› added 12 years ago

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TIL that ‘The Lion King’ was originally supposed to be titled 'The King of the Jungle’. The reason they changed it is because they learned that lions don’t actually live in the jungle, they live in the savannah.

gEKL TIL Henry Ford once balked at paying $10,000 to General Electric for work done troubleshooting a generator, and asked for an itemized bill. The engineer who performed the work, Charles Steinmetz, sent this: “Making chalk mark on generator, $1. Knowing where to make mark, $9,999.” Ford paid the bill.
wLbK6 TIL due to his fascination with James Bond novels CIA boss Allen Dulles made the CIA attempt to make some of the Bond gadgets in real life. While the poison-tipped shoes reportedly did work in real life, many other gadgets failed to do their job.
oBM8W Til about “King” Jadwiga of Poland. She was named king of Poland because there were no ruling queens allowed but the rules didnt specify the king had to be a male.
9wJbm TIL that blood donation was segregated in USA, and initially excluded African-American donors. It was not until 1950 that the Red Cross stopped requiring the segregation of so-called N. blood. And it was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that Southern states overturned similar requirements
Wkxkd TIL Ottoman sultan Murad III was impotent. According to historians "his arrow was working but was unable to reach the target of union and pleasure." After many attempts by his mother a cure was found with one side effect: his libido increased so much by the end of his reign he had over 100 children