› added 6 years ago

138

TIL about the yet unfinished and still under construction Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi. Ground broke in 1882 and isn't scheduled to be finished until 2026.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

kKd7 TIL the place name Kandahar in Afghanistan loosely translates to “Alexander” as in Alexander the Great. Khandahar was one of the cities named Alexandria established during Alexander’s conquests.
BrXVK TIL barns are painted red because old paint recipes contained ferrous oxide (rust). Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, and it was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color.
5YOKB TIL that when Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States he made 2 requests: to visit Disneyland and meet John Wayne
a9x0 TIL the oldest continuously operating business in the USA is a 400 year old farm.
Wko18 TIL that for years a man deliberately infected himself with tape worms to help treat his ulcerative colitis, a common bowel disease. Doctors found that after infection areas of his colon started producing mucos again which is key to healing and IL-22 a molecule that promotes epithelial growth.