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TIL - In 1992, Sinead O’Connor’s career suffered a near lethal blow when she ripped up a photo of the Pope during a performance on Saturday Night Live. This is long before the public was aware of the Catholic Church's role in covering up child abuse, and the incident ignited a firestorm

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WOdA TIL that before the Civil War, some psychiatrists diagnosed slaves with what they called drapetomania: “a mental illness in which the slave possessed an irrational desire for freedom and a tendency to try to escape.”
BgNOx TIL of the walking catfish, which is able to breathe air and use its pectoral fins to "walk" and move to different aquatic environments. Native to Southeast Asia, it became an invasive species in Florida during the 1960s and has been sighted in California, Connecticut, Georgia, and England.
x0G7 TIL the Window of the World theme park in China has a cremation simulator. Visitors climb into coffins & are carried on a conveyor belt with heat & light projections simulating the effects of a real funeral-home incinerator. It hopes to enlighten people on death & help them make better life choices.
wL1MJ TIL British actor Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, thought he looked awkward running so every scene that showed Moore running was performed by a body double. He also had hoplophobia, a fear of firearms, due to a childhood accident.
6E5bY TIL that it cost $20 million to evict the last four tenants of a Manhattan apartment building to renovate it. The last tenant was so stubborn and savvy that he received $17 million of the money, plus use of a $2 million condo for life.