› added 6 years ago

616

Til Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong despised each other. Soviet agents claim Stalin had ordered Mao to be fed well during his 10 days visit Moscow. Maos excrement was collected daily for test. Scientists wanted to determine the state of mind of the Chinese leader by examining excrement

Read more newsweek.com

via reddit.com

jNyvQ TIL that Steven E Jones, a Stanford University professor, published a paper which suggested active thermite was detected in 9/11 debris from the World Trade Center in "explosive quantities".
awNG9 TIL in 1596, Abraham Ortelius, recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, noticed the shapes of continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean (most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together. He was the first to theorize the Continental Drift.
R5lLw TIL that Robert Fulton's steamship was named North River Steamboat, and that the name it's popularly called today, Clermont, was due to an error in a biography of Fulton. No accounts of the vessel being called Clermont during Fulton's lifetime have been found.
d8QaB TIL: Historically, in Britain, committing adultery with the Queen-Consort (the King's wife) was legally considered "high treason" , as was adultery with the wife of the heir to the throne, and fornication with the monarch's eldest unmarried daughter.
kO5L7 TIL about the Grasshopper Mouse - a mouse that eats snakes, scorpions and other critters and is immune to scorpion venom. The best part is that it lets out a horrifyingly cute howl after eating and has been nicknamed the Ware-wolf Mouse