› added 1 year ago

157

TIL LaGuardia Airport was built on the site of a former amusement park owned by piano manufacturer William Steinway.

Read more americanhistory.si.edu

via reddit.com

YM8G TIL On the day that Alexander Graham Bell was buried the entire US telephone system was shut down for 1 minute in tribute.
6EoAm TIL that in 1504, Christopher Columbus used his foreknowledge of a lunar eclipse to intimidate Jamaica natives into giving them their supply of food after they refused to, but fooled them saying his god is all-powerful and will make the moon disappear for he was displeased with their refusal.
PY7GO TIL in the movie The Princess Bride, when Count Rugen knocks Westly played by Cary Elwes on the head the tap came a little too hard and Elwes was knocked legitimately unconscious; he later awoke in the hospital. It's that take, with Elwes actually passing out, that appears in the film.
Amgw TIL: “Generational Curses” may be a real thing. There was a study where mice were given a small shock to the foot at the same time as the smell of acetophenone. After 10 days, they mated. The children mice inherited a fear of the odor even though they had never been exposed to it before.
wLn97 TIL the father of Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes was a Vice President at Enron