› added 10 years ago

15474

TIL a 19 year old man dove 85 feet into the ocean to wrestle an 80 pound octopus with a 9 foot diameter to the surface in a 25 minute epic battle in which he punched the octopus subduing it after it turned red and lunged at him tearing off his respirator. He drove it home, cooked it up, and ate it.

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via reddit.com

jMVQ TIL that Harry Potter books were translated from British to American English.
7KLO TIL that after observing how long guests would hold onto garbage before littering at other amusement parks, Walt Disney placed each trash can no more than 30 feet apart.
dDvmQ TIL that in 1885 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used 300,000 pounds of explosives to annihilate Flood Rock island in New York City's East River as part of clearing Hell Gate for safer navigation. It's been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb".
rNayd TIL that in 1941 Time Magazine planned to have Dumbo the Elephant as their Person (or in this case, "Mammal") of the Year due to the success of the Disney Film released that year. However, following the Pearl Harbor Attacks, Time quickly changed their Person of the year to Franklin D. Roosevelt
Z8rop TIL the Adamites were a 2nd century Christian sect that sought to re-create the innocence of the Garden of Eden. To this end they called their church “Paradise”, practiced nudism, rejected marriage and claimed they could do whatever they wanted because they had no knowledge of good/evil.