› added 11 years ago

117

TIL the term “mark” (for a gullible person) originated at carnivals when workers operating games of chance would give a patron a slap on the back with a dust covered hand, “marking” him as a sucker for other carnival operators.

Read more bigsiteofamazingfacts.com

via reddit.com

gMbQy TIL that in the Maldives (a strictly Islamic island nation in South Asia), dogs are prohibited for citizens and tourists, except for law enforcement officers, who use sniffer dogs at customs and for special operations
a8M59 TIL that JFK didn’t invite Sammy Davis Jr. to his 1961 inauguration as Sammy had married a white woman, and JFK was worried that the presence of an interracial couple would upset Southerners. Dean Martin, who was angered by this news, refused to attend the inauguration in solidarity with Sammy.
Qpyk TIL Rush vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee’s parents were Holocaust survivors. When Rush’s album 2112 was released, British magazine NME called the band Nazis due to the album’s lyrical allusions to Ayn Rand and Objectivism, deeply offending Geddy Lee.
EYw0 TIL Picasso’s La Reve was bought by Victor Ganz for $7000, over 20 times his monthly rent, then sold for $50 million to Steve Wynn, who put his elbow through it
7rNxZ TIL that Abraham Lincoln was clean shaven for almost his entire life. While running for President in 1860, an eleven-year-old girl wrote to him and said his face looked to thin and he needed to grow a beard. He took up her advice. After him, only two of the next eleven presidents lacked facial hair.