NXOl1 TIL about “Rain of Fish” in Yoro, Honduras, where fish fall from the sky during heavy rainstorms
l7gVA TIL that the Sebastopol Bell in Windsor was looted from a Russian church during the Siege of Sebastopol in 1855 at the end of the Crimean War, and it is only rung when the most senior members of the British royal family pass away
8eY5Z TIL about Pearl Curran, an early 20th-century American novelist and poet who claimed all her work was channeled through the spirit of a long-deceased Englishwoman named Patience Worth.
P1Vrw TIL World's first known medical bachelor's degree issued by Al Qarawiyyin University in Fez in 1207AD to a Moroccan doctor Abdellah Bensaleh El-Koutami, who practiced medicine, pharmacy, and veterinary science.
epv9L TIL that James H. Salisbury, the inventor of Salisbury steak, was an early proponent of germ theory and invented his steak to prevent diarrhea
VBrZD TIL of the Brazen head, a construct in medieval folklore that could supposedly answer any question, also a common theme is them breaking them or exploding after their maker misses the chance to ask them a question
X0YKR TIL about Morris Abraham Cohen (born Moszek Abram Miączyn; 3 August 1887 – 7 September 1970), better known as Two-Gun Cohen, a Polish-born British and Canadian adventurer of Jewish origin who became aide-de-camp to Sun Yat-sen and a major-general in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army.
OGXN1 TIL Sarah Childress Polk got married at 21, became First Lady at 41, and after James K Polk died 103 days after leaving office, lived another 42 years, the longest widowhood of any First Lady.
69rKw TIL why 33⅓ LPs have small center holes and 45s have large ones. It's the result of a format war between Columbia Records and RCA, which gave 45s a larger hole to work better with automated record changers. Spindle adapters were later invented so both formats can play on the same turntable.
wog77 TIL secondhand and thirdhand smoke from cigarettes contributes to 40,000 deaths annually in the United States. Thirdhand smoke can linger on household surfaces for years if not properly cleaned.
R5PY1 TIL that in the 1900 Summer Olympics, the Dutch team recruited a young boy from the crowd to be their coxswain. He ran off after the team won and his identity remains unknown.
W7BaB TIL that the Inca civilization used quipu — knotted cords — as a system to record numerical data such as census and accounting information.