› added 8 years ago

262

TIL the New Zealand town of Brightwater had 5 electric street lights in 1911 powered by a hydroelectric generator which was auto-controlled by a flock of chickens. At night, the chickens would go inside their coop and their weight would close an electric circuit, turning on the street lights.

N78xE TIL Hamburgers got their name because they originated in Hamburg, Germany
J1Am1 TIL that Red Pandas were named pandas before the bears were
pWl8 TIL that French grammarian Dominique Bouhours’s last words are “I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct.”
69y4m Today I learned that dolphins also get high
gMe9L TIL FDR died just as they were making a portrait of him, leaving the portrait incomplete.