› added 4 years ago

69

TIL drowned doesn't mean dead and you could survive underwater for up to 25 minutes

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

8wJ8 TIL that Orson Wells’ famous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds (which aired 75 years ago today) actually caused almost none of the public panic for which it became famous; newspapers’ over-reporting of the incident was actually an attempt to discredit radio as a news source
XEQD6 TIL that the abbreviation RIP originally comes from the Latin phrase “Requiescat In Pace” and not “Rest in Peace”
oeVK TIL a WW1 homing pigeon saved 194 men by continuing her flight after losing a leg, an eye and having been shot through the chest
4RXJ TIL Canadian astronomer and renowned eclipse chaser J. W. Campbell traveled the world for 50 years trying to see 12 different eclipses. He ran into overcast skies every time.
mxlYR TIL that a “fossil word” is a word that is no longer used in general speech but remains in use because it is part of an idiom. For example, amok as in “run amok”, or turpitude as in “moral turpitude”. There are many other examples.