yVGGX TIL: That during 1830 - 1900, there was a fad for women who wanted to lose weight, the Tapeworm diet.
x6EPg TIL: There is a real life "Death Note", where Japanese women wish how and why they want their spouse’s to die.
rNEdM TIL President Ulysses Grant wanted to annex Santo Domingo (or what we call the Dominican Republic). He feared a European power taking it over and hoped it'd be a safe haven for black Americans. But the annexation treaty died in the Senate and it was never pursued again.
P1bWL TIL shortly after independence, in the 1950s, Malta elected an Italian nationalist as their prime minister who wanted Malta to be part of Italy, he died two months after being elected without ever being able to make Malta more Italian than it already was.
4kBnX TIL in 2006, some parents were upset with a sound book for children called "Potty Time With Elmo". Instead of hearing "Uh oh! Who has to go?", the parents were hearing "Uh oh! Who wants to die?". The publisher said that a cheap computer chip that was used in the book was to blame for the problem.
vPenj TIL of Jackass Annie Road. In 1954 doctors told "Jackass Annie" Wilkins (63) of Minot, Maine that she would soon die. Wanting to see California, she rode a horse there and back over 17 months. Wilkins wrote a book about her adventure and lived until 1980. Minot renamed a street after her.
dD978 TIL the owners of Marilyn Monroe's house (where she died) want to demolish it to expand the property next door
9wKGB TIL that Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, a Venetian noblewoman, was the first woman who earned the degree of "doctor of philosophy". However, Catholic church and the University of Padua refused to get a degree in theology, which she originally wanted. She died six years later.
epOB5 TIL that Lady Diana Spencer wanted to marry the Prince of Wales in a secret marriage but the Prime Minister got word of it from spies and prevented the union. She died at young age - in 1735.
dDYDd TIL that the last person to be executed in denmark was on his fourth capital crime when it happened and actively wanted to die so he attempted to murder prison guards while serving a life sentence