› added 12 years ago

103

TIL The United States does not have an official language.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xVEWk TIL of Bill Millin, a bagpiper who was one of the first soldiers to charge on D-day. While playing the pipes, his comrades fell around him. He said he only survived because German snipers thought he was too crazy to shoot.
E1vNd TIL there is a correlation between toilet mold/rings and diabetes due to high blood sugar levels which causes the body to release glucose through the urinal stream, therefore giving more fuel for mold growth.
lorAK TIL In 2011 it came to light a forger had fooled one of NYC's most elite art galleries into selling $80M worth of fake art despite the forger misspelling Jackson Pollock in the signature (dropped the "c", whoops!) and using paint that was not available at the time the painting was allegedly painted
7rZX7 TIL a woman in Mexico named Ines Ramirez performed a C-section on herself after hours of painful contractions. Fearing that her baby would be stillborn, she drank 2 cups of high-proof alcohol and used a kitchen knife to make the incision. Both the mother and the baby survived.
OO0R TIL the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that schools delay the start of classes until 8:30 or later, better aligning school schedules with the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents during puberty.