› added 7 years ago

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TIL of the "Poe Toaster". A shadowy figure dressed in black who for over 7 decades toasted Edgar Alan Poe on his birthday at his grave with cognac and three roses

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via reddit.com

X6DP TIL that Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd that starred in many silent films, almost won the first Oscar for best actor but the Academy, “believed that this new idea of handing out these Oscars could possibly be damaged by the first Best Actor being a dog.”
6nw7 TIL that wild pigs throughout the Americas descend from pigs brought over on ships by the first Spanish explorers.
J16rm TIL the Death Camas plant is so toxic that there is only one known pollinator. The plant is visited by a specialist mining bee, which can tolerate its toxins - others are fatally poisoned. One plant species name is Toxicoscordion venenosum var. venenosum ≈ toxic bulb poisonous poisonous.
lPpB TIL that the disease polio could be eradicated, but isn’t currently because certain Muslim clerics encourage their patrons not to get vaccinated.
GYW91 TIL that in the 1908 London Olympics, the Russian team arrived 12 days late and missed their most favoured event because they were still following the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.