kOQPd TIL Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X, was killed by her own twelve-year-old grandson in 1997. Wanting to return to his mother, who was in treatment as part of a plea agreement for plotting to kill Louis Farrakhan, he set his grandmother's apartment on fire. She died weeks later of her injuries.
d8QB7 TIL Dieter Schwarz, the founder of Lidl, did not want to use his name for the stores due to an association with the German word "Schwarzmarkt" ("black market"). Instead, he had painter Ludwig Lidl sell him the rights to use his name for 1000 DM.
xVZyg TIL That Mazdak, Was a Zoroastrian Priest and "Proto-Socialist" (Died in 524 or 528) Who Advocated For Social Reforms Including Pacifism, Anti-Clericalism and Aid For the Poor, and Wanted to Redistribute Excess Wealth.
rRb5M TIL that broiler chickens raised for breeding must be feed-restricted to prevent them from becoming overweight. One study found that 20% of birds allowed to eat as much as they wanted either died or had to be killed because of severe illness between 11 and 20 weeks of age.
kOblB TIL that when yakuza boss Tadamasa Goto wanted to have a liver transplant performed in USA in 2001, he donated 100 thousand dollars to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The gangster jumped the queue and got the liver; that year, 186 people in the Los Angeles region died waiting for livers.
R7EN1 TIL Enlightenment era philosopher Francis Bacon died from pneumonia he got while stuffing a dead chicken full of snow. He had wanted to test if meat is preserved if frozen.
GYOLj TIL Spike Milligan, member of comedy team The Goons, joked after fellow member Harry Secombe sang at Peter Sellers' funeral, "I hope you die before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral." 22 years later, at Milligan's memorial, Secombe's son played a recording of his late father singing.
4XjLg TIL that had Otis Redding not died “Sittin’ On The Dock of The Bay” would have not been released. Record producers didn’t like it, but right after the plane crash wanted to cash in on his death
6EjaY TIL that George Washington missed living to see 1800 by 17 days. On Dec 12, 1799, he became ill from spending too much time in wet clothes due to not wanting to offend guests by leaving them in the rain. He died on Dec 14th and requested to be left unburied for 3 days so he wouldn’t be buried alive.
9YoR6 TIL that the han dynasty was founded because a sheriff let a few inmates escape and didn’t want to die.