› added 7 years ago

159

TIL President Ulysses S Grant was given a speeding ticket for driving his buggy “at a furious pace” through the streets of D.C.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

VBmDm TIL that The Dead Zone, in which Christopher Walken, the clairvoyant protagonist, attempts and fails to assassinate a presidential candidate with a rifle at a campaign rally, was written by Stephen King.
WZpL TIL There’s an old vending machine in Seattle that has been spitting out sodas on the corner of John and Broadway for up to 15 years, but no one seems to know who re-stocks, maintains, or collects money from the thing. Some flavors include Mountain Dew White Out and Black Cherry Frescas.
69A9Q TIL that during World War II, publication of the Michelin Guide was suspended. In 1944, at the request of the Allied Forces, the 1939 guide to France was specially reprinted for military use; its maps were judged the best and most up-to-date available.
kOagg TIL that despite of being banned from WW2 military service, Charles Lindbergh's knowledge on fuel efficiency helped double the effective range of the P-38. The pilots he worked with where so grateful they let him sneak on a combat mission where he scored a kill.
yVa08 TIL Originally, Sid's character in Ice age (2002) was supposed to be a con-artist and a hustler, and there was a finished scene of the character conning some aardvark kids. His character was later changed to a talkative-clumsy sloth because the team felt the audience would have disliked him.