› added 4 years ago

84

TIL of "Satchel" Paige, who was the oldest major league baseball debutant (at 42) as well as the oldest player to play a major league game (two weeks shy of 60)

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wLYl1 TIL that the U.S briefly banned sliced bread in 1943. During this time, a letter appeared in The New York Times from a distraught housewife saying, in part: "I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household."
N7YrP TIL The mayfly, Dolania americana, is believed to have the shortest adult lifespan of any insects. The adult insects emerge before dawn in early summer, mate, and die within the space of about 30 minutes. The female deposits her eggs in the water and dies within 5 minutes of emergence
4kDXR TIL in 1987 the MV Doña Paz, a Filipino passenger ferry carrying 4000 people (triple its maximum capacity), collided with an oil tanker while the crew was mostly drinking/ partying/ watching TV. The oil from the tanker set the ferry and the surrounding seawater on fire. Only 24 survived.
VMl4Q TIL A neutron star is so dense that a matchbox sized portion of one would weigh 3 billion tons.
QJAWE TIL that the tradition of Popes adopting a papal name started with Pope John II, who was named Mercurius at birth and thought bearing the name of a pagan god was inappropriate.