› added 9 months ago

65

TIL that in 1959, an eccentric musician named John Cage composed a piece titled "4'33"," which consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. Just pure silence. No music.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

wgE6 TIL In 2011, NASA’s Terra satellite spotted a 150km-wide whirlpool in the S. Atlantic. It stood out because it was glowing.
V0VG TIL that a 3rd century BC Emperor’s son named Modu Chanyu tested his guards’ loyalty by ordering them to kill his favorite horse and then his favorite wife. Those who refused he executed, and those who didn’t he later ordered to shoot his father. None failed to do so, and he became Emperor.
pYmjZ TIL that the Soviet Union was one of the largest producers of TVs in the world. However, many of them had a rather worrying defect: They could explode at any moment.
OGlLe TIL that modern Germans cannot understand what Hitler says. Even though Hitler is German, the German language has evolved so much during the 20th century that Hitler's speech is unrecognizable
l7eRV TIL that ‘S.O.S’ isnt an acronym for “Save Our Souls/Ship”, its a backronym designed so that the morse code would be memorable