› added 11 years ago

112

TIL Isaac Newton thought he could turn water into gold, and died eating mercury.

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E1gGW TIL the most powerful commercial radio station ever was WLW (700KHz AM), which during certain times in the 1930s broadcasted 500kW radiated power. At night, it covered half the globe. Neighbors within the vicinity of the transmitter heard the audio in their pots, pans, and mattresses.
0O0M TIL that when Lawrence Anthony, an international conservationist famously known as the ‘Elephant Whisperer’, died, some of the elephants he worked to save came to his family’s home in accordance with the way elephants usually mourn the death of one of their own.
GAwdg TIL Valentine's Day may have roots in the Roman festival of Lupercalia. At the festival, naked priests, smeared in the blood of a goat would parade through the streets with strips of bloody goat hide, whipping any women they saw. Men randomly drew women's names from jars to be coupled with.
yVj8M TIL the famous Johnny Cash song "Boy Named Sue" was written by Shel Silverstein
lK9A TIL that the most complex Chinese character (hanzi) is 64 strokes & means ‘verbose’.