› added 5 years ago

490

TIL Helium was first discovered in 1868 on the SUN. Astronomers at the time noticed a certain wavelength in sunlight which could not be produced by any known element at the time. It was thought that the gas was only present on the sun, thus was named after the Greek god Helios.

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8aQLK TIL we had x rays before we had antibiotics! (1880s & 1930s)
9wdB6 TIL that John Wilkes Booth's brother saved Abraham Lincoln's son from falling in between a train and a platform, which would have killed the latter.
VMp0G TIL Peter Mayhew was eligible for the roles of either Chewbacca or Darth Vader. He chose Chewbacca because he wanted to play a hero.
W7oPB TIL a US law firm set up honeypots on torrent-sharing site The Pirate Bay and then sued people who downloaded their torrents. The matter reached the FBI and the pirate site accepted to collaborate with the feds resulting in the crooked lawyers getting jail time.
rR9B0 TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger reduced the sentence of a convicted murderer because he was the son of a friend.