/f/todayilearned
TIL James Brady, who was paralyzed during the attempted assassination of Reagan, was allowed to keep his title of Press Secretary for the duration of the administration. He was considered to be on 'leave-of-absence'. His successor Larry Speaks used the title Acting Press Secretary for seven years.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by ChronosBlitz t3_xxjm76
TIL that upon ascending to the throne, Mehmed III, the 13th sultan of the Ottoman empire, ordered that all of his nineteen brothers be executed. Fratricidal successions were not unprecedented, as sultans would often have dozens of children with their concubines.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by jcd1974 t3_xtzxl8
TIL that of the two 1988 films starring Tom Cruise, one of them (Rain Man) won the Oscar for Best Picture, while the other (Cocktail) won the Razzie for Worst Picture. Cruise remains the only actor to achieve both distinctions in the same year.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by HeyThereCharlie t3_124zgm5
TIL that Rickey Henderson was so proud of earning a million dollar signing bonus that he had the check framed instead of cashing it. He saved the envelopes of cash teams gave players for per diem expenses, allowing his kids to pick them out of a box when they did well in school
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by EtOHMartini t3_123mazp
TIL: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drained Niagra Falls in 1969. It ended up attracting more visitors than any other feat attempted at the falls. The engineers wanted to find a way to remove the unseemly boulders that had piled up at its base since 1931, cutting the height of the falls in half...
smithsonianmag.comSubmitted by floof_mcgenius t3_120pskx
TIL that Liza Minelli, daughter of Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy in the 1939 MGM film, “Wizard of Oz,” was once married to Jack Haley, Jr., son of Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in the same film. He was Minnelli’s 2nd husband.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by TheMadIrishman327 t3_120kisk
TIL just like in the Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Sharon Tate really did have a habit of going barefoot in Los Angeles. When she went to restaurants with a "No Shoes, No Service" rule, she would frequently put rubber bands around her ankles to pretend that she was wearing sandals.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by waitingforthesun92 t3_11szfa0
TIL in 2001, Disneyland tried to re-theme their aging "Submarine Voyage" attraction around Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but the movie flopped. They tried again with Treasure Planet, but that was a flop too. They finally succeeded with Finding Nemo in 2005.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by AirborneRodent t3_11rld6q
TIL that several people have been caught cheating on game shows throughout history. One of the most notable cases involved Charles Ingram, who cheated his way to winning the jackpot on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" by having an accomplice cough to indicate the correct answer.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by theID10T t3_11kbkih
TIL Roman concrete structures such as the Pantheon and aqueducts are ultra durable because of lime clasts. While many modern concrete structures crumble after a few decades, Roman concrete has self-healing functionality from lime clasts which allow their structures to survive millennia.
news.mit.eduSubmitted by The_Ry_Ry t3_11k322u
TIL that bed bugs have no courtship rituals. What they have, instead, is a type of mating behavior called traumatic insemination. That is, a male will simply climb onto a female, stab her in the side of her body with his hypodermic penis, and release his sperm into her body cavity.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by nomoniker t3_11k2qp0