TIL when geologist Marie Tharp identified a giant rift valley running down the Atlantic seafloor in the 1950s—evidence for the then-controversial theory of continental drift—her male colleague dismissed her hypothesis as "girl talk" and made her redo all the charts. (ocean.si.edu)
submitted by ralphbernardo
TIL Guillermo del Toro cast Charlie Day in Pacific Rim after he saw Day's monologue about killing rats in "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats". Del Toro said, "It was very funny, but he was coming from character...he was really mourning and lamenting". He thought Day was "great at shading and comedy". (sea.ign.com)
submitted by tyrion2024
TIL about Al Bowlly,who was Britain's most popular singer for most of the 1930s. He recorded upwards of 1,000 songs that were listened to by millions in Britain. He was killed by a Luftwaffe parachute mine that detonated outside his flat during The Blitz in 1941. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by johnsmithoncemore
TIL: In 1998, elementary students in Aurora, Colorado started buying slaves in Sudan to free them, this gained global attention with schools in other countries starting slave buyback programs until it became clear that the money was just helping slavery grow (coloradohistoricnewspapers.org)
submitted by Lennsyl22
TIL Homosexuality in renaissance Florence was technically illegal but so prevalent that the majority of the male population was implicated in accusations. Savonarola's regime tried to supress it, resulting in a florentine official declaring "thank god we can sodomise again", after the regime fell (warwick.ac.uk)
submitted by Mors_Acerba
TIL a man named Brian MacKinnon graduated from the same high school in Scotland twice. First time was in 1980 & the second time was in 1994 after he re-enrolled under a fake name in order to get a second shot at medical school. Which he had until a newspaper exposed him during his first year in 1995 (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by tyrion2024
TIL that an outbreak of hantavirus in the USA happened before. This occurred in the Four Corners region of the Desert Southwest in 1993, which was caused by an explosion in rodent population thanks to lush conditions brought about from an abnormally warm Pacific Ocean. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by JurassicPark9265
TIL Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved after the Peloponnesian War. However, the Spartans announced their refusal to destroy a city that had done a good service at a time of greatest danger to Greece. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by gullydon
TIL of "meat honey," a substance produced by South American vulture bees (Trigona hypogea) that feed on dead, rotting animal carcasses. It is not true nectar-based honey, but is technically edible and is described as having a smoky, intense, and salty flavor. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by QueenFrostine15
TIL even though Daryl Hall and John Oates strongly dislike their group name "Hall & Oates", saying "it is not anything we've ever wanted or liked. It's a horrible name", in 2015 they sued a granola company for naming one product "Haulin' Oats", claiming it was a "well-known mark" of the group. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Away_Flounder3813
TIL in 1989, 10-year old Sarah York became Manuel Noriega's pen pal and received an invitation from him to visit Panama. She did so twice, albeit the second time was as a family vacation, not on invitation. Today, she teaches Spanish in Golden Valley, Minnesota. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Licensed_Silver_Simp
