Post * eQak — Curious Curator

› added 9 years ago

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TIL that Jeffrey Donovan, best known for his work as Michael Weston on Burn Notice, established a scholarship which gives $10,000 annually to a senior from his high school who plans to major in a fine arts program in college.

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oB90K TIL Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a letter asking MLK for his support to end the Vietnam War. In the letter, Thich described why monks would self-immolate as an act of protest. MLK nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in January 1967. Unfortunately, that year no Peace Prize was awarded.

5V8oR TIL of the saola aka 'the Asian unicorn'. It is one of the world's rarest large mammals and is a forest-dwelling bovine native to Vietnam and Laos. It was first described and photographed in 1993. Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, but they died within weeks and months.

nWakW TIL that despite being such a prolific writer, there were only 7 people at Edgar Allan Poe’s funeral which was on Monday, October 8, 1849, in Baltimore. The Reverend decided not to bother with a sermon because the crowd was so small. The entire ceremony lasted only 3 minutes in cold, damp weather.

wLoPo TIL in 1976, Henry Kissinger became the first honorary Harlem Globetrotter.

pYO8Z TIL in 1962 Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne Island in Seychelles for £8k. He planted 16k trees on the island and bred giant Aldabra tortoises. He was the sole inhabitant of the island until his death in 2012. Instead of selling it for $50m, it was declared a national park is the world's smallest.