› added 5 years ago

208

TIL That the name Pluto was suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year old school girl in England. She was interested in ancient mythology and thought that Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, made a good name. She suggested Pluto, to match the Roman god names given to the other planets.

GYA47 TIL king Gustav III of Sweden commuted the death sentences of a set of twins to life imprisonment if one drank 3 pots of coffee and the other drank 3 pots of tea to test the effects of the newly introduced coffee.
MeGDb TIL that spiders can fly through still air for miles using earth's electric fields. The process is initiated by "Trichobothria", a particular kind of hair growing amidst many others on spider's bodies.
8akk4 TIL of Soviet spy, Gevork Vartanian, who stopped the Nazi assassination of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at the age of 19; 400 German agents were arrested/killed because of his efforts, and the assassination was ultimately prevented.
J18oQ TIL Freshwater snails carry a parasitic disease, which infects nearly 250 million people and causes over 200,000 deaths a year. The parasites exit the snails into waters, they seek you, penetrate right through your skin, migrate through your body, end up in your blood and remain there for years.
gMZAD TIL in the 70’s, Dolly Parton once found a baby girl left in a basket outside of her home, with a note that read ‘My name is Jolene, my momma has left me here and she wants you to have me.’ Dolly took care of baby Jolene until children services was able to come pick her up.