› added 11 years ago

83

TIL that a civil jury found found that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been the victim of assassination by a conspiracy involving the Memphis police as well as federal agencies. The King family sought a mere $100 in restitution to show that they were not pursuing the case for financial gain.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

EgPDX TIL Benjamin Franklin had proposed a phonetic alphabet for spelling reform of the English language. He wanted to omit the letters c, j, q, w, x, and y, as he had found them redundant.
1aPLV TIL: Olympus Mons on Mars is so big the escarpment, or cliffs, around the base of the mountain are as high as 6 miles tall, which is taller than Mt. Everest, which for reference is only about 5.5 miles tall.
a8NOb TIL one of the reasons Target Canada failed was because some items wouldn't fit on the shelves properly. This was due to item dimensions being entered into their system in inches, rather than centimeters.
XLOD TIL that polydactyl cats (6-toed) were historically considered “ship’s cats” because sailors prized them for their hunting abilities and believe them to be good luck.
yALJ TIL Elephants have death rituals.