› added 1 month ago

8

TIL that in 1896, 2 physicists discovered radioactivity by accident when he left uranium salts in a drawer and found they fogged photographic plates in complete darkness, showing that atoms could emit energy on their own.

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xVvgD TIL that the dog that played Toto in the Wizard of Oz had a higher salary than alot of the human actors, earning the equivalent of $2,200 a week in today's money
W7Xn9 TIL that in the original Greek, the legendary island of Themiscyra, home of the Amazons, was not located at sea (as portrayed in Wonder Woman comics) but in the Terme river in what is now northern Turkey
oQvW TIL I learned that the son of a high ranking DPRK diplomat who recently defected was an avid CounterStrike player and had the handle “North Korea is Best Korea”
R7998 TIl the Elo rating system, a method to calculate the relative skill level of players in different competitive games, originated from two player games such as chess and its creator Arpad Elo.
rRWo1 TIL the word quarantine comes from the Venetian "quaranta" meaning 40, for the 40 days that ships were supposed to stay off the coast in Europe to prevent the spread of the black death in the 1300s