› added 1 year ago

54

TIL that Irving Berlin is the only Academy Award winner in history who presented the award to themselves. He won for writing ‘White Christmas’, and declared that opening the envelope was extremely awkward. The rules were then changed to prevent this ever happening again.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

6lPJ TIL that in 1943 the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles merged into one team known as the “Steagles” because of depleted rosters during WW2.
bGlj TIL That of the almost 900 genes we have related to smell, over 50% are ‘broken’ and do not translate into useful proteins.
mxAxv TIL about the 996 working hour system, which is mainly implemented in China. "996" stands for "working 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week".
gMly9 TIL the plasma globe was invented accidentally by an MIT undergrad, who was working in a lab to create electrical rocket engines. Right after inventing it, he naturally brought it to his girlfriend's house party.
j69LX TIL there were vacuum cleaners before electricity was common. They were manually pumped while vacuuming.