› added 6 years ago

108

TIL that the Vatican forbade copies of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere mei, Deus, threatening any publication with excommunication. That was until 1770 when a 14-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, on a trip to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory.

YyJA TIL The sun will never set on the present-day British Empire, due to the smallest and most isolated of the 14 territories, the Pitcairn Islands, which only has a population of a few dozen people. Until there is an eclipse there, Britain remains the empire on which the sun never sets.
KO9OG TIL that in 2001 a Hooter's restaurant held a sales contest offering the prize of a new Toyota (which was actually April Fools’ joke). When a waitress won, she was given a new toy “Yoda". She sued the restaurant alleging fraudulent misrepresentation and won enough money to buy a new car.
59Vn TIL that the Dutch would ask Germans to pronounced ‘Scheveningen’ during WWII to identify them. Also with the Flemish, they would get people to say 'Schild en Vriend’ when trying to identify French-speaking spies [Section Four].
d81xr TIL Kevin Leach, the Oklahoma Sooners' offensive coach, left a fake offensive script for the opposing Texas Longhorns coaching staff to find. As a result, the underdog Sooners took at 17-0 lead after only 10 minutes
Z8mQo TIL that because beef tallow and lard are unkosher, northern European "Jews turned to poultry fat as their cooking fat of choice; the overfeeding of geese to produce more fat per bird produced modern Europe's first foie gras as a side effect."