› added 8 months ago

130

TIL that Washington Irving the American creator of Sleepy Hollow was integral to popularizing our current understanding of not only Halloween, but also Christmas. His stories of a British manor at Christmas time would go on to inspire Charles Dickens.

Read more neh.gov

via reddit.com

Z86Np TIL that Lord Byron protested the rules against keeping pet dogs while at Cambridge by keeping a pet bear
yQgea TIL only 8,900 people visited Turkmenistan in 2012
DZEJ TIL In 1956 Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt to get back the Suez Canal. Despite being a military success and having minor losses, it had so much political fallout that most historians consider it the end of Britain as a superpower.
4XQwN TIL that Dr. Seuss was afraid of public speaking because he was traumatized by President Teddy Roosevelt as a Boy Scout. In his later years, he lived in isolation at the top of a mountain.
wLpLJ TIL On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the American Civil War, known in the North as the First Battle of Bull Run and in the South as the Battle of First Manassas, also earned the nickname the “Picnic Battle” because spectators showed up with sandwiches and opera glasses to watch the battle