› added 12 years ago

105

TIL that George Orwell fought with anarchists in the Spanish Revolution and was shot in the throat.

R591j TIL ironically, the novel Fahrenheit 451 has been banned, censored, or redacted in several schools since its publication, including at a school in Montgomery County, Texas, in 2006, where the parents where offended by the burning of the Bible. The book was also burned in Apartheid South Africa.
Zpowp TIL a man in Denmark died by poisoning 26 hours after he drank coconut water (that had been spoiled by a fungus) directly from a coconut using a straw. But instead of keeping it refrigerated, it was left on the kitchen table for a month. It had been commercially prepared & sold as "ready-to-drink".
JMJv TIL that when ZZ Top reconvened after a 2-year hiatus in the late 70s, vocalist Billy Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill had both grown their now-iconic chest-length beards – without each other’s knowledge. Meanwhile, drummer Frank Beard had shaved off all of his facial hair.
vPOQj TIL Amedeo Avogadro's contribution to chemistry, known as Avogadro's law, did not initially receive much attention when he published his paper in 1811. It was only a century later that his work was recognized, when the King of Italy attended a meeting commemorating the paper's 100th anniversary.
a5XA TIL that a guy named Seth Putnam wrote a song about how being in a coma was stupid, and soon after went into a coma himself. After he awoke, when asked how it felt to be in a coma he said, “It was just as f*cking stupid as I wrote about in my song”.