› added 1 week ago

Today I learned of Coturnism, or quail poisoning, where eating quail can cause spontaneous muscle breakdown, or Rhabdomyolysis. This happens if the quail you eat ate poisonous plants.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GMd1 TIL in 1808, Monsieur de Grandpre and Monsieur de Pique dueled for the love of a woman in a hot air balloon fight 900 yards above Paris. The duel ended when Grandpre’s shot punctured Pique’s hot air balloon, causing Pique to plummet to his death.
PA0V TIL: During World War 1, Harry Houdini took 1 year off performing to help sell war bonds and teach american soldiers how to escape from german handcuffs.
ZkdG TIL that the first rap song to top #1 on the Billboard charts was Blondie’s “Rapture”, sung by Debbie Harry, a white female. It was also the first rap music video to appear on MTV.
ADdm7 TIL that the heavy metal band Black Sabbath originally started wearing crosses to ward off a curse. After denying an offer to play at Stonehenge, the satanists hosting the event claimed to cast a curse on the band.
d8meE TIL in 2012, a civilian working on the submarine USS Miami wanted to get off work early so he started a fire that soon spread out of control and ultimately resulted in the boat being decommissioned. He was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $400 million in restitution.