› added 8 years ago

102

TIL: Upon leaving the presidency in 1953, President Truman and his wife Bess drove themselves back home to Independence, Missouri.

9YBpM TIL Australian gum-trees have evolved to have highly flammable leaves and bark to encourage bushfires. The leaves and bark are full of oil, making bushfires spread easily and quickly.
NDVQ TIL of French diplomat and spy to England a Russia Chevalier d'Éon. Once retired, he revealed that he had actually been a woman. She was henceforth made to wear gender appropriate clothing for the rest of her life. When she died, they found out she was actually a man. He was double crossdressing.
N7Oge TIL in 2003, North Korea suggested several symbols which were included in international Unicode, later becoming emojis. They requested ☕ to mark tea houses on maps and ⚐ & ⚑ for military battles and victories. They also requested ⬆, ⬇, ⬅ (but no right arrow), ☔, ⚡, ⚠ and ⏏.
d8eb9 TIL about the International Fixed Calendar. It is comprised of 13 months of 28 days each (364) + 1 extra day that doesn't belong to any week. it is a perennial calendar and every date falls on the same day every year. It was never adopted by any country but the Kodak company used it from 1928-1989.
P1meV TIL When the Addams Family were introduced in 1938 as a single panel comic strip, they had no names. It wouldn’t be until nearly 30 years later that they received names, for the 1964 TV show. Even their last name wasn’t their’s at first. It was just the creator’s, Charles Addams.