› added 9 years ago

242

TIL that throughout Alexander Graham Bell’s life, he fought against deaf people’s rights, worked at finding out why they married to stop them, called the deaf a “great calamity”, and even went so far as calling Sign Language “…contrary to the spirit and practice of America-…”

Read more pbs.org

via reddit.com

rNXm4 TIL that before ice cream cones were invented, people used "penny licks" to eat ice cream from street vendors: a small glass which the customer would lick clean and return to the vendor. They were banned in 1898 due to concerns about the spread of disease, particularly cholera and tuberculosis.
wLXpJ Jedidiah Jenkins quit his job and decided to bike from Oregon to the southern tip of South America. His best friend, filmmaker Kenny Laubbacher, came along for the ride. This short film follows Jenkins as he shares what he's learned from his journey so far. “When you’re a kid, everything is astonishing. Everything is new, and so your brain is awake and turned on ... Once your brain establishes a routine, it stops ... the alertness goes away,” he says. By choosing adventure Jenkins is able to reactivate his brain and turn his “hundred years on this planet into a thousand.
GYW41 TIL the top flying ace for the United States during World War II was Dick Bong, who shot down 40 Japanese aircraft.
v144L TIL about Abram Petrovich Gannibal, an African child kidnapped to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great. The tsar freed him and raised him as his godson. Gannibal became a Major-General and the Governor of Reval. He is the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, considered the greatest Russian poet.
vPvx7 TIL in Die Hard Bruce Willis wears 34 different undershirts each with different levels of grime