› added 5 years ago

152

TIL in 1998, 10 bodies were discovered in Benjamin Franklin’s basement during house renovations. The bodies belonged to his friend and anatomist William Hewson, who had a falling out with his mentor William Hunter and illegally procured them for study. Hunter’s body was not among them.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

N7K41 TIL In X-Men First Class, 2011. Hugh Jackman used 8 takes to try to get his line just right. The line was originally, "fuck off" but on the 8th take Jackman improvised by saying, "go fuck yourself", which became the line used in the film and also gave a genuine reaction from McAvoy and Fassbender.
oRyQ8 TIL Sunday Times took its name not because it was related to Times, but to take advantage of its name. Both papers ran separately for more than a century until they were bought by Canadian billionaire.
nednr TIL Dodos were big, but not the fat birds we picture; the theory is that paintings and illustrations depicting them as such are based on overfed, captive specimens, or simply due to artistic license
V5e8 TIL after the release of Gayla Peevey’s “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” (1953) a campaign was launched to give her a hippopotamus for Christmas. The campaign succeeded & she was presented with an actual hippopotamus, which she donated to the city zoo. The hippopotamus lived for nearly 50 years
DQWJJ TIL of Joseph of Cupertino, a 17th century Italian Catholic man who become well known across Italy for both his apparent ability to levitate & his evident mental handicap. He has since been ordained as the patron saint of mental handicaps & pilots and similar things in both regards.