› added 9 years ago

500

TIL an explorer attempting the first-ever solo crossing of Antarctica died last January after 900 miles, just 30 miles short of his goal

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kJ9ve TIL Carlos Mavroleon, heir to a shipping tycoon, was pressumed dead after a trip to France. He ended up in Pakistan and returned home 2 years later, now a muslim and fluent in Pashtun. He mingled in high society, left again to fight the soviets in Afghanistan, and later became a war correspondent
v1AJD TIL that The Flaming Lips have to pay half of all royalties for the song ‘Fight Test’ to Yusuf Islam after he sued them for ripping off his ‘Father and Son’. Despite the songs’ striking similarity, Lips’ frontman Wayne Coynes said it was unintended and he only realised when his producer heard it
nWGPW TIL the term "big bang" has been argued to be a misnomer and there was an international competition to find a more suitable alternative to the model. However, the judges concluded that none was apt enough to replace it and said "like it or not, we are stuck with "big bang.""
awML9 TIL the Knights Templar invented international banking and payable checks
kPa7 TIL paleontologists at Kent State University discovered a new species of hermit crab on the same day Michael Jackson died. They named it Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni in his honor.