› added 5 years ago

263

TIL that some Klan members in Indiana were convinced that the Pope would be on a northbound train. More than a thousand people gathered as it arrived. The only person who got off was a corset salesman. They grilled him for half an hour before they were convinced that he wasn’t the Pope in disguise.

Read more files.eric.ed.gov

via reddit.com

RoeQ TIL the Fahrenheit system was designed with the freezing point of brine as 0 degrees, 32 degrees as the freezing point of water, and 96 degrees as the temperature of the human body. The difference between 32 and 96 was useful for instrumentation at the time (64 can be bisected 6 times).
GAY84 TIL in 2007 a Tombstone with the inscription "you will always be remembered, never forgotten", was left behind by a passenger at Dublin airport, subsequently ending up in lost property.
oBQe7 TIL That the first life on earth was not bacteria or eukaryotes but something called LUCA that came around 4 billion years ago. It was the ultimate ancestor of every gene of every bit of life on earth.
nW5W9 TIL that golf is one of the only sports to have been played on the moon. In 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface using a makeshift six-iron.
4X9pR TIL this abandoned, unfinished 50,000 square foot mega mansion on 32 acres in Wisconsin was built by Hollywood Video founder Mark Wattles. It was to feature an indoor sports court/pool and a 60-car subterranean garage. He spent $12 million and then never finished it...