› added 4 years ago

156

TIL Handel composed Messiah in an interlude, somewhere between three and four weeks in August and September 1741. "He would literally write from morning to night". Mozart confessed himself to be humble in the face of Handel's genius

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

P1e4E Today I learned the power symbol we see on computers (a circle with a line on the top) is a combination of the number zero and one, replicating the binary state a computer can be in: on or off.
8ooX TIL there was a prison warden so loved that when he retired, 100 inmates pooled together their money to throw him a party.
86y4 TIL Kim Jong Il once tried to solve North Korea’s food shortages by breeding giant rabbits. A German farmer sent them 12 giant rabbits to get started, but later learned all 12 were eaten at Kim Jong Il’s birthday party.
YpGNA TIL Research shows that people infected with a parasite from cats were more likely to have business ambitions, and placed a greater emphasis on entrepreneurship and management.
4kerw TIL of Law Lords. Formally known as Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, they were members of the House of Lords acting as judges for the chamber's judicial functions as it was the UK's court of last resort for over 200 years, until the creation of the UK Supreme Court in 2009.