› added 1 year ago

269

TIL after professional football player Lyle Alzado became enraged, throwing a helmet at another player, the NFL enacted the "Lyle Alzado Rule” that disallowed the use of helmets as a weapon. Years later, Alzado was beset with brain cancer, believing it to be retribution for a profligate lifestyle.

Read more nfl.com

via reddit.com

rNXP1 TIL that the seedless bananas that we consume are called Cavendish bananas and they will go extinct in the next decade due to a fungus called Panama disease.
yVAKa TIL a three-way civil war between Chinese Muslim rebels, a Tajik warlord, and Qing forces commanded by general Zuo Zongtang (also called General Tso) in western China between 1862 and 1877 resulted in over 20 million deaths. It was concurrent with the more famous Taiping rebellion.
OGlb1 TIL about the 1815 Mount Tambora massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia with what followed called "the year without a summer". Global temps plunged, crops failed, people starved, and a cholera pandemic spread. Geological evidence suggests a 1-in-6 chance of a massive eruption this century.
9wQwm TIL California's only pirate was a corsair sent by the Argentine Navy. He took control of Monterey for six days and during this time his Argentinian troops burned down the town's fort, artillery headquarters, governor's residence, and the Spanish houses, but left the residents unharmed
J1vAV TIL Benjamin Harrison holds the record of having the most states being admitted to the Union under his administration at 6 states.