› added 5 years ago

485

TIL that in 1989, Ole Bentzen, a Danish audiologist, who was observing a screening of the 1988 comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, laughed uncontrollably to the point that his heart rate rose to an estimated 250–500 beats per minute, leading to a fatal heart attack

VB6xD TIL: Oreo was created in 1912 as an imitation of Hydrox. Oreo eventually surpassed Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in the Hydrox cookies being perceived by many as an imitation of Oreo, despite the opposite being the case
d8Vn8 TIL that in 2008 the King of Norway knighted a penguin called Nils Olav III that lives at Edinburgh Zoo. The King described him as a penguin "in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood". He is a Brigadier and Colonel-in-Chief in the Norwegian army.
GpRN TIL that at night, Disneyland becomes overrun by stray cats. Disney embraces them because they keep the mouse population in check and treats them like pets, including spaying and neutering them and giving them shots.
6EVpX TIL that on 9/11 a Starbucks nearby ground zero charged rescue workers $130 for 3 cases of water. The company knew about it for weeks and eventually mailed a $130 check to the ambulance company, but only after a journalist ran a piece on 25 September 2001
WKOY TIL the Soviet Union promoted junk science to such an extent that it spawned a new word - “Lysenkoism” - which is used metaphorically to describe the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological basis.