› added 4 years ago

49

TIL of two-time Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson, who quit acting in 1992 to join the British parliament. She became a junior minister in the Blair government, and had aspirations to be Mayor of London. In 2015, at the age of 78, she quit politics, reverted to acting, and since won a Tony Award

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wLwdY TIL Idaho got its name because some guy George M. Willing proposed the name to Congress, claiming that it was Shoshone Indian for “Gem of the Mountain,” when it was really just a word he made up.
KAv4 TIL That the fight scene on top of a train in Skyfall was actually filmed on top of a real moving train, and Daniel Craig did not use a stunt double.
kOYlg TIL Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest during a speech in 1912. He continued the 90 minute speech anyway and said "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
pY4Ap TIL that the Lykov family, who fled religious persecution by the Bolsheviks and lived in isolation in the Siberian wilderness for four decades, were discovered in 1978, completely unaware that World War II had even taken place
OGeGR TIL of the tallest "true" giant (non-pathological) man in recorded history, Angus MacAskill, who stood at 7 feet 9 inches (236cm) tall. Reportedly one of the strongest men of all time, he is said to have been able to lift ship anchors of almost 3000 pounds and fully grown horses over fences.