› added 11 months ago

45

TIL King Kalakaua of Hawai'i was the first Monarch to Circumnavigate the world in 1881

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rNWye TIL that when he was 18 years old and Crown Prince, Frederick the Great was forced by his father to watch the beheading of his close companion (and possible lover) Hans von Katte after the two attempted to escape together to England.
0wv5v TIL: after leaving for a trip and returning to find his pregnant wife had died and been burried, Samuel Morse spent the next 45 years of his life inventing the telegraph; trying to make sure no one felt the way he did that night.
nnGG TIL a person who takes a sexually explicit photo of someone under age 18, even if it’s a self-portrait, can be charged with producing child pornography, a felony with a prison sentence of up to 20 years
e0PXD TIL that natural gas, propane, etc don't really have a smell of their own. A chemical called methanethiol is added as a safety measure because it is detectable by the human nose at incredibly small concentrations. It is also partially responsible for the smell of bad breath and flatulence.
16V94 TIL that the English pop group The Human League had 5 Billboard Top 40 hits, spanning two decades. I always thought they were an 80s one hit wonder.