› added 3 years ago

368

TIL the phrase "in the limelight" which refers to being the focus of attention comes from a 19th century device. Calcium oxide known as quicklime is heated in an intensely hot flame until it glows brightly. First as a surveying tool, it allowed for more accurate measurements.

Read more history.com

via reddit.com

Y7BmW TIL that Henry Ford was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan in 1918. Despite being at the height of his popularity, he lost. (He also ran in the Republican primary that year and lost that too.)
wm46 TIL you could stop both the original and the current Green Lantern with a #2 pencil.
l78B5 TIL that Nat Fein wasn’t supposed to work the day he took the first sports photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize
VBNA4 TIL that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor received four marriage proposals while attending Stanford Law School, including one from future Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
xVxE5 TIL that the oldest Jewish state in the world isn't Israel: it's Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia, founded in 1934.