› added 5 years ago

1240

TIL Chess is banned at Russian research stations in Antarctica. This is because, in 1959, 2 scientists at Vostok Station were playing a game of chess, and the loser snapped and murdered his opponent with an axe.

Read more canadiangeographic.ca

via reddit.com

gn6y TIL that there is a chemical signal in female tears that reduces testosterone and sexual urges in men.
b9LRp TIL about Nara Dreamland, a theme park that sought to be Japan's Disneyland and even had some creative input from Walt Disney himself. It operated from 1961 to 2006, at which point it sat abandoned for a decade, before finally being demolished in 2017.
PYaBe TIL Jame Watson (co-discoverer of DNA) decided to auction off his Nobel prize medal in view of his diminished income, for US$4.1 million. The medal was subsequently returned to Watson by the purchaser, Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov.
gMoW8 TIL that U2 has performed only one show without the full band; Adam Clayton got so drunk the night before a show in Sydney that he couldn't go on stage and was replaced by one of the band's technicians. Clayton felt so bad he missed the show that he quit drinking.
VM09G TIL when Fat'h Ali became Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a set of the Encyclopædia Britannica's 3rd edition, which he read completely; after this feat, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica".