› added 10 years ago

169

TIL that the first person to discover sperm, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, kept his discovery secret for 23 years out of fear of embarrassment.

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P9eE TIL that Sony didn’t stop making new floppy disks until March 2011…due to “lack of demand”
PyMO TIL that on the set of the Wizard of Oz, the actors playing the Scarecrow, Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wizard resented being “upstaged” by a woman and refused to even talk to Judy Garland between takes. The only friend Garland made on set was Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch.
w96M TIL a Canadian native and animal trapper called Grey Owl gained prominence in the early 1900s as a respected environmental conservationist. Upon his death it was revealed that he was actually a transplanted Englishman named Archibald Belaney, who had been colouring his skin and dying his hair black.
m1vVP TIL that 1816 is known as the “Year Without a Summer,” due to the eruption of Mount Tambora, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.
rRk64 TIL the Japanese word "Matchpump" マッチポンプ means "Stirring up trouble to get credit from the solution."