› added 3 years ago

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TIL: Wilbur & Orville Wright's father gifted them a toy helicopter (based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud). They played with it until it broke, and then built their own. They later pointed to their experience with the toy as the spark of their interest in flying.

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mkmy TIL that gladiators were probably fat due to a high-energy vegetarian diet, which included calcium-rich ash. This fatty layer helped protect them from otherwise-lethal wounds.
awyvy TIL San Francisco had a plague outbreak in the 1900s. Government officials repeatedly denied that it existed to ensure that no quarantine was put into place. When they acknowledged it existed, they blamed it on China. This resulted in the destruction of Chinatown.
nlvb TIL that the film “Being John Malkovich” was difficult to sell to production companies because the writers chose John Malkovich as the titular character. One studio exec asked “Why the fuck can’t it be Being Tom Cruise?”
yVNZ8 TIL that football player Angel Di Maria visited a psychologist because of internet memes
MeBdm TIL: Loofahs don’t come from the sea. They’re gourds!