because their general manager was bored with how long the draft was taking, and he invented a player named Taro Tsujimoto as a protest.
The NHL didn’t realize it was fake until the next year.
3. Elton John’s real name is Reginald Kenneth Dwight. But when he changed it to Elton John, he also gave himself a new middle name: Hercules.
4. Muhammad Ali’s real name is Cassius Clay . . . but before he changed it, he changed his name to Cassius X for two weeks in 1964.
5. There’s only one word that starts with the letter “X” in all of Shakespeare. In “The Taming of the Shrew”, a character mentions Socrates’s wife, Xanthippe.
(Vox / NHL / Biography / CNN / Open Source Shakespeare)
