› added 1 year ago

109

TIL the main key to the Bastille is kept in George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. It was given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1790, who wrote “It is a tribute which I owe as a son to my adoptive father, as an aide-de-camp to my general, as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch.”

Read more france-amerique.com

via reddit.com

16Kb7 TIL one of the possible inspirations for the Sheriff of Nottingham from "Robin Hood" fame is a man called Philip Marc, who was so hated that a clause in the Magna Carta was specifically written remove him from his position.
Eg5wX TIL of hitchBOT, a hitchhiking robot which successfully hitchhiked across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, but while attempting to hitchhike across the United States, it was stripped, dismembered, and decapitated in Philadelphia.
nWJDY Today I learned that Gene Wilder died listening to one of his favourite songs, Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Over the Rainbow".
5YjGk TIL Teflon was introduced by DuPont in nonstick cookware in 1946 and was the very “forever chemical.” These types of chemicals are linked to many diseases, never break down in the environment, and are now present in the blood of nearly every American adult and newborn baby.
J1Ljv TIL that the writer of the 90s' comedy classic "Fatal Instinct" wanted the film to be titled "Triple Indemnity", but it was rejected by MGM's executives, who thought that viewers would not understand the reference. Mel Brooks suggested "Frontal Attraction" as a new title, but his idea was ignored.