› added 1 year ago

54

TIL that Foresters Financial, a company that sells life insurance, originally required prospective members to go through a trial by combat

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OGBN1 TIL that the lyrics of "Bad Moon Rising" from CCR where often misheard as "there's a bathroom on the right", especially during live performances - prompting John Fogerty to occasionally sing it wrong on purpose to confuse the audience even more.
j6emE TIL of British boxer Terry Downes who defeated the legendary “Sugar Ray” Robinson and quipped about the ageing Robinson, “I didn’t beat Sugar Ray, I beat his ghost.”
0Plp TIL on April Fool’s 2002, 2 radio DJs suggested Kansas’ water supply was contaminated with “Dihydrogen Monoxyde” (H20), announcing it caused excessive sweating and wrinkled skin. It led to thirty 911 calls, water officials comparing it to a terrorist act, and both DJs being suspended indefinitely.
ZEQo TIL Iceland forgave its entire population of Mortgage Debt and the media didn’t really pick up on it
gM0jy TIL we don't actually know what William Shakespeare looked like. All remaining portraits of him were produced after his death. There are no surviving written descriptions of what he looked like either.