› added 4 years ago

204

TIL Two infectious diseases have successfully been eradicated: smallpox and rinderpest.

Read more academic.oup.com

via reddit.com

e0Qv5 TIL that in 1973 a Mercedes-Benz 770 F-Cabriolet that was stated to be Hitler's parade limousine was sold for a then record of $153,000. A week later it was revealed to have belonged to Finnish President Carl Mannerheim, but this news was ignored, and the car broke the record again half a year later
wGr6 TIL that “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too” is the correct form of the proverb, because its order is what illustrates the impossibility. The Unabomber got the order correct in both his manifesto & private writing & this was 1 of the linguistic anachronisms that helped the FBI identify him
P1KwE TIL that in 1933, the state of Western Australian voted by a clear majority to secede from the Australian Federation, but at the same time, voted out a pro-seccessionist Premier in favour of the anti-seccession candidate. Efforts to implement secession were ultimately complex and unsuccessful.
9wlAr TIL that the University of Odense in Denmark houses the world's largest collection of brains, taken from mental health patients over four decades until the 1980s, with a total of 9,479 brains stored on countless shelves in its basement.
rNWDx TIL that Bothie the Polar Dog is the only dog to travel to both the South and North Poles. No other dog is expected to match Bothie's achievement of visiting both poles after the Antarctic Treaty of 1994, which has subsequently forbidden dogs from the Antarctic continent.