› added 4 years ago

96

TIL there's a demographer and sociologist named Elizabeth Wrigley-Field.

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via reddit.com

E057 TIL Waylon Jennings was originally going to be on Buddy Holly’s ill fated flight. He backed out and Holly stated “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” Jennings replied with “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes,” haunting Jennings for the rest of his life.
wrvo TIL: Australia had a government shutdown once. In the end, the queen fired the Prime Minister and the entire Australian Parliament.
a8j7b TIL Ludwig von Beethoven's associates used notebooks to hold conversations with the composer after he became functionally deaf, to the point where historians can roughly piece together whole conversations the composer had based on what was written.
16RE7 TIL about Dr. Robert Liston, a victorian London surgeon known for his speed and strength, could remove a leg in less than 30 seconds, often holding the knife between his teeth. However, his speed led to mishaps, including slicing off a patient's testicle and severing his assistant's fingers.
NNn6 TIL as of 2015, 19.2% of people in South Africa have HIV.