› added 2 months ago

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TIL that Paul Winchell, the guy who voiced Mr. Owl on the Tootsie Pop commercials, Tigger from Winnie the Poo, and Gargamel from the Smurfs, also invented the artificial heart.

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E1vjV TIL American UFOlogist John Keel popularized the term "men In black" in 1967. He also used the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants he believed to be non-human entities capable of taking on whatever form they want
EgVg7 TIL the second Rashidun caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a senior companion and father-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, was assassinated by a Persian slave in 644 who stabbed him with a double-bladed dagger, apparently due to Umar's refusal to lift a daily tax imposed on the slave by his slave master.
9Ye4D TIL, when Maxim Gorky arrived in the US in 1906, he initially received a warm welcome. President Roosevelt, Mark Twain et al. planned to meet him. But when it was reported that Gorky was accompanied not by his wife, but by his mistress, his hotel threw him out and he got cancelled.
xXxk TIL that there is a plant called Ramonda Serbica, which miraculously comes to life when watered, even if it’s completely dried. That’s why it’s also called Serbian Phoenix Flower.
5Yp09 TIL people with nerve damage in their fingers don't get "prune fingers" when soaked in water. This is because wrinkling is a reflex of the autonomic nervous system which causes blood vessels under the skin to constrict. This reflex is theorized to have evolved to improve our handling of wet objects.