› added 12 years ago

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TIL an orangutan would break out of his zoo enclosure on nice days. He did it by maneuvering through obstacles and using a key he made out of wire. Between escapes, he hid the key in his mouth.

v1GrK TIL of Jonathan Reed, a man who loved his wife so much that when she died, he moved into her tomb. He decorated it like a home and even brought their parrot to live with them. “My only pleasure is to sit here with all that is left of her.”
Xgdj TIL in 1974, a then-unknown Queen performed at an Australian festival to a mean-spirited, drunken crowd. Before finishing, Freddie Mercury told them that Queen would be “one of the biggest bands in the world” the next time they visited. When they came back, they were at the top of the charts.
lABr TIL A plaque honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. mistakenly thanked his assassin, James Earl Ray, instead of actor James Earl Jones. When officials received their plaque they were horrified to discover that it bore an inscription thanking James Earl Ray for “keeping the dream alive”
0d70L TIL that there is a fungus that turns ants into 'zombies'! Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as the 'zombie fungus', infects ants and controls their behavior, causing them to climb to high locations and bite onto a leaf before producing spores that can spread the fungus.
OoPZL TIL 400 MILLION whiteboard markers are thrown away by schools a year. To combat marker trash, Crayola pays for US schools to send back ANY type of marker for recycling.