› added 3 years ago

217

TIL about Room 8, a neighborhood cat who wandered into a classroom in 1952 at an elementary school California. He lived in the school during the school year and then disappeared for the summer, returning when classes started again. This pattern continued without interruption until the mid-'60s.

JYxQ8 TIL in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), when first Darth Vader force chokes the imperial officer, he interrupts him saying the words "hidden fortress". This is a nod to The Hidden Fortress (1958), an Akira Kurosawa film set in Feudal Japan which Star Wars is based on. (timestamped link in comments)
1jE4 TIL of the Coolidge Effect: where the window after intercourse when a male can’t have sex again is removed if the male is given the chance to have sex with a new partner.
E10YX TIL Many “Vampire killing kits”, allegedly from the 19th century, are sold in auction houses such as Sotheby’s, for upwards of $12,000. However, their authenticity is debatable as they contain materials that place them as being made in the 1930s or later. There is also no historical basis for them.
Nrd8 TIL Luis von Ahn took CAPTCHA (the squiggly silly words you type when you sign up for something online) and turned it into a worldwide mass text deciphering tool, using people like you and I to digitize all the books that exist in the world, one word at a time.
Eg1Bp TIL that Steve McQueen was on Charles Manson’s ‘Hit List’ and was meant to be assassinated like Sharon Tate in 1969