› added 9 months ago

34

TIL that it's a common misconception that Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap. In reality, he died from a toxic level of Seconal, a barbituary that he was using a bottle cap to ingest.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

8eXZb TIL The Ghermezian brothers was inspired by the traditional bazaars that existed in Persian cultures and wanted to build the “Disney World of shopping malls”. They saw their West Edmonton Mall as “ninth wonder of the world” and it had a theme park named Fantasyland until they got sued by Disney
kO6Y5 TIL the Valyrian languages spoken in the TV show, Game of Thrones, was developed by linguist David J. Peterson based on the few words author George R. R. Martin put in the novels. The fully developed language now provides additional Valyrian translations to Martin for use in his forthcoming novels.
PYbgV TIL that a bill was almost passed that would have imported hippos into the United States to be farmed for meat, but was barely rejected on the concern that they might no taste good.
XE4mr TIL that the facial expressions we make are hardwired into our brains rather than learned during life. After comparing the expressions of sighted and blind athletes at the 2004 Olympic games, researchers concluded that both competitors showed or controlled their expressions in exactly the same way.
j79M TIL that in 1934, future president Gerald Ford threatened to quit his college football team unless his black teammate was allowed to play in a game against Georgia Tech