› added 5 years ago

295

TIL that in 2004, John Hutcherson drove home drunk with a friend hanging out the window. He sideswiped a telephone-pole support wire, decapitating his friend. He continued home, parked in the driveway and went to bed. A neighbor found the headless body the next morning.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VMkm8 TIL at the first World Cup Egypt missed their boat, a referee did all his games in suit, tie and knickerbockers, a player was suspended for opening a cafe, a referee called the final whistle after 84 minutes, Bolivia wore berets and a Romanian was believed to have died before turning up at his wake
W76K8 TIL that elements of the ancient Mesopotamian religion (first formed in the 6th millennium BC) may have survived until the early 20th century. The Shamsīyah, a sect of sun-worshippers, persisted in southeastern Turkey (sometimes outwardly adopting Christian customs) until the early 1900s.
dDpA9 TIL that pellagra, caused by niacin deficiency, was widespread among poor rural populations in 18th–20th century Europe and the American South who relied heavily on corn. Native Americans had solved the issue millennia earlier through nixtamalization—an alkaline treatment that makes niacin available
QJpMd TIL NASA hired 11 deaf men to study the body's responses to foreign gravitational environments. They were chosen because their disabled inner ear made them immune to motion sickness.
kOWJ7 TIL that the “BASE" in BASE jumping is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: building, antenna, span, and earth