› added 1 year ago

37

TIL the bodyguard assigned to protect Abraham Lincoln left at intermission, got drunk at a saloon and fell asleep. He was fired three years later for falling asleep again on duty.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

BkjL TIL Dwayne Johnson was set to star in a movie about Hawaiian warrior-king Kamehameha, but was pulled because he’s Samoan, with the producer saying, “It would be a great taboo for the part to go to a nationality that was a fierce enemy of the Hawaiians during that time.”
rNBM0 TIL that in WW1, the British Army would allow groups of friends to volunteer together and let them serve in the same units in return. As a result, casualties to these "Pals batallions" would wreak havoc to entire communities in Britain.
jYoj TIL an engineer managed to build a fully functional miniature V8 engine entirely out of paper.
xVNr5 TIL that Taiwan takes part in international events such as the Olympics under the name "Chinese Taipei" instead of their full name, the Republic of China.
BL0k TIL that Bryan Henderson is so dedicated in removing the phrase “comprised of” off the entire Wikipedia up to the point that he has made 47,000 edits in the last 8 years and has written a 6,000 word essay in his user page explaining why he thinks it’s an egregious error.