› added 6 years ago

82

TIL of Edward Pulaski, a firefighter who in 1910 saved the lives of most of his forty-five man crew by leading them into an abandoned mine shaft when they were surrounded by a wildfire, and then personally stopping the fire from following them despite being badly burned.

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rNNj0 TIL caffeine makes the pituitary gland tell the SNS to release epinephrine in the body which tricks the body into thinking it’s in a state of emergency.
KOpBG TIL that 18th century France developed a visual telegraph system. Using a series of towers topped with adjustable beams that would display a message and instructions on the next tower to relay it to, messages could be sent across the country in a mere matter of hours, long before electricity.
b9NQp TIL that in the away team dressing room at Chelsea FC's stadium, the coat-hangers are very high up to strain the players' limbs; the tactics board is at the back of the door, which is a fire exit and must stay open; and the mirrors give players the impression of being smaller than they actually are
gMYJL TIL about the play Gatz. It's an eight hour long reenactment of the novel The Great Gatsby. The entire text of the novel is memorized by the cast.
Z8vlv TIL The Man in the Iron Mask, a popular legend of movies, books, & media, was a real person who was imprisoned for 34 years in France and died in the Bastille in 1703. Although theories abound, no verifiable data can confirm his true identity or the crime he was sentenced for.