› added 7 years ago

145

TIL that sword swallowing is not an illusion of any kind: the performer actually pushes the sword down their oesophagus and into their stomach. 29 deaths resulting from sword swallowing have been reported since 1880.

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N7JY8 TIL the author Beverly Cleary is still alive.. and she's 104
QJRee TIL of an Ugandan doomsday cult whose followers surrendered their wealth to the church. After the prophesied date passed many disgruntled followers demanded their money back. The cult leaders responded by massacring over 900 of them. The leaders were never caught.
LkMpm TIL that Jurassic Park's visual effects were so groundbreaking to filmmakers that it inspired Peter Jackson to begin work on Lord of the Rings, George Lucas to start on the Star Wars prequels, and Stanley Kubrick to invest in his pet project, A.I (Artificial Intelligence).
jNKBM TIL Mountain Dew was originally a mixer to Bourbon.
9EYQ TIL that the Junípero Serra High School JV football team recorded a historically bad season in which they failed to win a game or even score a touchdown yet they never attempted to start their backup quarterback. That backup quarterback they refused to start is 4 time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.