› added 5 years ago

83

TIL about Navy Seaman Charles Jackson French who, after his ship the USS Gregory was sunk in WWII, swam for 6-8 hours towing a raft of 15 survivors through shark-infested waters. He later received the Navy Cross.

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kONwm TIL that the Medici Family build a elevated walkway in Florence in 1565 just to avoid contact with the common people. They even connected it to their private lodge at the Felicica Church and moved the Ponte Vecchio meat market to avoid the smells.
nenNr TIL individuals who get "chills" from music have differently wired brains than those who don't- more nerve fibers connect their auditory cortex (the part of the brain that processes sound) to their anterior insular cortex (the region involved in processing feelings).
0wRxv TIL Natural gas has no smell. Gas companies are required to add a chemical called mercaptin as a safety precaution, so people know the smell and can identify a leak.
a8rxM TIL that actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, lost the part of John Lennon in a 1985 biopic because Yoko Ono thought him having the same name as Lennon's killer was "bad karma". Linsday would eventually play Lennon in the 2007 movie Chapter 27... a movie that mostly focused on his killer, Mark David Chapman
6EXw8 TIL of Turritopsis dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, which upon being attacked, becoming sick or old, can completely revert to a sexually immature polyp stage, and begin its "life" again - a process which can go on indefinitely - effectively rendering it biologically immortal.