› added 9 years ago

248

TIL that one man is responsible for saving ‘a billion lives’ by developing different strains of wheat crop, thereby averting predicted famines.

Read more nytimes.com

via reddit.com

p81dG TIL one can apparently buy gold pills that will turn your poop gold
9w7OD TIL Nellie Bly, the journalist who went undercover as a patient to investigate a mental health asylum, was also the same person to first travel the world in under 80 days
b6lNa TIL the bars on exit doors were coined "crash bars" due to the way people crashed into them to escape during emergencies. Before these devices were invented, people were often crushed to death as they tried to escape through doors that wouldn't easily open.
xVl0o TIL No-one knows who actually invented the fire hydrant, as its patent was destroyed in a fire at the U.S Patent Office in 1836.
MADb TIL that when “EMI Films” pulled funding from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” citing religious reasons, George Harrison mortgaged his house and started “HandMade Films” production company, because he remarked that after reading the script, he just had to see it made