› added 1 year ago

75

TIL that Abraham Lincoln was offered honorary citizenship of the Republic of San Marino in 1861. He accepted, writing “Although your dominion is small, your State is nevertheless one of the most honored, in all history.”

Read more history.state.gov

via reddit.com

8aVWG TIL that part of what makes The Exorcist so scary are the sound effects, which are meant to trigger primal fear in the viewer. The designer used animal sounds throughout the film, including a swarm of bees.
Y71DZ TIL of the 1924 Babbs fire, in which young Mary Eden’s body was never found. In 1957, a woman came forward, claiming to be the long-lost child. A local editor knew the story was a hoax, but withheld it until 1999 at the request of the father, who believed his wife could not endure losing Mary again.
6EVB8 TIL that In Elizabethan England, the word 'Nothing' was slang for female genitalia. The title of the Shakespeare play 'Much Ado About Nothing' is a double entendre.
6v1J TIL if you rub a grasshopper’s hind leg for five seconds every minute for four hours, it will trigger its brain to transform, swarm, and become locust
rKQ1 TIL that German special forces unit GSG-9 were trained to shoot women first as they were regarded as more ruthless and aggressive then men.