› added 7 years ago

389

TIL shortly after George H. W. Bush vomited and fainted at a meeting with the Japanese Prime minister in 1992, a man named James Edward Smith, called CNN posing as the president's physician claiming Bush had died. CNN was within seconds of publishing the story, but stopped the anchor mid sentence.

9mMD TIL that a bite from the Lone Star tick can cause people to develop an allergy to red meat, including beef and pork. This specific allergy is related to the transfer of a carbohydrate called alpha-gal.
0wl0L TIL that since 2006, Antarctic research stations representing countries all over the world have participated in their own film festival. Each station has 48 hours to produce a 5-minute film that includes 5 different elements: a sound, an object, a quote, a celebrity, and an action.
rRARo TIL during a dinner party at Windsor castle, the Queen danced to ABBA's Dancing Queen, much to the amusement of guest. She reportedly said, "I always try to dance when this song comes on, because I am the Queen, and I like to dance.”
ZPA4 TIL that Louis Leakey joked to Dian Fossey that she should have her appendix removed if she were serious about studying gorillas in the wild. By the time he clarified this in a letter, she had already gotten the surgery.
e01VE TIL of Plennie L. Wingo who walked backwards from Santa Monica, California to Istanbul, Turkey in 1931 and still holds the Guiness record for the greatest extent of reverse pedestrianism.