› added 3 months ago

14

TIL that in 1998, NATO translated Dr. Seuss’ “Sneetches and Other Stories” into Serbo-Croatian and planned to distribute 500,000 copies in Bosnia to teach children about tolerance. The plans were later scaled back because they did not meet NATO standards.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

yQG5X TIL the Black Death was originally spread to Europe in the 14th century by Mongols catapulting infected corpses into an Italian trading outpost in Crimea, who fled and unwittingly carried the disease back to Sicily where it proceeded to wipe out up to 60% of Europe's population in four years
b9A7j TIL Joe Son from Austin Powers ("Random Task" "who throws a shoe?") Is in jail for torturing a woman, and then murdered his cellmate.
b9Opj TIL Daler Mehndi was told his music was only popular because his videos featured beautiful women dancing, so he released a music video featuring only himself. This video, "Tunak Tunak Tun", has more than double the views of any of his other videos on youtube (88M as of today).
R5k5a TIL Paul Winchell was a comedian/ventriloquist who invented one of the earliest artificial hearts. Winchell also invented a flameless cigarette lighter, a garter belt without visible lines, and owned over 30 patents.
rN7W1 TIL when actor Christopher Lloyd arrived to audition for the role of Jim Ignatowski on the television show Taxi, unshaven and unshampooed, the receptionist thought he was a homeless person who had managed to wander past security and onto the Paramount lot.