› added 1 year ago

150

TIL Grateful Dead bassist played a prank on Jerry Garcia when he hired Barney to make a cameo mid-concert - his doing so was unknown to the other band members!!

dDwLE TIL: The Greek intellectual Hypatia was accused of witchcraft in March 415 CE where a mob seized her from her carriage, dragged her into a church, carved out her eyes and her living flesh with oyster shells, then tore her limb from limb.
JYQd8 TIL It's impossible to get an original theatrical cut of Star Wars. Every single release that can be obtained has been altered in some way. Even some of the later theatrical releases in the 70's had changes done to them.
DD6v TIL that in 1948 a DC radio station asked ambassadors what they’d like for Christmas. The French ambassador said “world peace”, the Russian said “freedom from the enslavement of imperialism”, and the Brit said “Well, it’s very kind of you to ask. I’d quite like a box of crystallised fruit.”
E1Lrp TIL that the transformation of common metals into gold, a seemingly impossible goal attempted by alchemists for centuries, is now entirely possible using either a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. However, the process is so expensive that it is functionally useless.
QNyXE TIL that after the Portuguese dictator Salazar went into coma, he was dismissed as Prime Minister. When he emerged from it and recovered lucidity, no one wanted to tell him he had been removed from power, instead he was allowed to "rule" in privacy until his death 2 years later