› added 8 years ago

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TIL that Huntington Hartford inherited the equivalent of $1.3 Billion at age 12, and ended up bankrupt, through a combination of bad business decisions, art patronship, and an exceptionally lavish lifestyle

R5MB1 TIL that the 1971 film Walkabout featured the first starring role played by an indigenous Australian. Prior to this, any portrayal of an Aboriginal character in Australia had been played by a white actor in blackface
e07k6 TIL that many fire departments, including the San Francisco FD, still prefer wooden ladders because they are non-conductors of electricity, the best natural insulator against heat, and only burn on the outside while the centre of wood remains solid and strong.
Pw0V TIL: Wuzhu, also known by his sinicised name Wanyan Zongbi, or Jin Wuzhu, was a prince, military general and civil minister of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, which ruled northern China between the 12th and 13th centuries.
yVQ6v TIL that the inflatable pig on the cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals broke loose from its chain tethering during the album photoshoot. The pig floated about 20,000 feet in the air causing commerical planes to land mid-flight. Fittingly, the British Royal Air Force found the pig on a farm.
D1OWP TIL that Goliath from "David and Goliath" might have suffered from visual field restriction (bitemporal hemianopsia) as a consequence of the brain tumor that caused his gigantism. He was likely easy pickings for the small and nimble David.