› added 1 year ago

39

TIL that after Harry Houdini casually boasted about his toughness, an acquaintance punched him in the stomach repeatedly. Two days later, he was hospitalized with extreme stomach pain due to appendicitis and died not long after.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GYyoj TIL: 7,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert and the Arabian desert were actually grassland suitable for pastoral farming
9wAYp TIL in WW2, children in the Theresienstadt camp played concentration camp-related games including "gas chamber"
JAWk TIL that Toyota was founded by a man named Akio Toyoda, but named Toyota because of Japanese superstition: writing the symbols “Toyota” requires 8 brushstrokes, a lucky number in Japan, while the 10 brushstrokes of “Toyoda” is an inauspicious sign.
Br5VL TIL that Hydrilla was introduced to America in the 1950's from someone who discarded a used aquarium containing the plant into waters near Tampa Bay, FL. It is now one of the most invasive marine plant species in the Western hemisphere and notoriously difficult to eradicate much less manage.
16By8 TIL that in the 2000s there was a case of conjoined triplets, diagnosed at 22 weeks. The mother terminated the pregnancy.