21. TIL the man who Mount Everest is named after, George Everest, didn’t want the honor of having the world’s tallest mountain bear his name. He pointed out his name was difficult to write or pronounce in Hindi and all previous Himalayan peaks were officially given indigenous names.
22. TIL After crashing, a driver in German was fined for using Tesla touchscreen wiper controls, under the same rules as using a phone while driving. The German court decided touchscreen car controls should be treated as a distracting electronic device.
23. TIL Frank Sinatra was hired by Life Magazine as a ringside photographer for the Muhammad Ali & Joe Frazier Heavyweight Boxing match, “The Fight of the Century”, that took place 50 years a go today, March 8, 1971. One of his photos was good enough to be the cover of the magazine.
24. TIL many Chinese medical tourists who go to South Korea for inexpensive and high quality plastic surgery have difficulty re-entering China due to their passports photos not matching their new face post op.
25. TIL Basque (a language spoken near the Spain/France border) is a language isolate; not only is it NOT a Romance language, it’s not even an Indo-European language. It is the only surviving Pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe.
26. TIL before synthetic plastics were invented, a substance called Hemacite was widely used to make everything from roller skate wheels to doorknobs. Its ingredients are blood and sawdust.
27. TIL the first country to recognize Greek independence was not any of the western powers, but Haiti, who alledgedly sent 25ton of Coffee beans to finance their rebellion.
28. TIL: Vodka doesn’t have to come from potatoes, it can be made from anything which will ferment. Even grass, or salmon and old newspapers. Vodka just needs to be a clear spirit distilled to 190 proof.
