Post * W90X — Curious Curator

› added 11 years ago

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TIL When Cary Grant was 9-years-old his mother was placed in a mental institution by Grant’s father. He was told she went on a “long holiday”. Believing that she was dead, Grant didn’t learn otherwise until he was 31 and found her living in a care facility.

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aeAA TIL British soldiers call their SA-80 rifle “the Civil Servant” because “it doesn’t work and can’t be fired.”

Nma8 TIL that pumice can form free-floating rafts so large that they can be mistaken for islands and that animals can migrate between landmasses on them.

oBew8 TIL that when George Washington died in 1799, the British Royal Navy was ordered to lower their flags to half mast. The London Morning Chronicle opined that ‘The whole range of history does not present to our view a character upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmixed admiration’.

GYXm1 TIL on Halloween 1992, BBC1 broadcast "Ghostwatch," a mockumentary horror film. Appearing to be a real news show, it caused public panic and outrage. It reportedly caused 3 premature labors, and BBC received 30,000 complaints. Despite having a cult following, it has never since been shown on UK TV.

XwWQ TIL ‘The Earth Pyramid Project’, is a project that plans to erect a pyramid in an as-yet-undecided location. It will hold contributions from every government, indigenous peoples, and all the world’s children in chambers within the structure. Then the Pyramid will be sealed for 1000 years.