› added 6 years ago

149

TIL a single Chilean Flamingo named "Pink Floyd" escaped a Utah aviary and lived a solitary life at the Great Salt Lake for 18 years, eating brine shrimp and socializing with gulls and swans. Locals unsuccessfully petitioned to have other flamingos released in the area to keep Floyd company.

Yvnx TIL during the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus. This allowed for the arrest of those who expressed sympathy for the Confederate cause. Furthermore, it also prevented military officials from being convicted of false arrest, false imprisonment or search and seizure violations.
PZDL TIL German was the second largest spoken language in the U.S. before it was forcibly oppressed during the First World War. Americans with German ancestry, are still the single largest ethnic group in the U.S.
KaV4 TIL in 1995 a Virginia inmate sued himself for $5 million for violating his own civil rights by getting drunk and getting arrested. The judge dismissed the case but congratulated the man on his “innovative approach to civil rights litigation.”
R7kW6 TIL French neuroscientist Michel Jouvet disabled the mechanism in cats brains that inhibits movement during REM sleep. While sleeping the cats moved their heads, arched their backs, and stalked invisible prey.
9Qe7 TIL that ants ‘farm’ mealybugs. In return for honeydew, the bugs are given shelter in the form of ‘barns’ constructed by the ant ‘farmers’ from bits of soil. Ants will defend their ‘herds’ from predators. Ants ‘milk’ them by stroking the bug’s abdomen, it responds by exuding honeydew.