› added 6 years ago

95

TIL that half the world watches live broadcasts of the Olympics

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lkw7 TIL in 1998 Britain started requiring paracetamol (Tylenol) to be sold in 16 count blister packs instead of 100 count bottles. This reduced suicides from Tylenol overdoses by 43%
lyl5 TIL that in 1997, 14 year old Nathan Zohner was able to get 43 out of 50 of his classmates to vote to ban “Dihydrogen Monoxide” for his science fair project. His project aimed to prove that the use of true facts can lead the ignorant public to false conclusions. He won first prize.
ADKO4 TIL of 'kangaroo words', that is, a word that contains a synonym inside it, i.e MAscuLinE, BLOssOM, cHickEN or hoNOuraBLE.
N7bPM TIL in 1959 a white man from Texas disguised himself as a black man and traveled for six weeks on greyhound buses. After publishing his experiences with racism he was forced to move to Mexico for several years due to death threats.
GYjYg TIL The great composer J.S. Bach, who created monumentally beautiful choral works like the St. Matthew Passion, got into a dagger fight with one of his students after calling him a "nanny-goat bassoonist".