21.
TIL as a young boy Yuri Gagarin (first man in space) had his village occupied by nazis, his family forced to work while living in a 3 by 3 meter mud hut for 21 months, saw his little brother being hanged (but saved by his parents) and his two older siblings deported for slave labor (who escaped).
22.
TIL that the Amazon River was named after the conquistador Francisco de Orellana was defeated by a few tribes of women, thus naming it after the warrior women of Greek legend.
23.
TIL In 2007, a local Japanese railway station “hired” a cat named Tama as an official, helping the local economy bring in over 1 billion yen during her service. When she died 8 years later, thousands of people came to her funeral.
24.
TIL Caffeine is the coffee plant’s natural defense mechanism. It leaches into the surrounding soil as leaves from the plant drop and are decomposed into the soil. Since caffeine is toxic to other plants, it prevents other plants from growing around the coffee plant and competing for sunlight.
25.
TIL that in 2019, Pope Francis received a bottle of Oban malt whiskey while visiting Scottish priests, and declared it to be ‘the real holy water’. The BBC captured the footage for a documentary, which was censored by the Vatican.
26.
TIL – Mozart has a pet starling (bird) which could sing part of his piano concerto in G Major. He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously, which had not yet been performed in public
27.
TIL during the Golden Age of Piracy, women sometimes became pirates by disguising themselves as men in an effort to take advantage of freedom and rights that men could only enjoy. Anne and Mary were two famous female pirates of that time who fell in love with each others’ disguised manly appearance!
28.
TIL that a breed of wool dogs existed on the pacific northwest coast. Indigenous people would keep the dogs isolated on small islands to prevent inter breeding with hunting dogs. The wool dogs were cared for and feed a rich diet of seafood to produce strong yarn to make blankets from.
29.
TIL “The road not taken” by Robert Frost, was actually written to mock an indecisive friend and intended to inspire no one.
30.
TIL when Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs first opened in 1916, the owner hired people to dress as doctors and eat hot dogs outside his shop, to convince people his hot dogs were healthy.
