› added 1 month ago

5

TIL that, according to his daughter, in 1996 Reuben Mattus sat at his kitchen table for hours saying nonsensical Danish-sounding words until he came up with his brand name, Häagen-Dazs

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BVrD TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger went AWOL from the military to compete in (and win) his first bodybuilding competition. His superiors, after reprimanding him, allotted him extra food and built him a gym, including a portable gym inside a tank, so he could train even when deployed. [12:23]
XEKYR TIL Golden Bat was one of the earliest superheroes in fiction; predating Batman & Superman, and was an 10,000 magic Atlantean skeleton who fought evil with a cane.
jNX7p TIL If you visit Luxembourg in late February, you may see burning crosses all over the country. This is an ancient Celtic tradition that has been kept to this day, which is meant to chase away winter and welcome spring.
KYJGQ TIL that during WWII, women were hired as human computers working in clusters, and the term "kilogirl" was sometimes used to refer to 1,000 hours of female calculation.
W7kgo TIL Pope Gregory XVI opposed gas lighting and railways, believing that they would create commerce and lead to liberal reforms. Gregory XVI in fact banned railways in the Papal States, calling them chemins d'enfer ("road to hell", a play on the French for railroad, chemin de fer, "iron road")