› added 2 years ago

106

TIL of George Francis Train. He founded railroads, built parts of the transcontinental railroad and found a horse drawn tram in London. He traveled around the world in 80 days in 1870 and claimed: "Verne stole my thunder. I'mPhileas Fogg".

Read more beatlyzer.com

via beatlyzer.com

neOP9 TIL that, in 2014, scientists found a giant 30,000 year old virus in Siberian permafrost. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was still infectious and began killing amoebas. This raised concerns that melting or drilling arctic ice could unearth previously undiscovered pathogenic viruses.
9YL5D TIL: Laugh tracks were the invention of a sound engineer named Charles Douglass, whose Laff Box machine helped him corner the market during the golden age of TV.
eLpk TIL That Bayer’s testing group rejected Aspirin for clinical trials because of its potential to “weaken the heart” and instead decided to pursue developing heroin.
poxN TIL in 1997 the founder and chief editor of Vegetarian Times magazine, Paul Obis, shocked readers by suddenly resigning saying “Twenty two years of tofu is a lot of time” and “I want to go to Wrigley Field and have a hot dog”.
m1PNx TIL that Willie, a heroic parrot, saved a choking girl by alerting his owner, Megan Howard, who then performed the Heimlich maneuver and rescued her.