› added 8 years ago

166

TIL President Lyndon B. Johnson owned an amphibious car, a car that serves as both a vehicle and a boat. He used it to scare guests by driving them into his lake while screaming that the brakes were malfunctioning.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

jNy8R TIL that cooking food allowed the human brain to develop and become the most advanced among all species. It allowed the food to releases more nutrients and hence allowed to meet the brain metabolic demand and even thrive. Gorillas spent 80% of their time eating although they have 1/3 of our neurons.
Bg7Gr TIL that the turkey (bird) got its name out of a mistaken belief that it was an unrelated bird species, which was itself also mistakenly believed to come from Turkey.
vnWr TIL Icelandic people are a mix of both Norse and Irish people. Between 20 and 25 per cent of Icelandic founding males had Irish ancestry, while a majority of the original female population were Irish females
yQAaw TIL of Albert Cashier a trans man from Clogherhead, Co. Louth, who joined the US military and fought in the civil war. Assigned female at birth, he changed his identity on the boat over and lived the rest of his life as Albert, being buried at 71 with full military honors.
x6Eek TIL In 1972, the US House of Representatives election in Alaska was held. Candidate Nick Begich disappeared a month earlier in a suspected plane crash. His body and the wreckage were never found. Despite this, he still won the election.