Post * e01x4 — Curious Curator

› added 3 years ago

95

TIL Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother, was orphaned at 12 and named her son after her guardian, George Eskridge. Her husband, Augustine Washington, died when their son George was 11, and she never remarried. She died of breast cancer in 1789, after George became the president.

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nKD9 TIL that the first ‘moving staircase’ or escalator was built in 1898 at a Harrods store in London. Riders found the escalator so nerve racking that an employee stood at the top offering brandy so they could recover from the ordeal.

b9V6p TIL that the subscription business model has been around since the 17th Century

pYrNN TIL When a star like our Sun dies, it doesn’t explode into a supernova or collapse into a black hole. Instead, it gently sheds its outer layers, which form a beautiful cloud called a “planetary nebula”, while the dying star’s core becomes a white dwarf.

gLBb TIL The British Army considered (and attempted) training seagulls to poo on enemy submarines periscopes before realising that seagulls don’t fly that far out to sea.

9vkX TIL that there is no known written documentation of the food dish known as “fajitas” prior to 1971.