› added 12 years ago

80

TIL there was a surgeon called Robert Liston who achieved the incredible 300% mortality rate following a surgery.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wooPP TIL The Galileo spacecraft saw a mile-high, 16-mile-long curtain of lava erupt from Jupiter's moon Io
9Y97D TIL that the name "Triscuit" comes from "electric baked biscuit", which was a marketing ploy in 1903 to make wheat crackers appear modern. At the time, no other crackers were baked electrically.
69NNJ TIL of the 1975 Yellow Sam betting coup in Ireland, where a horse was trained for an obscure race, was given starting odds of 20-1, the trainer then had a friend block the only phonebox near the racecourse pretending to talk to a dying aunt, so the bookmakers couldn't communicate. He made €1.7(afi)
vnVL TIL in 2000 a man looking for a barber chair at a garage sale purchased a two deteriorated boxes of items for $45. He later found the boxes contained 65 glass plate negatives from photographer Ansel Adams worth $200 million.
R58J4 TIL Christine Maggiore founded the HIV/AIDS denialism group Alive and Well. Maggiore herself then died of aids in 2008.