› added 9 years ago

206

TIL America’s first multi-millionaire, John Jacob Astor, was an opium dealer.

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6EVYY TIL that in 2005 Agostino Vespucci's notes were found, written in 1503, revealing that Leonardo Da Vinci was busy painting a "half-length portrait painting of Lisa del Giocondo", Mona Lisa.
rndy TIL that near the 1940s it was popular to build DIY radios called “crystal sets.” It needed no other power source but that received solely from the power of radio waves received by a wire antenna.
mx6RO TIL in 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard hit 2 golf balls on the moon - he hit the first one into a crater, and claimed to have smashed the second one "miles and miles and miles". However, recent research has shown that the first ball travelled 24 yards (22 m), and the second ball only 40 yards (37 m)
rRjny TIL that in late 2013, an 8 year old girl was orphaned after her entire family died because of a batch of old potatoes that her family had let rot in their cellar. Under the right circumstances, potatoes contain a toxin known as Glycoalkaloids, and this was released in gas form as they rotted.
p81Qe TIL Listerine mouthwash was originaly marketed and sold as an antiseptic and cooling aftershave.