› added 3 months ago

16

TIL The British children's show Zzzap was designed with deaf children in mind, with the show being mostly visual, with sound only used for music and effects. The audience in "The Handymen" segments would also often sign clapping instead of actually clapping.

xVlgb TIL that the composer of the Broadway musical RENT died hours before the first performance of the show. He would go on to win three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize, but never got to see the show performed for an audience.
ANMEx TIL Hanson's hit "MMMBop" was originally recorded as a slower, gloomier doo-wop influenced song. It was only after producer Steve Greenberg heard Beck’s album "Odelay", he enlisted The Dust Brothers to rework the song as we know it.
BgOPW TIL that Anthony W. Case had hoped of playing college baseball until he was shot in 1998, with injuries that prevented him from doing so. After this, he decided to pursue a career in astrophysics, and has since helped develop Faraday cups on space probes, including the Parker Solar Probe.
d8n8E TIL that the first full size radio-operated military drone was developed in 1935 in the form of the de Havilland DH-82B Queen Bee. Originally developed by the Royal Navy for target practice, it could take off and land without human operation and more than 400 were constructed.
8aZRK TIL Synchronized swimming is one of the world's worst sports for concussions--one coach estimated that 100% of his synchronized swimmers have sustained a concussion at some point during their career