TIL an Australian library received a book roughly 150 years overdue after it was found sealed inside a chimney. Had the original borrower been identified, the potential fine would have been around 27.
TIL that Billy Joel never sells front row seats in order to see the real fans right in front of him. He gives them away to random people in the cheap seats so that front row isn't always just wealthy
TIL that in April 2012 Guiness World Records officially declared Cutthroat Island (1995) to be the biggest box-office failure of all time; this record would be broken one month later by John Carter (2
TIL that in July 1946, Hungary issued a 100-quintillion (10²⁰) pengő banknote — the highest-denomination note ever put into circulation — during the worst hyperinflation ever recorded, when prices dou
TIL that Louis XVIII of France enjoyed reading 'Le Nain Jaune' although the newspaper made fun of him and his government. The king read it both for information, and because he loved satire. Louis even
TIL that in 1978 a Finnish man hijacked a domestic flight after asking to visit the cockpit. He collected over $200k in ransom during the 17 hour, 4500 km journey via Helsinki and Amsterdam. His final
TIL that from 1939 to 1949, some US airmail planes collected mail without landing, by swooping low enough to hook mailbags suspended between two poles while dropping incoming mail from the aircraft.
TIL that the captain of the Wild Boars, the Thai soccer team rescued from an underground cave after being stuck for 9 days, died a few years later from suicide while studying in England
TIL that William Whipple, one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, freed his slave after signing it because he believed one cannot simultaneously fight for freedom and hold another pe
TIL that during the 1954 K2 expedition, Walter Bonatti and Amir Mehdi were left stranded at 8,100m while carrying oxygen for the summit team. They survived the night in the open as Lacedelli and Compa
TIL butter flavoured popcorn contains no butter and chronic inhalation of the artificial flavouring can cause a pulmonary disease called "popcorn lung"
TIL that between 1957 and 1962, approximately one-third of the United States was closed to Soviet citizens. Only seven states were accessible in their entirety: Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, North Carolina,
TIL whisker fatigue is a type of sensory overload in cats caused when their sensitive whiskers constantly brush against the sides of a deep or narrow food and water, and it can lead to cat acting tens
