› added 9 years ago

70

TIL David Bowie, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Bernard Shaw, And H.G. Wells, Among Others, All Declined Knighthood

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

L4ZP TIL a teen needing a heart transplant was rejected in part because of his history of juvenile detention. A media outcry resulted in his getting a new heart, and later he died fleeing after a carjacking/burglary/shooting spree.
9YE07 TIL John Graves (1572) wished burial within 20 feet of his church; his tombstone is now a in parking lot
e0kDb TIL of Pierre Brassau, an artist of the “avant-garde modern art” style. He was a chimpanzee, promoted by a Swedish journalist, to see if critics could distinguish between the style and the work of a chimpanzee. Most critics praised the work.
KOYja TIL Baltimore Oriole groundskeeper, Pat Santerone had a competition with Manager Earl Weaver to see who could grow bigger tomatoes. They grew the tomatoes in a plot near the left field foul line.
p8418 TIL that the "boiling frog fable" - the premise that a frog suddenly put into boiling water will jump out, but if put into tepid water which is then slowly brought to a boil, will cook to death - is false: a frog that is gradually heated WILL jump out