› added 8 years ago

392

TIL powdered wigs started as a fashion trend partially due to syphilis.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via ift.tt

4Dew TIL an Italian brain surgeon had a heart attack in the middle of an operation. He powered through it when he realized his patient would never recover if he stopped.
D1MNp TIL there are more than three million shipwrecks on the ocean floor.
PYmYe TIL seatbelts in cars first surfaced around 1950-55 (Model T was first widely available car in 1908) it wasn't until '66 that the US Congress passed National Traffic and MV Safety Act which made manufacturers comply with safety standards. NY was the first to enact a seatbelt requirement in '84.
J4y8 TIL a white guy in Oakland put a concrete Buddha in a median to stop trash dumping, and it turned into a huge Vietnamese shrine - stopping the dumping but filling his neighborhood with tourists.
DDYP TIL A doctor named Haing S. Ngor survived the Cambodian Genocide by concealing his education, profession, and the fact he wore glasses. With no acting experience, he went on to star in The Killing Fields and won an Oscar. He was murdered in 1996 for reasons that are still unclear.