› added 3 days ago

1

TIL ancient Roman tourists would visit Egyptian tombs and write negative reviews in graffiti, like not enjoying anything but the sarcophagus and being unhappy they couldn't read the hieroglyphs. These would ironically end up becoming valuable historical records themselves.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Bg6GW TIL that the only mosquito in Iceland is preserved in Institute of Natural History. It was caught in the 1980s by University of Iceland biologist Gilsi Mar Gislason in the cabin of an Icelander airplane
D1ybD TIL that "Frasier", a 19-year-old sickly and feeble lion with a lolling tongue rescued from a Mexican circus in 1972, went on to sire 33 cubs by the protective lionesses who catered to him and brought him food at LA's Lion Country Safari.
DQXWj TIL executives of Dirty Dancing were convinced the movie would flop. They planned to have the film in theaters for one weekend and then to home video. The film went on to become the first movie to sell 1 million home videos.
KYy4B TIL Ken Smith lived as a hermit in the Scottish Highlands. After 40 years of isolation he travelled to Glasgow to attend the premier of a film made about his life as a hermit.
wLan6 TIL Persistence of a 12-year old boy led to clearing the name of the USS Indianapolis' captain more than 50 years after the tragedy. The Congress passed a Sense of Congress resolution exonerating the captain.