› added 9 years ago

235

TIL Helen Keller was a radical socialist. After she expressed her socialist beliefs, news columnists who had once praised her then dismissed her stances based on her disabilities.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

5Yk6D TIL Frederic John Walker aka Johnnie Walker was the most successful anti-submarine warfare commander during WWII credited with 17 U boats destroyed. Walker's last duty was protecting the fleet from U-boats during the Normandy landing before his natural death attributed to overwork and exhaustion.
wLjjM TIL that in 1965, a Quaker named Norman Morrison set himself on fire in the parking lot of the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Robert McNamara watched him burn to death from his office.
EJOw TIL that in 1973, a psychiatrist named David Rosenhan sent eight people with no history of mental illness to mental hospitals. The staff couldn’t tell they were sane. It took some 2 months to get out.
NX57E TIL Co-Op city, a housing area collectively owned by its tenants, objected to the construction of a tall, bright LED sign facing the city. This was strongly opposed by the residents. Two years later, a windmill was erected near the sign, a month later it collapsed, and took the sign down with it.
QJdML TIL that there's an eco friendly variation to standard cremation - hydro cremation. The process utilizes a mix of water and sodium to break down the soft tissue of a body, and the bones are then pulverized to be given to the family. It doesn't utilize formaldehyde, nor does it relase green house gas