› added 9 years ago

136

TIL In 1903, a large pocket of underground gas was found in Dexter, KS. In the hopes of economic prosperity, a celebration was planned. The burning of the gas was to “light the entire countryside for a day and a night,” but it just wouldn’t ignite… and Helium was discovered.

Read more kuhistory.com

via reddit.com

Ool5L TIL Henry Ford was an anti-semite and was given an award by the nazi regime in 1938
0wr8M TIL the first official Medals of Honor were awarded to several Union soldiers who went behind enemy lines and commandeered a train and sabotaged their way back to the North.
b959p TIL after Salvador Dalí and Harpo Marx met and expressed mutual admiration, Dalí sent Harpo a Christmas present: a harp with barbed wire for strings and spoons for tuning knobs, wrapped in cellophane. Harpo was delighted and sent Dalí a photo of himself sitting at the harp with bandaged fingers.
EgVx7 TIL A stray cosmic ray is believed to have struck a computer during an 2003 Belgian municipal election and given one of the candidates exactly 4,096 more votes than she should have gotten.
mWRR TIL that in Ancient Alexandria there was a prominent Mathematician named Hypatia. She came to embody the enlightened Alexandian spirit. She was flayed to death with oyster shells by a Christian mob. Her death is considered by many to be the beginning of the end for intellectual Alexandria.