› added 1 year ago

85

TIL That John Quincy Adams partially blinded himself looking directly at an eclipse in 1791

Read more ploddingthroughthepresidents.com

via reddit.com

gMeE4 TIL: Helium is the only element that was not first discovered on Earth. Instead, it was discovered in 1868 in the form of previously unknown spectral lines in the light of the sun.
e00jn TIL USA military basic pay ranges from about $1,500 to over $19,000 per month (.pdf report)
6Ov7 TIL Sally Field only played Aunt May in “Amazing Spider-Man” as a favor to the producer, and described it as “ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag”
aw8Mo TIL that a tribe from Napal risk their lives climbing the Himalaya Mountains to harvest honey made from the world's largest bees. The honey is collected from poisonous Rhododendron flowere. It provides a range of uses including psychedelic effects, as well as medical benefits.
BrX4k TIL in 1975 Ingo Bethke escaped from East Germany by floating on an air mattress across the Elbe. 8 years later his brother Holger fled East Berlin by firing an arrow with a rope tied to it and zip lining accross. The two then flew their brother Egbert over the wall on a homemade ultralight in 1989.