500 Yards facts

While investigating facts about 500 Yards, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Carlos Hathcock, an American sniper during the Vietnam war crawled over 1,500 yards to shoot PAVN General. It took him 4 days and 3 nights inch by inch. He fired a single shot killing the General and crawled back undetected.

Lacrosse, as originally played by Native Americans, fielded teams from 100 to 1,000 men, with goals 500 yards to 6 miles apart, with games lasting several days, played sunup to sundown. These games tended to become huge mobs of players swarming the ball and slowly moving it across the field.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 16 of the best facts about 500 Yards I managed to collect.

1. Sniper Carlos Hathcock crawled 1,500 yards inch by inch in order not to get detected to kill a high ranking officer, it took him 3 days and 4 nights. He also was the man who shot another sniper through the scope and killed him.

2. In 1953, an Australian Centurion main battle tank survived a nuclear test only 500 yards away. Despite damage from the explosion, it was still functional. It served for 23 more years, including 15 months of service in Vietnam

3. The longest ship ever built was the Seawise Giant, it was 1,500 foot long, it was longer than the Empire State building is high. It had a 36 tonne anchor and it weighed 564,000 tonnes. It doesn't exist anymore and was sold for scrap to a Indian breaking yard.

4. About the Tenerife Airport Disaster when, on a day in which there was fog heavy enough to reduce visibility to less than 500 yards, two Boeing 747s had a head-on collision at the runway that resulted in 583 casualties and the deadliest accident in aviation history.

5. 'The Atomic Tank.' A British Centurion survived being parked 500 yards from a nuclear detonation and was then put back into service where it had a long career including fighting in the Vietnam war.

6. On May 30, 1931 - - 12 year old Wilbur Brink was playing in his front yard when a tire fell from the sky and killed him. His house was on Georgetown Road across from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the incident happened during the 500 mile race.

7. The RAF Fauld explosion, the largest non-nuclear explosion to ever occur in the UK. Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of ordnance exploded, killing about 70 people and creating a crater 300 feet (91 m) deep and 250 yards (230 m) wide.

8. The MythBusters have used about 33,500 yards of duct-tape, or around 20 miles (32 KM)

9. There was enough concrete used in the construction of the Hoover Dam (4,500,000 cubic yards) to pave a two lane road from Seattle to Miami.

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In 1967, Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hatchcock set the longest sniper kill record by shooting from a .50 cal machine gun with a scope to hit a target that was 2,500 yards away.

GySgt Carlos Hathcock firing a .50-caliber machine gun on a tripod fired at a Vietcong soldier pushing a weapon-laden bicycle at 2,500 yards. Hathcock’s first round disabled the bicycle, the second struck the enemy soldier in the chest. - source

"The Atomic Tank", an Australian Centurion which was still driveable after being less than 500 yards from a nuclear detonation. The tank was repaired and saw use in the Vietnam War over a decade later.