› added 7 years ago

100

TIL that the instant noodle was invented during a period of food shortages in Japan following WWII. After the Japanese health ministry supplied the population with wheat flour and asked them to make bread, Momofuku Ando instead decided on making noodles (which were more familiar) that would last.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

M7LPm TIL of the novel "The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century". Written in 1827, it is the first English story to feature a reanimated mummy. Notably, it is science fiction, not horror, taking place in the year 2126 with the Pharaoh Cheops returning and giving political and life advice to people.
jvJR TIL there’s a lake in Russia that contains more water than all of the American Great Lakes combined
LQeJp TIL there's a species of mini-fox about the size of housecats that only lives on a small island chain off of California (the Channel Islands). Each island has its own subspecies of fox that are all slightly different, and together offer a similar glimpse at natural selection as Darwin's Finches.
NolE TIL That when Crystal Pepsi was released, Coca-Cola released a competitor called Tab Clear… the only caviat being that Tab Clear was designed from the start to be poorly marketed and hurt Crystal Pepsi’s image, thereby killing off both products. Both campaigns died 6 months later.
b9Xd9 TIL The United States of America does not have an official language. In 1780, John Adams tried to pass a proposal which stated English as the official language, but it was deemed a threat to individual liberty.