› added 11 years ago

82

TIL Locusts are actually grasshoppers that change both physically and behaviorally when in contact with other grasshoppers

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ALrl TIL of a man who survived a shipwreck in 1628 and transformed into a murderous dictator over the remaining survivors. He and his henchmen killed over 100 men, women and children over a 2 month period while stranded. Ultimately he was overcome by a group loyal to the ship’s captain and was executed.
6Jy7 TIL that in Japan, rōnin (the term for a masterless samurai) also nowadays refers to someone who is unemployed
wM1W TIL the Homer Simpson quote, “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try” was added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in August 2007.
vP6D4 TIL: The Guinness Book of World Records was created by the managing director of Guinness Brewery as a way to solve trivia questions among bar patrons.
Oo8Gg TIL that the man who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was also a fighter pilot and an intelligence officer who helped Winston Churchill convince the American government to secretly fight Nazi Germany before they joined World War 2.