› added 9 years ago

320

TIL China had the equivalent of a Hurricane Katrina every month for 100 years. This totally destabilized the country, and helps explain how one of the largest most sophisticated states in the world collapsed so quickly. They are still recovering from these ecological disasters today.

Read more youtube.com

via reddit.com

78eWp TIL the earliest known reference to a red carpet is from 458 BC, in an Ancient Greek play. After defeating Troy, the king Agamemnon is welcomed home w/ a carpet of crimson tapestries & silk. He's uncomfortable with it, since to him, only gods walk on such luxury, while mortals should be more humble
gMOKA TIL In 1906, A Congolese man called Ota Benga from a Mbuti pygmy tribe was held in a human zoo exhibition in Bronx, as a display of "earlier stage" of human evolution. In 1916, after getting out and unable to return to his homeland, he shot himself in the heart with a stolen pistol and died at 32.
oBoyA TIL that Carrie Henn as Newt in James Cameron's Aliens (1986) was chosen out of 500 children. Although she had no previous acting experience, she received a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor. It is her only credited acting role as she opted not to pursue an acting career
PYpNG TIL The pike with cars impaled on it (as seen in the Bohemian Rhapsody scene in Wayne's World) was a controversial art installation titled Spindle. It was demolished in 2008.
rRvod TIL da Vinci's The Last Supper painting (1498) is 29 feet wide and 23 feet tall, and around 1652 a door was cut through part of it, destroying the area in which Jesus's feet were depicted.