› added 5 years ago

146

TIL about Eugène Rimmel (1820–1887) a British (but French-born) entrepreneur and parfumier who created the first non-toxic mascara. As of today, in many languages, «Rimmel» and «mascara» are synonyms.

Read more cavesocial.com

via reddit.com

gM6rb TIL of Judit Polgár, the youngest and strongest of 3 chess prodigy sisters, who is widely considered the best female player of all time. She and her sisters were intentionally raised to be chess masters by their father, László Polgár, to prove his theory that "Geniuses are made, not born."
ANxYo TIL There was a battle in WWII in which British and Indian troops fought in daily hand-to-hand combat for weeks against the Japanese in an Indian government official's tennis court.
a841J TIL In 1985 a private radiotherapy clinic in Brazil was abandoned, leaving behind a radiation source with 100 grams of Cesium-137. Thieves stole the container in 1987. Over 200 people were contaminated and 4 people died after it was broken into (and the glowing blue dust was spread around)
VB7b4 TIL A Chinese zoo admitted its “pandas” are actually dyed Chow Chow dogs. Videos from Taizhou Zoo revealed wagging tails, sparking backlash for misleading visitors and harming animals. The zoo defended it, claiming dyeing dogs is no different than people dyeing their hair.
j6BAv TIL that Nokia made a taco-shaped phone. The N-Gage was its attempt to enter the video game market, but people mocked the strange shape with "sidetalking" memes. Inserting a new cartridge required removing the battery. Despite big-name games like Sonic and Elder Scrolls, N-Gage was a huge failure.