wo4nW TIL that Walmart and Sam’s Club’s in-store music actually has an online radio station that you actually can listen to in your own web browser
R5yL6 TIL Someone impersonating President Truman called the president of Haiti to sway a vote. Truman did not learn who it was and the impersonator is unknown to this day.
9wXrm TIL that Sweden once had a real-life Shakespearean Christmas tragedy: King Birger invited his two brothers, who shared the kingdom with him, to a Christmas banquet and, after much drinking, had them locked in a dungeon to die so he could rule alone. He was overthrown in the rebellion that followed.
W7bg8 TIL The final sermon of Martin Luther, the central figure of the Protestant Reformation, in 1546 was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory."
nWMkY TIL In 1653, Dutch sailor Hendrick Hamel and 35 crewmates shipwrecked off the coast of Joseon (modern-day Korea). Due to Joseon's isolationist policy, they were not permitted to leave. After 13 years, Hamel and 7 others escaped by boat to Japan. He then wrote the first Western account of Korea.
4kWew TIL Mitsubishi is made up of around 40 companies that make up nearly 10% of Japan's public revenue.
x6n9D TIL that one of North America’s rarest dragonflies, the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly, has nearly 360° vision, can fly around 40 km/h, and hunts with a success rate close to 95% yet only a few hundred remain because its wetland habitat is disappearing.
epbkb TIL bubble wrap was originally invented to be sold as textured wallpaper, not packing material.
VBbKZ TIL that after the 1984 Bhopal disaster, the worst industrial accident in history, the American CEO of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, fled India and was declared a fugitive. The US government refused to extradite him, and he died a free man in Florida in 2014.
X0bLQ TIL about Lee Jae-yong, who was arrested in 2017 for bribing the South Korean president. He was pardoned in 2022 because it was better for the economy.
69w8l TIL that upon release in France, the lesbian erotic drama "Blue is the Warmest Color" received a 12 rating, the country's equivalent of PG-13
OGvJX TIL In 1553, Dutch sailor Hendrick Hamel and 35 crewmates shipwrecked off the coast of Joseon (modern-day Korea). Due to Joseon's isolationist policy, they were not permitted to leave. After 13 years, Hamel and 7 others escaped by boat to Japan. He then wrote the first Western account of Korea.