› added 11 years ago

109

TIL in the 18th century, land owners would keep “ornamental hermits” on their land to act eccentric, usually reciting Latin phrases and growing their beard and finger nails long.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

QN9rM TIL: The New York JFK Express line ran from 1979-1990 with the famous slogan "take the train to the plane", It ran from Queensbridge 21st Street in Long Island City to Howard Beach-JFK Airport where you then take Bus to the Airport itself. It was discontinued in 1990 due to its lack of riders.
M7XDV TIL that the length of a second is defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of microwave light absorbed or emitted by the hyperfine transition of cesium-133 atoms in their ground state undisturbed by external fields.
X00DR TIL that when filming the iconic final scene of Real Genius, over 140 tons of popcorn had to be popped since the film was made before CGI was invented.
b5v4 TIL that pistol dueling with wax bullets was once an Olympic sport.
0wLA5 TIL that an Air Force Academy class ring lost in the Colorado wilderness in the late '60's was found fifty years later by an off-roader digging his vehicle out of the snow.