› added 5 years ago

73

TIL that we only know of Socrates second hand from his contemporaries like Plato and Xenophon, no original writings exist.

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8aZMG [TIL] the famous Vidalia sweet onion has only been in stores since the 1950's, when they were first sold in Piggly Wiggly stores.
pmGG TIL in 1999, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Bob Odenkirk all appeared in the television show “3rd Rock from the Sun.”
j6Z9j TIL that the work of composer Antonio Vivaldi was almost completely lost until the 20th century, when violinist Fritz Kreisler published one of his own pieces as a fake "Vivaldi". This prompted a major resurgence in academic interest in Vivaldi, and his "Four Seasons" is now especially famous.
jNkBN TIL about the Christmas pickle. A supposedly German tradition, where you hide a pickle in the Christmas tree and whoever finds it first gets a reward. Apparently this is a well known tradition in the US, but not of German origin and in fact completely unknown in Germany.
nen0P TIL the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) helped bring the first case of child abuse to court in 1874. At the time, there were laws against abusing animals but no laws against abusing human children.