› added 13 years ago

279

TIL humans were almost certainly deep-sea fishing over 42,000 years ago.

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XpNE TIL Mary Anderson, inventor of the modern windscreen wiper was told “we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale”, when she tried to sell her patent. Many company’s went on to implement her device after her patent was expired.
DQx4V TIL the main reason for dimming the lights during takeoff and landing is not to create a cozy atmosphere on the plane, but rather to allow the eyes to adjust to the outside light conditions in case of an emergency evacuation.
OG4G4 TIL about Rikky von Opel, a former Formula One driver from Liechtenstein who retreated to a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. His exact whereabouts are unknown. He is also the great-grandson of Opel car brand founder Adam Opel.
JYrkj TIL John Quincy Adams was an avid swimmer and frequently swam in the Potomac. While president, he almost drowned when one of his swimming expeditions went awry. He continued to swim afterward, anyway, against his physician's advice.
epmDn TIL: Winston Churchill wrote an estimated eight to ten million words in more than forty books, thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, and at least two film scripts. In 1953, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.