› added 10 years ago

108

TIL that nearly a third of all the city Aldermen elected in Chicago between 1972 and 2012 have been convicted on corruption charges at one time or another.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

jNDBp TIL that Louis Wain, the Artist from Edwardian England, famous for his psychedelic depictions of cats, was influential in the species' transition from tolerated "mouse catchers" to beloved pets and figures in popular culture.
vP7 TIL that Neil Gaiman wanted to make a movie of “Anansi Boys”, but the moviemakers wanted to change the black characters to white and remove any magic (in a story about Gods and magic), so he refused.
XD4P TIL Bill W, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, took LSD after being sober for decades and “developed a plan to have LSD distributed at all AA meetings nationwide”
D1Kvp TIL Boston Police officers cared for a stray cat named "SWAT Cat" for 3 years; when the calico cat went missing, Officer Pietroski, (15-yr veteran of BPD), worked after hours to build a "kitty condo" including a large deck & sliding glass doors. The cat returned and moved into the new home.
jNG1X TIL the short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), eager to modernize, purchased a ship from Japan spending 30% of its entire military budget. It turned out to be a deceptively packaged cargo ship useless for combat. Japan later took it back after dismantling the military and colonizing the nation.