› added 1 year ago

39

TIL when she was 10 years old, the Vatican dispatched an investigator to determine if Shirley Temple was actually a middle-aged dwarf. After her film career, she was a U.S. diplomat to two countries, and became the first female Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

KO81G TIL that the word explosion is derived from the Latin word explosionem, meaning to drive off through clapping. This is an expression for the Ancient Roman practice of clapping at actors in plays that they didn’t like, until the actor was forced to leave the stage.
WkwYo TIL A penguin species that lived around 37m years ago was nearly 7 foot tall
j5Wj TIL William Shatner was so cash strapped after Star Trek was cancelled in 1969 that he ended up living out of his pick up truck.
DQ57g TIL Previously, the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. The statue was dedicated in 1886, and a month later it began to function as a lighthouse for 16 years, its torch visible from 24 miles away.
k9Dd TIL That Ben Franklin’s quote “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” was actually about the legislature’s right to tax the citizenry to pay for, among other things, security measures.