› added 1 year ago

137

TIL In 1859, Richard Carrington was using his telescope to project an image of the Sun on a screen and two beads of searing white light appear across a sunspot, fading within minutes. For hours, he remained poised at the telescope in case it reappeared

Read more thesuntoday.org

via reddit.com

GwEN TIL the wife of disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay, Linda Lay, sold roughly 500,000 shares of Enron 10 to 30 minutes before news about the collapse of the company went public. She was never charged with any of the events related to Enron.
pPXb TIL in some countries like Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, Women get paid Menstrual leave each month, and in some cases get extra pay if they decide to work through their period.
VMWkZ TIL that Westminster Abbey has a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is part of a series on 20th Century martyrs, and includes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, and Oscar Romeo of El Salvador. They were designed to fill ten Gothic niches during a renovation.
GADEE TIL that Billy Joel doesn't sell front row seats to ensure that true fans are front and center. He randomly gives those seats away to cheap seat ticket holders so that the front row is not only filled with wealthy individuals.
kOdb5 TIL: Bill Watterson never licensed Calvin and Hobbes. Anything sold with Calvin and Hobbes on them, such as the Bumper stickers depicting Calvin urinating on something are unlicensed knock-offs. He once said: "Only thieves and vandals have made money on Calvin and Hobbes merchandise."