→Subscribe for new videos every day! https://www.youtube.com/user/TodayIFoundOut?sub_confirmation=1 →How "Dick" came to be short for 'Richard': https://youtu.be/BH1NAwwKtcg?list=PLR0XuDegDqP2Acy6g9Ta7hzC0Rr3RDS6q Never run out of things to say at the water cooler with TodayIFoundOut! Brand new videos 7 days a week! More from TodayIFoundOut Why Toilet Paper is White https://youtu.be/_mzhfKbVbL8?list=PLR0XuDegDqP0GESJ0DgpgTcThLJVEbFs8 How Does Soap Work? https://youtu.be/6JY86dOqk9w?list=PLR0XuDegDqP0GESJ0DgpgTcThLJVEbFs8 In this video: Much like Orson Welles before him, Johnny Carson once accidentally used his public platform to incite a public panic. On this day in history, 1973, Carson started a near month long toilet paper shortage in the United States. In his show, he stated, “You know what’s disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper… There’s an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States.” Americans promptly went out and bought up every piece of toilet paper they could find. Supermarkets tried to ration it, but to no avail. By noon the next day, pretty much all the nation’s supermarkets were sold out of toilet paper. Want the text version?: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/12/this-day-in-history-december-19th-johnny-carson-accidentally-starts-a-month-long-nation-wide-toilet-paper-shortage-crisis/ Sources: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/08/toilet-paper-was-first-used-by-the-chinese/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_%28radio_drama%29 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001992/bio http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/01/johnny-carson-once-caused-a-month-long-toilet-paper-shortage/