kJ9Yg TIL that in 1948 a 'charismatic' British ex-ski champion & yodeller stole 3000+ butterflies from Australian museums, just cos. His excuse for the Butterfly Heist was 'distraction of mind' due to his recent divorce. The whole saga was a mess for science, even decades later.
Egbnp TIL after a brutal Union defeat at the Civil War Battle of Olustee in 1864, a train carrying wounded soldiers broke down during the retreat. With no working locomotive, exhausted troops and a few horses had to pull the train 13 miles over 2 days to escape a Confederate pursuit.
Y7jaW TIL optical telegraphs (at the turn of the 19th century) had many features now commonplace in modern networks, including control characters, routing, error control, flow control, message priority, and symbol rate control.
Bgbdb TIL after his execution, the head of King Louis XVI was displayed to a crowd that shouted "Long live the Nation!", "Long live the Republic!", and "Long live Liberty!"
rNVm0 TIL that so many ships were abandoned by prospectors during the 1849 Gold Rush in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Cove that it was called a "forest of masts." Some ships became bars, hotels, and brothels—where much of the gold was spent. Today, the ships lie beneath 50-story buildings.
NXj48 TIL that of Disney’s top films of all time (Frozen, Little Mermaid, Tangled, etc.), almost all of them are adaptations of Hans Christian Anderson or Brothers Grimm. Disney has archives of unpublished Anderson inspired projects in storage they are prepared to pull from to create future films
l7WYG TIL Heated seats may cause infertility in men
8eb8L TIL that FDR's grandfather, Warren Delano Jr, made his fortune off of a company smuggling opium into China despite Chinese efforts to ban trade of the substance that devasted generations.
P1j9J TIL About A Void, a 300-page French novel that is entirely written without the letter E
X0jDP TIL: FDR's grandfather made his fortune snuggling opium into China; igniting the first war with European powers when the Emperor tried to enforce drug laws.
VBjgm TIL at the 2003 Nickilodeon kids choice awards, in the award for favourite movie : Ice Age, Spider Man 2 and Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets were all beaten by eventual winner Austin Powers: Goldmember
epj7E TIL: Disney sued to keep full rights to Marvel characters including Spider-Man, Black Widow, and more from going into the hands of its original creator's families