› added 5 years ago

157

TIL about Jadav Payeng, "The Forest Man of India," who has planted tens of thousands of trees over the course of nearly 40 years. He has made bloom a once desiccated island that lies in the Brahamputra river, which runs through his home state of Assam.

Read more npr.org

via reddit.com

xxQb TIL George Washington’s mother was alive to see George Washington win the revolutionary war and see him become the nation’s first president. She was consistently dissatisfied with her son and even petitioned Virginia for a pension because of claimed neglect.She was also rumored to be a loyalist.
PYPQw TIL "The Beatles" would never have been seen on American TV but for the JFK assassination. CBS executives decided that America needed something light-hearted on the news to take the nation’s mind off the painful assassination and showed a brief clip. Ed Sullivan was unexpectedly watching.
awKwL TIL in Germany you can’t be prosecuted if you help a close family member to hide the body of someone they murdered. The state regards the inseverability of family as a greater good than its own desire to prosecute crime.
OlW4 TIL Jimi Hendrix and girlfriend Kathy Etchingham called each other by their middle names, Marshall and Mary. After an argument where Jimi complained about her lumpy mashed potatoes Etchingham stormed out into the street and left. When she returned the next day he had written ‘The Wind Cries Mary’
nKBG TIL that in the United States average wages haven’t grown since 1964 (adjusted for inflation)