› added 5 years ago

515

TIL that in 2014, James D. Watson, who shared a 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, sold his Nobel Prize Medal for $4.1M USD. In doing so, he became the first living Nobelist to sell his medal.

Lkwmr TIL Seinfeld was assigned to an inexperienced NBC executive and intentionally broke many sitcom stereotypes: Jerry and Elaine's relationship never blossomed, it offers no growth or reconciliation to its characters, and even Susan's death elicits no genuine emotions from anybody in the show.
awNNZ TIL: The first electronic cigarette was developed in America. In 1963 Herbert A Gilbert applied for a patent for his “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette”, and the patent was granted in 1965. After Gilbert’s patent was granted the concept sank into obscurity for almost 40 years.
5VXRP Today I Learned English Romanticism was born from a serious Germanomania that inspired Poets, Novelists, and Philosophers
D1YnY TIL The only member of Pink Floyd to comment on the rumor that Dark Side of the Moon was intended to be played over "The Wizard of Oz" was drummer Nick Mason, who said "It's absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with 'The Wizard Of Oz.' It was all based on 'The Sound Of Music.'"
e0jVk TIL in 1997 BBC TV soap EastEnders broadcast episodes set in Ireland, which were criticised for negatively stereotyping the Irish as dirty, rude, poor and drunk. Complaints were upheld by the British Broadcasting Standards Commission and the BBC apologised for the episodes