› added 8 years ago

84

TIL the Alaska Railroad still allows passengers to wave a white cloth along the route and the train will stop to pick them up.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

Br40L TIL: In the 1950s, if a woman wanted to know if she was pregnant, she needed to get her urine injected into a frog to see if it would lay eggs. This was a mainstream method and thousands of frogs were exported around the world.
Lk5D9 TIL an inhabitant of the island of Sark who feels wronged can throw his hat to the ground, take a knee, and recite the Lord's Prayer in Norman French and then say: "Haro, haro, haro! A mon aide mon Prince, on me fait tort!". The wrongdoer must stop immediately, while a complaint is made to court.
VM1BB TIL the USSR had a televised song contest. Since few people had phones, viewers would turn their house lights on if they liked a certain song, off if they didn’t. The state energy company recorded the size of each power spike & reported results to the station to determine votes for each contestant.
Ojag TIL: Not only are cats still mostly wild, but they also pretty much tamed themselves.
P1xMZ TIL the Steps on Titanic’s Grand Staircase were Linoleum.