› added 8 months ago

101

TIL that Spelling Bees (competitions where competitors must correctly spell words until one is left standing) don't really exist outside of English, and within English, they're pretty much only an American thing

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O69a TIL In ancient Egypt Pharoahs would have slaves smear their bodies with honey and stand naked to deter flies from their masters to themselves
9Wy6 TIL in 1955 there was no federal statute that made it a crime to blow up a plane. So the bomber of Flight 629, Jack Graham, was charged with a single count of murdering his mother. All passengers and crew (44) were killed.
G98G TIL David Ben-Gurion, PM of Israel 1948-63, said “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country… They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”
E1NKX TIL there was an experiment where three people, who each believed they were Jesus Christ, were made roommates at a psychiatric ward. At first, they argued over who was holiest and even fistfought. Eventually, each patient wrote the other two off as being crazy.
D1Y9P TIL that Central Park is only the 5th largest park in NYC