› added 6 years ago

201

TIL President William McKinley wore a red carnation in his lapel at all times as a good luck charm. During a public meeting in his second term, he took out the flower from his lapel and gave it to a 12-year-old girl. Minutes later, he was shot. He died a week later.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

1Wp8 TIL that the United States government made a film during World War II that explained the uses of hemp and encouraged farmers to grow as much as possible.
OGjO4 TIL that Fields condition is the rarest medical condition in the world with only three cases ever identified which causes painful muscle spasms ,makes them unable to speak without electronic aids and makes them immobile.
b9pAp TIL When Harry Wilson 18 months old, his proud Grandfather bet £50 that he would on day represent Wales in football and was quoted 2500/1 at his local bookmaker. 16 years later he became the youngest ever Wales debutant , netting his grandfather £125,000
lood1 The boomerang seems as Australian as ''Waltzing Matilda,'' but the oldest specimen may have come from a far distant part of the world -Poland. Scientists, there have found a 23,000-year-old piece of the curved mammoth tusk that some ancient artisan carved and polished into the aerodynamic shape of a boomerang.
dDM4E TIL that in 2012, the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO) gifted NASA two space telescopes with capabilities exceeding that of the Hubble telescope. For example, the telescopes have shorter focal lengths, which in turn gives them a field of view that is 100x larger than Hubble.