› added 2 weeks ago

8

TIL that for the United States' 150th birthday in 1926, Poland sent 111 volumes of signatures & greetings to President Coolidge. The signatures were from government officials, representatives of religious social business academic & military institutions, and approximately 5.5 million schoolchildren.

Read more loc.gov

via reddit.com

LQyOr TIL Cormac McCarthy was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship Grant (colloquially referred to as the 'genius' grant) in 1981 and used the money to write Blood Meridian.
XEmY8 TIL in 2000, the Missouri chapter of the KKK won a court battle to allow them to participate in the Adopt-a-Highway program. The state legislature promptly renamed the stretch of I-55 they were assigned to clean as the “Rosa Parks Highway”
d87JQ TIL that The Sound of Music is a true story
5Ylbk TIL Members are forbidden from eating and drinking in the British Parliamentary chambers with only one exception. The Chancellor of the Exchequer may have an alcoholic beverage while delivering the Budget statement.
gZNX TIL During the second World War, pharmaceutical giant Bayer used slave labour and even bought slaves from Auschwitz to use a human guinea pigs for new drugs.