› added 2 years ago

75

TIL that commercial fax service was in operation 11 years before the invention of the telephone

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

D17kp TIL Walt Disney World near Orlando briefly had a real airport with a singing runway. Grooves in the tarmac were spaced so the lines played the opening notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" when planes rolled over them. The airport closed in 1972.
nEkb TIL In 1965 at age 90 and with no heirs Jeanne Calment sold her apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray on a contingency contract. Raffray, aged 47 agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs until she died. Raffray ended up paying Calment >$180,000; more than double the apartment’s value.
YR57 TIL for scorpions to reproduce, the male deposits a capsule of sperm on the ground, then wrestles a female on top of it.
1EPV TIL John Lasseter was fired from Disney in 1983 for pushing too hard for computer animation. When Disney bought Pixar in 2006, Lasseter was given a $5 million signing bonus, a $2.5 million salary, and control of all Disney’s animation projects.
0j0R TIL Missouri is the cruel Puppy Mill Factory capital of the U.S.