› added 4 years ago

85

TIL in 1935, singing cowboy Gene Autry released a Western film in which he is kidnapped by an ancient underground civilization with robots and television.

7801X TIL that after Lord Palmerston's death, Queen Victoria wrote that she had never liked or respected him: "Strange, and solemn to think of that strong, determined man, with so much worldly ambition – gone! He had often worried and distressed us, though as Pr. Minister he had behaved very well."
WwMo TIL Alan Moore created Rorschach of the Watchmen as an insult to Steve Ditko’s similar characters The Question and Mr. A, calling Ditko’s Objectivist philosophies “laughable.” Everyone missed the point and actually liked Rorschach’s character.
M7Kkm TIL about Constantine Diogenes, a peasant in the Byzantine Empire who simply pretended to be the emperor’s son and managed to assemble a Cuman army to invade off the back of his baseless claim
OG7lX TIL Chef Boyardee's canned Ravioli kept WWII soldiers fed and he became the largest supplier of rations during the war. When American soldiers started heading to Europe to fight, Hector Boiardi and brothers Paul and Mario decided to keep the factory open 24/7 in order to produce enough meals
1AXX TIL After ships reached the end of their service lives, they are sent to poorer countries’ shores to be dissembled by workers who get paid less than 3 USD a day in near-death, toxic work environments. A large ship takes up to six months to dissemble into scrap metal, and death was not uncommon.