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TIL Acme City whistle founder Joseph Hudson accidentally dropped his violin and it shattered on the floor. As the violin broke, it emitted a unique warbling sound and led him to an idea to putting a pea in a whistle. Pea whistles went on to replace policemen’s ineffective rattles for communicating.

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woxr8 TIL that "Robot" was a word used first in 1920 by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots) Although, in the play the "Robots" are made of synthetic organic matter and we would call them "Androids" today. The robots end up rebelling against humans
pZjN TIL in 2009 a man refused to remove his hood in a Tesco citing his “Jedi Religion.” The store owner responded by saying “Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.”
W7W9X TIL "The Ashes",an England–Australia cricket series since 1883,got its name from a satirical obituary written after England lost to Australia in 1882: "English cricket is dead.The body will be cremated & the ashes taken to Australia".The name stuck when England’s captain vowed to“regain those Ashes"
v1jxj TIL Fuel-Air bombs make you suffer: The intense pressure wave and vacuum ruptures your lungs but "causes minimal damage to brain tissue…it is possible that victims...are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate"
E174d TIL the word "hundred" hasn't always referred to exactly 100 it was sometimes 120. 120 can now be called a "Long Hundred"