› added 10 years ago

190

TIL when JRR Tolkien was asked for proof of Aryan descent in Germany, 1938, he replied, “If impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.”

Read more lettersofnote.com

via reddit.com

RxQQ TIL a group of firefighters buried themselves to survive a dangerous wildfire, then adopted a black bear cub who also survived and making him the real “Smokey the Bear.”
1AN4 TIL that in 2001, a ten-year-old named Laura Buxton released a balloon with her name and address in the hopes of finding a pen pal. The balloon traveled 140 miles before coming down and was found by an almost-ten-year old also named Laura Buxton. They share a number of other similarities.
16oLO TIL that in parts of the Jim Crow South, Black people were denied purchasing vanilla ice cream with the exception of Independence Day.
l7M6A TIL that bumblebees can fly higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. Researchers put the bees in plexiglass chambers where they simulated different altitudes. While all bees were capable of flying at over 24,278 ft (7,400 m), two bees were capable of hovering at over 29,527 ft (9,000 m).
Z8wM4 TIL about the Falkland Islands. These islands were covered by landmines in 1982 when Argentina invaded because they wanted to control them. Because of this certain areas of the islands became untouched leading to the penguin population to thrive because they aren't heavy enough to set the mines off.