› added 1 year ago

56

TIL "Moby Dick" was in part inspired by the real-life sinking of the whaling ship Essex. Survivors of Essex resorted to cannibalism by lots, before being rescued, 89 days after the sinking.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

5xdB TIL in Switzerland every male must attend military training and is required to keep his weapon afterwards, giving the country one of the highest gun ownership rate in the world.
dDRy9 TIL In addition to being blind, Stevie Wonder temporarily lost his sense of smell and taste after a car crash in 1973
KYGMB TIL in 1995, producers for Striptease and G.I. Jane got into a bidding war to see who could get Demi Moore to film first. Striptease won which resulted in Moore being offered 12.5 million dollars which was more money than any other woman in Hollywood had ever been offered at the time.
wLKL6 TIL there are also versions of The Office in Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, France, Quebec (French Canada), Germany, Chile, Israel, and India (in the making). They all sell paper except for Germany, which sold insurance.
1aMVd TIL about the Glory Window, one of the largest horizontally mounted stained-glass pieces in the world