› added 6 years ago

73

TIL that George Orwell had trouble getting Animal Farm published due to Soviet-British relations during WW2. Once, a publisher agreed to release the novella but later reneged after warning from an officer at the British Ministry of Information. The officer was soon discovered to be a Soviet spy.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

e0K4J TIL in the book Stuart Little was actually a human who looked like a mouse, not an actual mouse
xVJP0 TIL that the record high temperature in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (87.1 F / 30.6 C), is colder than that of Edinburgh, Scotland (88.9 F / 31.6 C)
p8xle TIL 18th century sailors and pirates were adept at astronomy and maths, e.g. trigonometry and logarithms. They even took classes and sat exams on these topics. The skills gained by studying such technical fields helped them navigate the open seas, escape authorities, chase down pirates, etc.
yBNX TIL U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan were instructed to ignore child sexual abuse being carried out by Afghan security forces. One Captain was relieved of his command after beating up a child rapist.
78nAM TIL In late 70s-80s, 117+ healthy SE Asian men, many Hmong, died in their sleep mysteriously, leading to CDC investigation. The Hmong attributed it to evil spirit Dab Tog, inspiring Wes Craven's Freddy Krueger in "Nightmare on Elm Street."