Post * DmWg — Curious Curator

› added 8 years ago

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TIL in 1941 the world’s largest seed bank (created by botanist Nikolai Vavilov) was housed in Leningrad. As the Germans surrounded the city forcing mass starvation, Vavilov’s scientists refused to eat from the collection, slowly dying of hunger as they maintained 16 rooms of edible plants.

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WkmQ9 TIL that slaveholders in the US knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign a fugitive slave treaty, but Mexico refused to sign such a treaty, insisting that all enslaved people were free once they set foot on Mexican soil.

jNQ5M TIL that Beethoven composed "Fur Elise" for a student he was infatuated with. As she was a mediocre pianist, he made the beginning of the song simple to play. However, she refused to marry him, so he added much harder parts, knowing she would never be able to play it.

oR1PE TIL that Sigourney Weaver earned $1,000,000 and a share of the profits for Aliens (1986), whereas she earned only $35,000 for Alien (1979).

kv45 TIL of “Japan’s hardest test”, the Kendo 8th dan Judgement Test. Held twice each year, less than 1% ever pass. Out of ~200 million Kendo swordsmen in the country, less than 400 have achieved 8th dan.

4pbw TIL that the United Nations has formed a contingency plan in the event that aliens directly contact us