› added 7 years ago

163

TIL Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was able to view his obituary before he died due to a news-outlet mishap. Due to all the horrible things he read about himself, including being called “the merchant of death”, he decided to dedicate his fortune to the creation of the Nobel Prize.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

awBJ9 TIL that standard calorie counts for foods ignore the effect of cooking, and cooked food has significantly more effective calories because it's more easily digested.
OG8De TIL in 1981 American Airlines offered a "lifetime unlimited AAirpass" for a lifetime of free first class flights for $250k. You could get an additional lifetime pass for a companion for an extra $150k. Two of their most frequent fliers cost the airline $1m a year and flew over 30m miles.
xVXED TIL in 1946, a local chicken farmer offered 100 chicks for each homer the Nashua Dodgers hit. Newcomer Roy Campanella hit 14 in his first season and sent all 1,400 to his father who used them to start a thriving poultry farm. He also went on to become one of the first black major league players.
rnax TIL During Apartheid in South Africa, Glasgow renamed the street which at the time was the address of the South African Consulate from St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place. Consular officials would be forced to look at his name when reading and addressing postal correspondence.
awRBZ TIL That eating yeast does not cause it to suffer because it has no nervous system, and involves no animal exploitation or cruelty, so yeast is typically considered a vegan food.