› added 4 years ago

91

TIL that "Big Ben" is not a clock, a tower, or even a building. It is the name of the large bell that is located inside Elizabeth tower.

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PAnG TIL On 31 December 1759 Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the St. James Gate brewery.
LQLer TIL that in 1958, author Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel prize in literature, but was forced by the communist party to abstain form accepting the award
gM4yW TIL of Bert Schneider's controversial speech when he won the Best Documentary Oscar in 1975 for his Anti-Vietnam film Hearts and Minds. He read out a telegram from the Vietcong delegate to the Paris Peace Talks, thanking the antiwar movement for all they had done on behalf of peace.
dDMd8 TIL that a man blew a hole in his colon by attempting to treat severe constipation with a toilet plunger.
VMAr0 TIL James Lick, once the wealthiest Californian, donated the world's first permanently staffed mountaintop telescope to the University of California in 1888. His will only stipulated that he is to be buried under it and fresh flowers placed on his grave "always".