› added 10 years ago

495

TIL During 2012 Missouri drought, a man named John Sam Williamson hauled about 3000 gallon of water from Missouri river to keep a 350-years old tree alive. The tree sits on the farm his family has run for six generations.

Read more npr.org

via reddit.com

v16gB TIL about Daniel Freeman, a Civil War veteran and the first person to claim land under the Homestead Act. Later in life, he brought up and won a landmark separation of church and state case against a teacher who was evangelizing to her students with permission from the school board.
M7AY7 TIL John Candy, Harold Ramis and Eugene Levy had voice acting roles in Heavy Metal, the 1981 adult animated film. Candy played multiple roles; Ramis' character yells "nose dive!" and snorts "Plutonian Nyborg" while co-piloting a spaceship; and Levy played crooked space captain Lincoln F. Sternn
MevNK TIL: In 1995 Australian costume designer Lizzy Gardiner wore a dress made entirely of genuine, but expired, American Express Gold cards to the 67th Academy Awards.
X0JZk TIL: That during the early part of the Bosnian War, the bobsleigh and luge track used for the 1984 Olympics was transformed into a field artillery position for Bosnian Serb guerillas, the men's alpine skiing venue was a Bosnian Serb military installation and the Zetra Ice Hall was reduced to rubble.
nejpY TIL of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian commando in WWII. The lone survivor of an ambush, he survived an avalanche, severe frostbite and snow blindness, having to amputate his own toes, and being relentlessly pursued by Germans for nine weeks before being whisked to safety in Sweden by locals.