› added 4 years ago

48

TIL contrary to the popular myth that if a horse's legs were raised on a statue, the rider died in battle, there is no correlation between good position and manner of mortality

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Oo5Xg TIL that the maker of SoftSoap knew he couldn't patent liquid soap dispensers, so he did the next best thing: he raised $12m and bought out the US's entire manufacturing capacity for two years to prevent other soap companies from stealing his idea.
AvN7 TIL of Argos, Odysseus’s dog in the works of Homer. After 20 years of waiting for Odysseus to return home, the dog is the only one to recognize him, he wags his tail and Odysseus sheds a tear, and Argos dies after meeting him one last time.
GA7RG TIL Just two weeks before the 1892 U.S. Presidential election, First Lady Caroline Harrison died. The voters were unsympathetic and Benjamin Harrison lost re-election. Their daughter Mary served out the term as First Lady.
4yQo TIL that MI5 once had a plan to use Gerbils to detect terrorists/spies at airports, as their sense of smell can acutely detect increased adrenalin in people. The project was scrapped when the Gerbils proved unable to tell the difference between terrorists and those afraid of flying.
9wL4B TIL about laboratory-grown penises