› added 2 years ago

91

TIL American aboriginals used raccoon penis bones as a pipe cleaning tool

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GAaRg TIL that Charles Purvis was the first African-American physician to attend a sitting president of the United States when he attended President James Garfield after he was shot in July 1881.
olQr TIL that whites used to pay to throw balls at blacks at the circus. They were called “African Dodgers.”
V8PD TIL that the greek origin of the word “idiot” was used to mean someone who did not participate in politics and public affairs
Q0Ga TIL Robert Ballard’s mission to find the Titanic, was actually a secret Cold War mission to find and investigate wrecked nuclear submarines Thresher and Scorpion. They finished earlier, so they spent the extra time looking for the Titanic and found it.
dVlK TIL when Yuri Gagarin landed after his famous spaceflight, the only people nearby were a farmer and her daughter. He looked like frightening in his orange space suit, so he said “Don’t be afraid, I’m a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!”