NXJyN TIL that acorns were once a worldwide food staple. Among some California tribes they were eaten more than any other food and provided over half of all calories. China and Japan also used acorn flour into the 19th century. Acorn jelly (dotori-muk) and noodles are still part of Korean cuisine.
l7bEr TIL that the United States avoided the Thalidomide scandal due to the efforts of Dr Frances Kelsey of the FDA, who refused to approve the drug despite pressure from the manufacturer
8eOXV TIL that Nasdaq's trading system went down twice because of squirrels, once in 1987 and again in 2014.
P1DbG TIL that John Kelly was banned from the 1920 Henley Royal Regatta due to his occupation as a bricklayer. He would go on to win Gold in the 1920 Olympics, and sent George V a letter saying "Greetings from a bricklayer." His daughter Grace would become royalty herself, and his son later won at Henley.
epbab TIL the bark from a common tree in Eastern North America called the Black Oak is the source of quercitron, a yellow or orange dye.
VBbRZ TIL that the Indian subcontinent is surrounded by the Himalayas, making it almost impossible to enter by land. Except for one gap: the Khyber Pass. For thousands of years, nearly every migration and invasion entered India through this tiny 10–50 km wide opening.
X0b6Q TIL that old brick kilns didn’t heat evenly, and bricks closest to the fire would become blackened and warped and make a distinctive clinking sound when struck together. These “clicker bricks” were initially discarded, but later became appreciated by architects for their distinct appearance.
OGvyX TIL that Blizzard was tricked into making StarCraft a AAA game: it was to be a modest project but after an impressive demo of Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 outshone it at E3 1996, it was decided to overhaul it completely. It later turned out that Dominion's demo was a pre-animated fake.
69w6l TIL that during the Serbian Campaign of World War 1, the German General August Von Mackensen grew to respect the Serbian defenders so much that he had a monument erected in the middle of Belgrade for his opponents, saying, "We fought against an army that we have heard about only in fairy tales."
wo4ZM TIL coffee was first introduced to India in the 17th century by a Muslim saint who, while returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, smuggled seven coffee beans by hiding them in his beard
R5y4j TIL that in 604 C.E. a court wizard told Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui that living in the capital is bad for his health. So he ordered a new capital to be built and conscripted several hundred thousand men for this purpose, many of whom died in the process.
W7bw4 TIL that famous authors C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same exact day that JFK was assassinated and there is a fiction novel about all three of them meeting in purgatory.