› added 7 years ago

179

TIL Wilt Chamberlain once challenged Muhammad Ali to a boxing match. Wilt was a foot taller,60 pounds heavier, and had a 92 inch reach. During a joint press conference, Ali answered every question with “Timberrrrr!” After breaking to meet with his lawyers, Wilt returned and called the fight off.

Read more factfiend.com

via ift.tt

d8XRd TIL in 1941, the world's largest seed bank (created by botanist Nikolai Vavilov) was housed in Leningrad. As the Germans surrounded the city causing massive starvation, Vavilov's scientists refused to eat from the collection, slowly dying of hunger as they maintained 16 rooms of edible plants.
BrjBL TIL that Richard Drew, the photographer who took the famous photo of the "Falling Man" who leapt from the North Tower on 9/11, was also one of the four photographers present at Bobby Kennedy's assassination.
nB0W TIL The English vocabulary makes it very difficult to describe smells - we can only describe odors by comparing the smell to other things
lovdN TIL Doris Day believed she was born in 1924 until her 95th birthday, when the Associated Press found a birth certificate with the year 1922 on it
VrjG TIL American Nimitz-class aircraft carriers can cruise continuously at maximum speed for 25 years before needing to be refueled.