› added 12 years ago

135

TIL in 1984, James Huberty called a mental health center seeking help. Because he did not state it was an emergency, his call was not returned. The next day he walked into a crowded McDonald’s in San Ysidro and began shooting, killing 21 and injuring 19 more.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xVpn7 TIL that dogs were once used in kitchens to turn spits for roasting meats. The Canis vertigus, or turnspit, was an essential part of every large kitchen in Britain in the 16th century. The small cooking canine was bred to run in a wheel that turned a roasting spit in cavernous kitchen fireplaces.
Oo7j7 TIL that Hitler himself disliked the blackletter typeface that many Nazi organizations still use today. The typographical dispute between the Fraktur typeface and the more legible typeface Antiqua came to an end in 1941 Nazi Germany with an edict from Martin Bormann, which forbade blackletter.
7r64p TIL from 1968 to 1973, the British evicted the entire population of the Chagos islands to allow the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia
xVwe1 TIL that the 1877 novel Black Beauty, now considered a children's classic, was written for adults by author Anna Sewell to highlight the problem of animal abuse and was subtitled "The Autobiography of a Horse." Ironically, Sewell was an invalid at the time and could not ride herself.
Yp8nZ TIL about British Double Summer Time. During WW2, after moving an hour forward for DST in 1940, they didn’t roll back in fall. They moved forward again in spring of ‘41, resulting in being 2 hours ahead. It helped people finish their day and get home with some extra light during enforced blackouts.