› added 1 month ago

15

TIL in 1990 a truck driver jumped into a moat in an enclosure at the Detroit Zoo to save a chimpanzee from drowning when the chimp inexplicably jumped into the water. He said "Everyone in the whole place was just standing around watching this monkey drown", so he knew he had to do somethng about it.

Read more deseret.com

via reddit.com

wL8e7 TIL that, without seeking the consent of the people of Oklahoma City, the FAA sounded 1,253 sonic booms in the sky to see if the citizens would mind. Six months and hundreds of broken windows later Oklahoma City residents were furious, and soon after the supersonic flight initiative was canceled.
x6ja0 TIL: In 1865, Edouard de Laboulaye organized a meeting for a commemorative gift for the United States that would recognize the liberation of the slaves. That gift ended up being the Statue of Liberty. However by the time it was unveiled in 1886 the original meaning had been lost.
kJPL1 TIL that in October of 2008, Porsche inflicted the “mother of all short squeezes” on Volkswagen (VW) by announcing how much stock it had “after it became clear that there are by far more short positions in the market than expected".
R5xYl TIL that in the 1750s, doctors used tobacco enemas, believing they could cure various diseases. When the practice was debunked, the phrase “blowing smoke up your ass” was born.
d8GJj TIL in 2012 a librarian at Humes High School in Tupelo Mississippi discovered a library card in the back of an old book signed in 1948 by a then 13 year old Elvis Presley. It is the oldest known autograph by Elvis.